Music Highlights for 2008...

Its that time of year when everyone seems to have a list of something to display. Here's mine fot the past musical year....in the USA and Europe.

1. Joyce DiDonato at Rose Hall, Lincoln Center
This was my first chance to hear this amazing American mezzo-soprano live.
This is a stunning voice..supple,beautiful mid-range, and glorious top...one almost feels she is a lyric soprano at times. But the darker side of her voice keeps her firmly in the mezzo range, even if it is hard to believe the bravura that she dispatches coloratura passages in Rossini. Her Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" is unsurpassed today, and her Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier" is no less exciting. On the Web I also heard a superb Donna Elvira from "Don Giovanni" at Covent Garden. Her career is based more in Europe than America, but that is changing rapidly with an appearance with James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, a tour de force concert of Handel mad scenes ... "Furore" ..again at Carnegie, and an appearance with the New York Philharmonic all upcoming in the first part of 2009.
Perhaps I am just prejudiced, but she is a hometown girl, growing up in Kansas City in the same neighborhood I lived in from age 13 on. In any case, a major American artist in her prime.

2. Karita Matila as "Salome" from the Met (Theatercast)
This was possibly the most direct portrait of depravity I will ever experienced. The white heat of the Richard Strauss score met its match in this performance. It is hard to call it that...it was in truth a complete identification with the role. Not only was it vocally superb, it was an acting triumph. The sheer physicality of her interpretation left one stunned and drained. She dominated the stage, covering every square inch of it with her athletic movements...seeming at times like a demented tiger on the loose. After being presented with the head of John The Baptist, she ended up in a crazy ecstasy, lying flat on her back with her head hanging into the orchestra pit. At the close everyone sat frozen in their seats, unable to get up.

3. Berlin Philharmonic "Scharoun Ensemble" at the Zermatt Festival, Switzerland
Two performances stood out this August at the Zermatt Festival. First was the Schbert Octet for Strings and Winds, a work that I heard many years ago at the Aspen Festival, and had not heard since. Written in 1824, this is a huge six movement work of enormous emotional range. Some feel it was a preparation work for his Symphony in C Major "The Great" which he began shortly after composing this octet. It was full of the long lines and varied harmonic questings that dominant his style in his late works. What struck me in this performance was the sheer joy in the work, and how closely the Berlin Philharmonic players identify with Schubert's style. The second performance was Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht" in its original version for small chamber ensemble. The sheer intensity of the writing was virtually laid bare, and the beauty of the individual lines came through with a completely different aspect than in the big orchestral version. In this case, less was much, much more.

4. Martha Argerich performing Beethoven Concerto No.1 from Lugano Festival.
Heard in live performance over NPR, Argerich amazed with the freshness, directness, and sheer musicality she brought to this often neglected work, more in the student's domain today then the artist's. This tempermental artist, who often cancels at the last minute, is completely at home at her own piano festival each June in Lugano, Switzerland. What strikes me about a performance such as this is how immediately the attention is focused, and how the energy never flags. She seemed to relish what others often neglect: the constant need for surprising dynamics, the eveness of finger passage work, and the courage to make it into a really big work, with an amazing cadenza at the close of the first movement. It is startling to realize that someone you heard at the start of their career in the late 1950's, is now a matronly woman with long gray hair!

5. Tchaikowsky "Fourth Symphony" with New York Philharmonic conduced by Lorin Maazel, London Proms. BBC
Always controversial, Maazel has lead some superb performances during his final days with the NY Phil. Although the English critics hated this performance, I was galvanized by the vituosity of the orchestra, and how Maazel drove them to a frenzy. Thats always a problem between the USA and the UK. The English get very uncomfortable with such vigor and unabashed emotion. Maazel let them have it between the eyes, even though their eyebrows had long since fallen off by the last movement.
A stunning performance of "Die Walkure" from the Met Opera, which drew lavish praise from the critics, confirmed the fact that Maazel was overlooked for two decades there, and could have been of much greater use. Very sad, and rather typical when you become controversial.

