Off to London to hear a re-discovered masterpiece.

I listened to BBC Radio 4 this morning as a fascinating story was told involving a lot of people important and dear to me. Next Saturday, July 4 ,I will be sitting in Saint Paul's Knightsbridge, listening to Guirne Creith's Violin Concerto, and trying to take in the amazing history behind this performance. While a student at the RAM in London in 1959, I lived for a year in the home of Baroness Van Zuylen, a pianist, singer, and all around fine musician. She had two sons, Robin and Jeremy, and they were a few years younger than me.Robin was busy with his first job, and Jeremy was at Stowe during the week, but often home on weekends. Altho known to me as Guirne Van Zuylen, she also had various other names that became apparent over the years...Gladys Cohen, Guirne Hunter-Coddington, Guirne Creith, Guirne Van Zuylen, and lastly Guirne Siddons(?). There was indeed a lot of mystery about her, and portions of her life were not discussed, or just veiled over.I think, as a young musician with a vivid imagination, that none of this bothered me at the time, as I already knew enough about the world of creativity to allow for many personality types, and Guirne was endlessly fascinating! Mr. Hunter-Coddington was the father of her two sons, but they were divorced after a few years. Although Guirne never told me she was a composer, she did talk alot about the art of orchestration, and I just surmised that she must have written some works. There was a bookcase in an unused room, and while looking for something Guirne had sent me in search of, I noticed a bundle of music manuscripts on the bottom shelf. I just assumed they were some of her work, but I never actually looked at them closely.

About two years ago, I re-established contact with the family, after a silence of almost 45 years. Amazingly enough, my email arrived almost to the day of what would have been her 100th birthday, although she passed away in the mid-1990's. In her honor, her sons had established a website, telling what they knew of her life's story, and inviting friends and contacts to share their memories. Shortly there came the unusual news that a manuscript of a violin concerto by Guirne Creith had been discovered in a second hand piano shop that was going out of business. In a box marked "all contents 2 pounds" was the manuscript. It was purchased by an individual, curious enough to search for information until he was led to her son, Robin Hunter-Coddington. Robin verified her handwriting, at the same time hardly believing what he was looking at. He began his own search for information, never having known that his mother composed anything. Through research at the RAM and BBC, he finally learned that she had won important prizes while a student, and had written several ballets, piano sonatas, songs and orchestral works. Robin's hard work has resulted in this first performance since the 1930's, which will be presented by the Kensington Orchestra.

The work has already been recorded in a splendid performance by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, produced by Epoch Records. For most in the audience, this will be their initial introduction to Guirne Creith. More ...after the concert.

Southeastern Piano Festival June 2009

The second week in June saw the annual Southeastern Piano Festival for high school students at the University of South Carolina School of Music, with its monumental parade of talent from all over the world. This year was our seventh season, and we have grown in statue and size. Overall, this was the strongest field of young pianists so far. Of course, the main body of competitors come from Southern states and the East Coast but we also had contestants from the rest of the country, the winner this year hailing from Chicago. I taught five students this year, four girls and one boy. Last year it was four boys and 1 girl. Amazing the difference in dynamics this makes!! Four of my students were Asian descent, and one was from Eastern Europe. Among the concerti I coached was the Tschaikowsky, Prokofief 3rd, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody, Chopin No. 1, and Beethoven 3rd. These are cumbersome to work with in that, since the pianists have strict rehearsal rules with their appointed accompanists, we must avert going straight through the work, as if we were rehearsing. This perplexed me until I came to the conclusion that there is just a small amount one can accomplish in four lessons, and the contestants are more or less "set" in their preparation by the time they get here. So I divide the works into large chunks, find a few spots where I think they can improve in a short time, and keep coming back to those. This worked brilliantly this summer. The girl doing the Chopin was able to add a lot more color and variety of sound, the Beethoven gathered much more style, and the Tschaikowsky cadenza gainned more integration into the whole. In the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody we concentrated on the long build up to the BIG THEME, and especially the very ending of the theme, where there is a long coda like section with a lot of orchestral color. In general I find young pianists rarely look at the orchestral score, mostly concentrating on the piano part (and hoping they can get the notes). The young girl doing the Prokoview was only 15, and she was very polished...so we only had one session. In addition, they each have a solo piece. The boy who did Tschaikowsky picked the Beethoven "Appassionata"...with its long and dark first movement. It was a poor choice I felt, as it didn't add enough contrast in his repertoire. But he came a miracle mile in stylistic concept, and the quality of sound required. The Prokovief girl chose Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" and she also moved forward in the ability to make a "whole" out of a piece with alot of detours into cadenzas and impressionistic effects. She was thriled with what we accomplished, and won honorable mention in the finals. She was my only winner this year, as opposed to last year when my students won First and Second.

We have professional artists play envening recitals, and the one I enjoyed the most was by Christopher Taylor. He played a monumental program of Rzewski's The People United will never be Defeated, and the Bach "Goldberg". He is a fine pianist with a broad range of temperment.

This year's winner was Shawn Yeh, who played a movingly stark yet virtuoso performance of Ravel's Concerto "a main gauche", and also the Liszt Etude "Mazeppa".