Mozart and Mendelssohn Got Their Way - Two Curious Events,,,
I would invite any of you reading this blog who are professional musicians to let me know if you might have experienced an event or events similar to the following "encounters" which I underwent as a student:
On two different occasions, each event about two years apart, I prevailed over my piano teacher as regards choice:
The first event: I insisted that I learn the Mozart piano concerto K.488, in spite of the reality that my teacher had planned on my learning another work at that particular time. I had just received an answer from the acclaimed musicologist and historian Alfred Einstein; an answer to a letter I had written him, asking about tempi in Mozart as applied to the projection of bel canto in his piano music. I was so enamored of his answer that I insisted that I learn that particular concerto for two reasons; one, that Einstein himself considered the K.488 as fine a concerto as any other in that form in the Mozart repertoire - and, two; the glorious romanticism of the second movement - most specifically, the combine of tempo and 'singing.'
My teacher, as I recall, was not too happy about my attempt to override his choice of music. I cannot remember the sequence of events; but, I got my way!
Event number two was an announcing to my poor, suffering pedagogue of the moment that it was my intention to learn the daunting Variations Serieuses of Mendelssohn as soon as possible, primarily because it was, as I now recall, the only one of three sets of variations Mendelssohn wrote that was published DURING his short life, and that this aspect of human drama appealed to me; and, of course, it was a wonderful work, arguably the best of his variations. Again, I cannot recall the possible squabbles I may have encountered with the teacher - but AGAIN! I got my way! It took about a year, but I learned it.
The prodding question remains:
WHY did I get my way?
On two different occasions, each event about two years apart, I prevailed over my piano teacher as regards choice:
The first event: I insisted that I learn the Mozart piano concerto K.488, in spite of the reality that my teacher had planned on my learning another work at that particular time. I had just received an answer from the acclaimed musicologist and historian Alfred Einstein; an answer to a letter I had written him, asking about tempi in Mozart as applied to the projection of bel canto in his piano music. I was so enamored of his answer that I insisted that I learn that particular concerto for two reasons; one, that Einstein himself considered the K.488 as fine a concerto as any other in that form in the Mozart repertoire - and, two; the glorious romanticism of the second movement - most specifically, the combine of tempo and 'singing.'
My teacher, as I recall, was not too happy about my attempt to override his choice of music. I cannot remember the sequence of events; but, I got my way!
Event number two was an announcing to my poor, suffering pedagogue of the moment that it was my intention to learn the daunting Variations Serieuses of Mendelssohn as soon as possible, primarily because it was, as I now recall, the only one of three sets of variations Mendelssohn wrote that was published DURING his short life, and that this aspect of human drama appealed to me; and, of course, it was a wonderful work, arguably the best of his variations. Again, I cannot recall the possible squabbles I may have encountered with the teacher - but AGAIN! I got my way! It took about a year, but I learned it.
The prodding question remains:
WHY did I get my way?
Labels: two memorable "encounters"
posted by LH at
10:20 AM
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