"Thais" From The Met...via Theatercast

Some years ago while attending the French Piano Institute in Paris I heard Renee Fleming at the Bastille Opera in "Manon". I thought at the time she had the perfect voice for Massenet..creamy middle voice...an extension into coloratura..and always elegant musicianship. Having never heard "Thais", I was eager to see how I would react to this production. As far as sets and staging it was very conventional, and at times was rather uninspired, expecially the palace in the second act. It took forever to change the sets and that took away from the fluidity of sequence. Nothing remotely resembled an Egyptian setting, but at least they avoided the pitfall of making it all resemble a church pageant, (although some stray palm trees almost went in that direction). What was impressive was Fleming's emotional and direct "Thais", sung will all of the above, but some years later with an added maturity and insight. This is a great role for her, and she conquered the exotic vocal color, projected in a really difficult vocal line that requires nerves of steel to accomplish the quick chages of register, and also the high tessitura of the last scene. If you share the stage with Fleming at this point in her career, you had better have your shots in order. Thomas Hampson was ardent in expression and commanding in figure. What was lacking was real vocal beauty. I have always felt he is more of a lieder singer, and some of this quality came through. But I rarely felt swept up in sheer vocal opulence. The opera as a whole was quite wonderful, and one felt Massenet's sense of theater in the way the whole affair built towards the final scene. He was the composer par excellence for divas of the day, and no one mixed sex and the Bible to better effect. Renee Fleming is surely at her peak, and its exciting to hear her any chance you get.

A Busy Autumn Brings Rewards.....

Last night I played my final recital of the year for a wonderful audience at The Heritage at Lowman, a Lutheran Retirement Center where I have had a piano series the past six years. The New Life Chapel is such a beautiful setting, especially during afternoon concerts when the light streams through the dramatic stained glass windows. There is a very serene feeling in this rather chaste, modern setting that reminds me of Scandinavian architecture I have experienced. The chapel has a very high dome just over where we place the piano, and this amplifies the sound in a most natural way, considering it is only a six foot Schimmel. But the piano speaks with a lovely sound, and has alot of color possiblities. Last night I played an unusual work by Ottorino Respighi entitled "Antiche Danze ed Arie", a transcription of his orchestral suite for orchestra, based on lute melodies from the 17th century. Respighi did this transcription himself, and it is a very fine example of the art. The haunting "Villanelle" is a favorite. I read where composers could break the rules of composition during this era with the Villanelle, and here Respighi uses open fifths in parallel motion...long before Debussy thought of doing it. I was inspired to learn this work after visiting Rome last year for the first time. There is something quite Roman in the work, afterall, Respighi spent his adult life there, and wrote those powerful works for orchestra..."The Pines of Rome" and "The Fountains of Rome"...both great favorites of the immortal Toscanni.

After this work I performed most of the "Carnaval" of Robert Schumann. It is what I call the intellectuals "Nutcracker". It was made into a ballet and performed by many companies long before "Nutcracker" became the thing it is today. Centered around a Viennese Ball, Schumann captures the great waltzes, german dances, and intermixes real life characters, like his future wife Clara, a current flame, Estrella, Chopin, Paganini, with characters from the Italian Comedy...the soap opera of its day. For once, keeping in mind an older audience (altho I was heartened to see more than a few young people) I outlined the story in detail, and played in groups of three pieces at a time. This way the audience was able to follow a complicated plotline without getting lost in program notes. Its not easy to play this way..jumping back and forth from microphone to keyboard..! In fact I got lost once just after I sat down to continue, and with no program in front of me, I simply asked "Where am I?". Of course, they all shouted out "Reconnaissance"...which I had just finished explaining in great detail. Playing in front of a retirement center audience, no one held it against me!!!

For the last part of the program I arranged a medley of Christmas hymns, carols, popular songs,and spirituals into a "Christmas Garland".
This comes easily to me, as I only played by ear until the age of 11, and did this type of thing often at school and church. At the close, after the stirring "Bless This House" ( which sadly you rarely hear today) a lady came up with her walker and said "I guess you know that you played all this just for me!" What do you say when you are touched to tears.

There are so many audiences around South Carolina, and I played for a great variety of them this fall. .. South Carolinas Governors' School Furman University, USC Sumter. It never fails to impress me when people say how much it means to hear live music in a quiet setting. Perhaps that what this rather broken down world needs this Christmas...

"The Crops are In....Let's Go to Market"

It was a long summer in Carolina, but thankfully, except for a few days of 100 plus degress in June, it moderated in July and August, and the weather was liveable. I worked at new programs in the mornings and in the afternoons I did chores on my 3 acres of Sandhills forest. Now I have a new gardener, and he is a whiz. He has pulled so much together that I was never able to finish, and in general, made everything look 10 times better. I think gardening and working at music have traits in common. Watching a plant grow reminds me of the steps it takes to learn a new piece of music. Constant attention is the secret. But always there is the treat of pests, drought, heat, cold, all the elements. You learn to be philosophical. Sometimes benign neglect is the correct course.Put it away and come back later. Things have a way of taking care of themselves if you give it enough time and patience. My students always told me I was patient...and they would marvel that I didn't scream and rant and rave. I always told them it took too much energy to do that, and besides, its terrible for your health. So, I treated them like plants ( some were definitely hot house plants!) and cultivated them slowly but surely.

Now all the leaves are down and the weather has been unseasonably cold. But I have already traveled around the state giving master classes and recitals, plus a PowerPoint program on Vladimir Horowitz. I love contact with the young. It renews hope for the world and it make one feel that what one has to offer my just live on.

Rachmaninov Fourth Piano Concerto at the Proms

Listening to the stunning performance by pianist Boris Berezovsky I was reminded how a seldom played work can suddenly take on a whole new life when the right forces collide. Such was the case here. The European Youth Orchestra was in great form...as invariably they are...and Antonia Pappano continues to impress as one of the more musical young conductors around. The writing in this work is at time cerebral, and not once do you find Rachmaninov letting your listening path be easy. The first movement does have a haunting second theme, but still it is hard to bring it to mind. The last movement is furious and unrelenting, a macabre scherzo of dazzling speed. Berezovsky took all the fearsome technical difficulties in stride, and managed to project clarity and a crystaline sound that was a joy to hear. Seldom have I heard a Proms audience as enthusiastic as this one, which made for a great listening experience.

Vaughn Williams' Piano Concerto

Listening to a performance of Vaughn Williams' Piano Concerto, one wonders about its curious history. Given its first performance in 1932 by Harriet Cohen, it promptly fell into obscurity, until being revived in the 1940's in a revised version. Its always fun to hear the English version of the name Ralph...which comes out Raffe..If you say that over here in the USA everyone stares at you. Anyway, it is Sir Raffe Richardson, Raffe Fiennes, goes on and on. Oh what a time I had with names when I first went to England.

All these English piano concerti..Vaughn Williams, Ireland, Bax, ...exhibit a curious companionship in that they never follow the Continental manner. Usually there is this fascination with the piano as a coloristic contributor in a wider orchestral framework. That is what I am hearing here. Of the lot, I much prefer the John Ireland Piano Concerto.

I met Harriet Cohen as a student in London, about 1960. She was a colorful person, with a rather darker side.One had a certain sympathy for her, as she cut her finger on a broken glass, and that put an end to playing. Also, her home was bombed in the Second World War, so she had lost everything. She never quite reached the prominence of say, Dame Myra Hess, or Moura Lympany. But she did have a knack for giving first performances of important English compositions. My teacher Hilda Dederich was promised the first performance of the Piano Concerto by Sir Arnold Bax, but found out to her dismay that it had been given to Harriet Cohen instead. For a bit of gossip, it was generally known in music circles in London at the time that La Cohen was a rather free spirit. Guirne Van Zuylen, a contemporary and fine pianist and composer, told me of having visited in the homes of both Vaughn Williams and Sir Arnold Bax. Prominently displayed were similar photos of Harriet, both inscribed." to Dear Ralph, with all my Love"....and "to Dear Arnold, with all my Love'. I must say I was not attracted to La Cohen, finding her self absorbed and acerbic. She did give a Medal...the Harriet Cohen Medal...which always attracted note. I didn't get one.

Following through with the use of English folksong in many of these works, I always get more of the "folk" and less of the "song". When the composition is over I can rarely hum the tune. Perhaps that is a rather good indicator on the likeability scale.Pianist Ashley Wass did a fine job with a tiger of a piece. Certainly Vaughn Williams is having a good airing on these Proms this season.

More About Carl Friedberg.

The thing I most remember about this remarkable man is something I have noticed with other great artists. There was an element of not quite being on earth, rather the air of a person who had so conquered his demons that he could live with his art as naturally as one breathes. Not that he wasn't definite about his likes and dislikes. My teacher, Mary Newett Dawson, often went to meet him when he arrived in Kansas City. I remember her laughing that it took three restaurants before they found one he would go into. The first two had recorded music, and that was a no go for him. He was definite with the Bellerive Hotel about his accomodation as well. As a Steinway Artist, the Steinway people always placed a grand in his suite, as well as a small upright in his bedroom. He claimed that he actually listened better when he played a smaller piano. That helped me in latter years when I often had to practice on upright pianos of uncertain origins. If Friedberg could do that, so could I.

To have a lesson with Mr. Friedberg cost 50.00....which was a huge amount of money in the early 1950's. The payment on my Baldwin Acousonic was only 10.00. But my parents paid it and never complained about it. My father was so amused he kept the returned check for one of the lessons, and gave it to me years later. I had a really good repertoire to take to him, thanks to my teacher, and I felt comfortable with all of it. Looking back I am amazed I played all of it. I never was much for tracking my practice hours, and I am sure some days I did very little. But I was organized, so I could always tell more or less what sort of progress I was making. I took Debussy's "La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune" for my first lesson. I look back on that and smile, as I am sure as a 17 year old there would have been a few errors, in rhythm particularly. I did not play wrong notes, as my teacher would never have allowed me to get away with that. "The terrace for moonlight audiences..." was a phrase Debussy read in Le Figaro, depicting a large audience seated on a hillside, listening to a religious prophet. Freidberg likened the opening phrase to the spider slowly decending from his web by a long, silver thread. I was hooked from that moment!. I also remember playing "La puerta del Vino", and about those loud crashing chords at the beginning he said they were like the swinging doors leading into a salon of very doubtful social standing. I was even more hooked over that! Needless to say, this man had imagination.

Friedberg had a way of getting you to do what he wanted by playing on your imagination. There was alot of experimenting to get just the right mood and sound. He gave a certain direction for the technical part, but he helped you discover this in such a way as to make you think you actually discovered it yourself. There was a certain mystery in his teaching. He was uniquely philosophical....very German in this way....and was apt to quote Goethe and Aristotle in the same breath. "Know Thyself" was a special favorite.

I always had the feeling with Mr. Friedberg that we were partners in a search for the great mysteries of music. When I left he told me I had a wonderful gift for sound, and to trust myself. I was walking on air when I left, and I can say that was the first time I ever believed I really had talent. It was the turning point in my musical experience.

Olga At The Proms....

Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Olga Kern, late of Columbia, South Carolina and the Southeastern Piano Festival, chose wisely for her Prom debut last night. She has played the Rachmaninoff "Rhapsody on a Tneme of Paganini" on tour with orchestra, and at many important points in her career. Having just heard her Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 here in Columbia in June, I was ready for the glistening technique and the fiery attach and brio. Olga plays with elan, and what she does is very much her own. The "Rhapsody" emerged here as the show piece it is, dependent on quick thinking and constant control. Unfortunately,she misjudged the notorious acoustics of the Albert Hall...and its famous echo. Some passages were so fast they emerged in somewhat of a blur: at other times it was hard to hear clearly her rapid fire octaves. She did have a superb accompanist in Leonard Slatkin , who was at the ready throughout. The Royal Philharmonic has played this work constantly, so they were spot on also. It seemed that she favored an extremely fast tempo in general, although she did slow down enough to make the more famous melodies attractive and colorful. Olga doesn't mind making a personal effect at times. Surely she would have to point these out to the conductor, as they can be unusual. Slatkin caught every one. Her response from the audience was warm, but not as demonstrative as here. Perhaps the English like a certain element she has not quite reached yet: that might be explained as taking more time in the bravura elements so that they speak clearly, without excessive pressure, and not fussing too heavily with the melodic bits. No doubt she will be invited back.

Ralph Vaughn Williams

The London Proms are currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958). Somewhat neglected for the past decades, the music of Vaughn Williams was enormously popular when I was in high school and university in the 1950's. Compositions I particularly remember are the London Symphony, and "On Wenlock Edge" for tenor, string quartet and piano. This I performed twice, most notably at Yale with Donovan Wold. We celebrate Bartok and Kodaly for their efforts in collecting folk songs, roaming the countryside, finding singers who could remember the old tunes they in turn learned from their ancestors. Vaughn Williams did the same for English folksong, basing a great deal of his melodies on these wondrous memodies...as he said so eloquently "When I hear them I feel something deep within myself that makes me an Englishman".

Vaughn Williams died in 1958, the year before I came to London. I remember impressive performances of his choral music, and orchestral works, especially those conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, at that time very old and at the end of his long career. His music is so ideal for introducing people to classical music, with its haunting melodies and lush string sound.

It is interesting to live long enough to enjoy the revival of works of art that have lost their audience, only for them to awake and find a new one. English music does not alway transport well away from its shores. I think of Elgar's great choral masterpiece "The Dream of Gerontius" which the English revere, yet it is rare to hear a performance in the USA.I remember hearing Guirne Van Zuylen working with a Welsh tenor on the part of Gerontius over a period of weeks in 1959. It was a very moving and enlightening experiece. Perhaps Benjamin Britten has fared well with his operas, and of course we often hear Elgar's "Enigma Variations" and "Cello Concerto". But other great composers, for instance Frederic Delius, have not fared well. There is longing, melancholy, and restrait in all this music...and for that reason it perhaps goes against the grain for so many. But for those of us who love it, it is unique and breathes the very soul of England.Listening at this very moment to Leonard Slakin conduct Vaughn Williams Symphony No. 6 makes me realize I now recognize music from this period in English musical history easily (mid-century). The aftermant of the Second World War is felt in so much of it.."Peter Grimes" with its overpowering choral moments, and again, the Sonata for Piano by Howard Ferguson are two strong examples.

I remember a comment made to me by Jennifer Vyvyan, a wonderful soprano associated with many first performances of Britten's music. She recalled as a student at the RAM going to all the performances she could manage to hear Britten's premiere performances of "Peter Grimes"... having to stand for many of them. She said that after the dark days of the Second World War this work was like a beacon of light, drawing everyone towards it.

Obama on the Runway

Its silly season in the presidential race. Obama captures Berlin and mows Sarkozy down to size in Paris. The Obama team does have a thing about images, and they think big. Now we have McCain saying Obama is really in the same league as Paris and Britney...and just as clueless. That recent ad juxtaposing the two lifestyles..Obama versus the Clueless Duo...would seem to be a particularly nasty bit, but those Rovians are past masters at the devious. What disturbs is the underlying imagery in this ad....as noted in the Huffington Post. Turn off the sound and you see the undercurrent of violence, ending in a blinding flash, suggesting the assaination of Obama. I wonder how many will clue into that. Talk about subliminal! What is lacking so far is any depth of talk about the issues. Its all fearmongering and insults....so we are back to square one. McCain does have egg on his face as he said he would not run this kind of attack campaign...but obviously he has changed his mind. Obama is a great orator, but his Berlin speech was all pose and no substance. I rather miss Hillary and her vast knowledge of current problems, and her rather grim determination to get it across. But it is still silly season, and August is a long month.

The London Proms

Late July brings memories of going to the Proms at the vast Albert Hall in London. If you can't visulize this domed hall that seats 9,000, just revisit "The Man Who Knew Too Much" that classic Hitchcock film where most of the action takes place in the hall. After all, the pistol shot timed exactly with cymbal crash is a great piece of cinematic art. Aside from this ( and Doris Day screaming "Que Sera, Sera..." at the top of her lungs) it is quite something to attend a performance here. I remember Stokowski conducting the Scriabin "Poeme of Ecstacy" in the summer of 1970, and standing at the stage door to watch him exit to an adoring crowd. He threw roses to the crowd from a huge bouquet he was carrying, and Perri Daraz, who was standing next to me, caught one.

Now one can listen via the computer to live concerts for a period of almost two months. Recently I heard the young Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin play the Rachmanioff First Piano Concerto. That's the one that Rachmaninoff suffered greatly over, and revised extensively over the years.This summer the Proms are presenting the complete concerti, including the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini". Olga Kern, late of Columbia, South Carolina and the Southeastern Piano Festival, will play the latter. Sudbin is just 26...almost old by today's piano world...and very much in the Horowitz mold, to whom he is being compared. He played with fire and great precision, but also with alot of heart. He managed to make the thick writing sound out over the orchestra, but he never pounded to do so. I liked his natural sense of phrase, and the directness of it all. To his credit, he played, went to bed, got up and flew to Naples where he was married the same day.

This performance reminded me how kind London is to pianists from all over. It seems that London is really where the center of the piano world is today, and has been for decades. As a student there in 1959-61 I became aware of the international level of piano playing. Marta Argerich was just starting out, and I remember seeing her and her mother at all the piano recitals. Marta is very tall, and stands out in a crowd. She had roared in from the plains of Argentina, and in just a few years was a world figure. Elusive, distrustful of the press, and wayward in cancelling at the last minute, she nevertheless is one of the greatest pianist alive. She has lived in Lugano for years and now has a festival each June which features chamber music. The once gleaming black locks are now entirely gray, but her hair still hangs to her waist.

Strolling around London during Proms one can hear radios through open windows playing the most wonderful music. Its a way of life in the summer...almost like a world gone past.

A Bach Moment....

Hearing performances on the car radio can be a challenge to your schedule. I mean, have you ever parked at your destination waiting for the end of the composition to see if you have guessed right, are way off the mark, or just plain out of it. Today I heard some riveting Bach...one of the Concerti with orchestra...this one featuring the piano instead of the harpsichord. My first thought was about the rhythm. It was absolutely as tight as a tick and very accented, so there was no missing the beat. The articulation of the keyboard player was crisp,fastidious to a fault, and completely original. At first I was startled. Who would have the nerve today to play like this? It was almost too original, to studied to take in all at once. Then, on second thought, who would be playing this today on the modern grand, other than Peter Serkin or perhaps Andras Schiff . What caught my ear was the tension in the playing. It sounded almost contemporary in the way dissonance was made to stand out. The variety of touch featured a rather clipped sound, and a certain stacatissimo way of playing. It was all of a piece, love it or leave it. The sound was so good I thought, now what new recording is this? It turned out to be Glenn Gould in an LP recorded in 1960 with Vladimir Golschmann and the Columbia Symphony. WELL GLENN...you sound just as fresh as a daisy as you did 48 years ago. . and just as startling.

Its Just That Time of Year....

The last of July always turns a small corner in the gardener's calendar, waiting for an even greater shift in mid-August. You have to look carefully when you live in the woods as I do, as things can seem monochromatic and even monotonous. But the other day I spotted a couple of scarlett leaves on the sasafrass shrubs that told me that time was marching on. Then quick glances at the rhrododendrons informed me that they had already set next May's blooms, and it promises to be another banner year of bloom. Its easy for them to get confused in our False Spring which comes just after the first big cold spell...usually in late November or early December. I have seen them blooming away around Christmas, doomed to an early death. Our rains this summer come in patches, just enough to stave off absolute drought, but we have lived on the edge the past few years. I nursed a pansy redbud for four years until it kicked the bucket last winter. I cut it down and went my merry way. In June I noticed an unusual purple-green bush growing in the same spot, and lo it had come up from the roots with vigor. I dump a bucket of water on it faithfully, and hopefully it will survive the winter. One of my best rhrododendrons was run over by Mr.Winston several years ago in his zeal to harvest wood from a fallen live oak. It bloomed magnificently this year....of course I call it "Ressurection".

Beethoven and the Kitchen Sink....

Watching design shows on HGTV has become as predictable as thunder storms in July in South Carolina. What is it that makes for all this blah paint color and bare floors. Home buyers today seem terrified of color, hate carpet and run from one sink bathrooms. The joke is that everything ends up generic, destroying anything that has any character in its path. Perhaps it is a vast marketing ploy that networks buy into. Everything has to be stainless steel, granite and huge. It is no news that most home buyers can't visulize anything in their heads, so everything has to be spelled out for them. Get rid of all but the most basic furniture, so that the rooms will appear bigger than they really are. Don['t dare put any pictures on the wall, except for the most hopeless expressions of decorator art. The joke is when you see the homes the prospective buyers are living in at present they stand revealed as overstuffed, usually filthy and tasteless. Functional means let it drop where you last used it. Stuff, stuff and more stuff.

Now apply this 21st century mentality to a movement of Beethoven. First of all, don't let your emotions get in the way. You might turn off a potential listener. Keep your technique efficient, cool, and stainless. Don't dare turn dramatic, and evoke all sorts of colors and moods in your interpretation. Keep it cool. Avoid the clutter of pedal effects and dare to distain tradition. Keep the cobwebs out of your interpretation. Down with the past. Who needs that. Cart it all to the dump.

Lets live in the present, hooked up to instant cells and computers, eyes glued to the screen. Don't talk to anyone except by cell phone, otherwise your body language will give away what you really mean. Be cool man...or woman...or inbetween.

In a few years trucks will be spotted carrying all that granite and stainless steel to the dump. What will be the next trend!! Don't worry...its just around the corner.

Sooner or Later.....

I once asked my piano professor at Yale if he ever heard from former students. Bruce Simonds scratched his head, as he always did when he was "thinking" and said "Only a few". I had only been teaching a few years, but I never forgot his words. It reminded me of what Virginia French Mackie said to us when we were her theory students at the University of Kansas CIty, way back in the 1950's. "Remember, you are teaching for the few". That meant just what she intended: get used to the fact that not every student thinks you are a genius and will light a candle at your shrine.

So when students write with news it is always a red letter day. CHRIS SARZEN, a brilliant student from Atlanta who was here at USC in the early 1980's, went on to get a Doctor of Medicine at Vanderbilt and has been practicing in the Atlanta area for quite a few years now. He has maintained his technique and has grown tremendously in artistry over the years. This Spring he entered the Atlanta Mozart Competition, won, and is at this very moment in Salzburg, Austria, studying for a few weeks with master teachers. Chris has continued to send me impressive CD's that he records at home. Some years ago he was traveling in England, and found an old Steinway in a village in the Lake District. He sent it to London to be restored, and it now sits in his living room in Atlanta. His recent recording of the Rachmaninoff Second Sonata is very powerful, one of the best I have heard. Chris plans to play alot more in the coming years, and I think it will be a successful second career in a very difficult field.

Nancy Hill Elton, one of my very first students at USC in the 1960's and a native of Columbia, was in town recently to play her most recent recital program for me. The hall at USC was being used to record, so Columbia College opened their doors to us and we used their splendid small recital hall with its venerable old Steinway. Nancy has developed a big following in Atlanta, and she is also soprano soloist at one of the biggest churches there. She did the incredible and got a Doctorate in Piano and a Doctorate in Voice. She played Beethoven Opus 81a, the Chopin Fourth Ballade, a group of Liszt pieces and the first set of Images by Debussy. She has natural technique and lots of drive, which she has tempered with beautiful sound and a composers sense of form. She was very effective in the Beethoven, where she avoided the pitfalls and opened up the emotional range of the work. Her Chopin is very secure, never hysterical, like so many tend to do, and always beautiful to listen to. Her natural technique shines in the Liszt, and she knows how to entertain. So many pianists are so serious in approach that they lose, or never develop this quality, but Nancy has enough showmanship to reach out to the audience and make them listen. Best was the Debussy, especially the moving "Homage a Rameau" one of the most difficult of all Debussy piano pieces. It is rare to hear intellectual qualities combined with the ability to convey the exact emotional content, but she made this happen. Some family matters have held her back of late, but hopefully she can soon reach out to the audiences that await her.

Early Menories of Kansas City

As a pianist of many years standing, I have seen a lot come and go on the classical scene. Imagine...one of my early teachers studied with Clara Schumann and was a friend of Johannes Brahms. Carl Friedberg was born in Bingen am Rhine, Germany, in 1872, and studied with Frau Schumann in her last years. Carl made his debut under Gustav Mahler and the Vienna Philharmonic in 1900, and came to the USA originally as accompanist for Fritz Kreisler, one of the all time great violinists. He later became a principal teacher at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York City, which later became the Julliard School

I met Carl Friedberg in Kansas City in 1950. My family had moved there from Birmingham, Alabama, and I was lucky to find a very fine piano teacher named Mary Newitt Dawson. She took me to a master class at the University of Kansas City conducted by Mr.Friedberg. It was held in a beautiful drawing room in the mansion that Colonel William Rockhill Nelson had built overlooking the Kansas City skyline, and the famous museum that bears his name, the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, one of the finest in the world.

Among the many pianists in the room that day were Malcolm Frager, who had come over from St.Louis, Albertine Baumgartner (now Votapek) Joanne Baker, Gerald Kemner and Mary Weaver, the most famous piano teacher in Kansas City in that era. I remember my teacher introducing me to Mr.Friedberg, and the comment he made, saying I had a remarkable teacher and to consider myself very lucky.

A master class like this didn't happen by chance. Evaline Hartley was a remarkable voice teacher at KCU who had studied in Germany as a young lady (with the great Julia Culp, no less), and she was a friend of Mack Harrell, a leading baritone at the Met and a faculty member at Julliard. (Yes, he was the father of Lynn Harrell, one of our best cellists today). She had persuaded KCU to bring him, his accompanist Conrad Bos, and Mr. Friedberg to town for a two week mastercourse. The course ran for a number of summers immediately after the Second World War.

I didn't play that summer, and when the classes were no longer held, Mr.Friedberg continued to come to Kansas City until he died in 1955. It was during this period that I had many lessons with him, learning the Schumann Concerto in A Minor, the Schumann "Carnaval", the Franck "Variations Symphoniques" and the Chopin "Barcarolle". There were also numerous Preludes of Debussy and other shorter works we studied together. In a later post I will write about our lessons and the impact they still have on me today.

A First Post

Windrushnotes is about the music world at large, observations on the art of the piano, and personal thoughts that are looking for a larger audience. Be my guest, add your own comments, and enjoy.