tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88561870752240981182024-03-12T21:11:47.683-07:00AphorismsA journal including subjects related to the arts, with a strong historical connection to the subject of choice, as I taught both in the arts and history as well.LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comBlogger690125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-63605591494052679542018-11-04T14:29:00.000-08:002018-11-04T16:56:36.582-08:00A Pianist Like No Other- A Journey Into a Place Like No Other...I recently delved into two recordings by the great Russian pianist Emil Gilels, done many years ago at the height of his powers. Of course I had heard these performances countless times over an extended period; however, I chose to hear both of these back-to-back this time around for one reason only: to look more deeply into the nature of the composer's pursuance and delivery of the LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-1645803966266459522018-10-22T14:13:00.001-07:002018-10-22T16:44:31.770-07:00Musings of One Who Composes For One Musician...I have a certain amount of pride in having set out over a decade ago to write a series of blogs without use of technical terminology, to reflect reaction to subjects of interest to me - pride, because my blogs now number about 700 without running out of material; at least, up to now.
So; as prologue to my first blog which will contain some terms that may require some of myLHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-17399387719640971582018-10-14T11:10:00.000-07:002018-10-17T07:06:26.486-07:00A Titan Who Is Virtually Forgotten - A Violinist of Rare Gifts...The other day I decided to look back among the 700-odd blogs comprising a part of my last twelve years of personal endeavor, and, to my horror, I found that I had overlooked my writing about one of the 20th century's most gifted violinists. and one of my youth's heroes.
During my teen years, both Vladimir Horowitz and Jascha Heifetz were at the top of my beloved 'heap' of LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-24341960688830781782018-09-23T14:13:00.000-07:002018-09-23T14:13:46.054-07:00Great Music - A Personal Certification From a Recent Event...Whenever, say, that if the Eine kleine Nacht Musik of Mozart is discussed or thought of, an immediate and automatic reaction on my part is to 'hear' the first few measures of the opening allegro; or, say, if the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven is discussed or thought of, those first four notes are brought immediately into my inner world of sound.
Well, the other day I LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-30292072051386361882018-09-23T08:41:00.001-07:002018-09-23T08:41:09.815-07:00George GershwinLHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-7690665670444718112018-09-14T13:56:00.001-07:002018-09-14T14:22:31.809-07:00Great American Music Connected with a Fannie Hurst Short Story...A movie titled "Humoresque" was produced in Hollywood and released in 1946. The movie is based upon a short story written in 1919 by the eminent American author Fannie Hurst, and deals with the budding career of a brilliant young violinist, and features two eminent movie stars of the day, Joan Crawford and John Garfield.
What drew me to this movie was not the movie, but vital LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-39684046634382867842018-09-03T07:14:00.000-07:002018-09-08T07:50:45.810-07:00Three Electric Performances - the Three H's...Remember "the Three B's?," namely, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms?
Well, how about the Three H's," namely, Holt, Horowitz and Hanfstaengl?
Allow me at this time to explain my use of the word 'electric' in the context of this blog:
'Electric' is not used to describe any brilliance in the following performances. There is no brilliance in LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-42220358057498538692018-08-25T14:13:00.000-07:002018-08-25T14:21:04.079-07:00Articulation At The Highest Level - Listen to the Music of Scarlatti and Galuppi...Baldassarre Galuppi - a mouthful indeed; and a pretty well-forgotten composer at this point in time - and Domenico Scarlatti, who is quite the opposite, being well-remembered today.
Scarlatti preceded Galuppi by about a generation, and was one of the Great Three born in the same year(1685); namely, he, along with Bach and Handel. The pianist of today continues to be enthralled by his LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-36417957865520018712018-08-06T07:07:00.000-07:002018-08-12T13:48:03.825-07:00On This Date in 1945 - a Reminder, and a Strange Story of Human Imagery...We all know of the dawn of a new age emerging from the destruction of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
How many of us are aware of a lecture given in Zurich late in 1944 by Werner Heisenberg, known as one of the leading physicists in Hitler's Germany, much like Robert Oppenheimer , another great physicist here in America, who was head of the Manhattan Project , the project created and assigned&LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-72275735960555310242018-07-29T14:26:00.000-07:002018-07-31T06:33:16.465-07:00Horowitz and the Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto - an Odyssey Unequaled...In 1978, the celebrated piano titan Vladimir Horowitz, then in his mid seventies, and Zubin Mehta, the distinguished conductor, collaborated in a performance of the 3rd piano concerto by Rachmaninoff. There was but one person in that hall who knew that this would be his final public performance of this monumental work - and that person was the pianist.
Fortunately, that performance LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-39727372950783862932018-07-23T16:25:00.000-07:002018-07-23T16:25:15.507-07:00Oops- A Letter Written by Composer Max Reger , Should Have Been Included...Forgot to mention a letter written to a critic by a rather irascible composer, Max Reger, whom I had just written about a few minutes ago in today's blog.
It's worth the price of admission:
"I am now sitting in the smallest room in my house. Your review is now before me. In a moment it will be behind me."
It seems to me quite evident that Reger did not think much of this LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-48142701319358677462018-07-23T14:18:00.000-07:002018-07-23T16:09:01.814-07:00Piano Music for the Left Hand - a Reminder of Its Import and Magical Level of Attainment in the Realm of Compositional Technology... Allow yourself to consider, for just a moment or two, a beguiling question connected to the issue of piano performance: how much is out there, knowing that violin music is so redolent with the answer to the issue of what comes out of the world of music created by just four fingers?
For the pianist, what with the availability of sound production by way of TEN, not four fingers - LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-87124227538152463882018-06-29T14:10:00.000-07:002018-07-02T07:55:05.562-07:00Felix Mendelssohn and Emil Gilels - a Change of Mind Like No Other I Know in the History of Recordings...One of the Mendelssohn Songs Without Words, titled "Duetto," is among my favorites of the piano music of Mendelssohn. The theme is, for me, one of the most ravishing creations carved into existence by this composer, supported by the magic of Mendelsson's unmatched view of harmonic simplism and clarity of direction as a combine. The story of a soprano voice, answered by its own echo inLHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-57164515400635933452018-06-22T13:54:00.001-07:002018-06-23T12:07:46.697-07:00On Another June 22 - A Defining Event That Changed the Direction of History, and Gave Us Musical Masterpieces...On June 22, 1941, a long-standing plan of Adolf Hitler came into being - approximately three million German troops crossed a nearly 2000 mile border and invaded Soviet Russia. A war of extermination had begun, ending in May of 1945 in Berlin after a war of unprecedented carnage - a war which included such horrors as the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted some 900LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-40472742140391361362018-06-16T07:40:00.000-07:002018-06-16T07:55:18.482-07:00A CD Box Set Like No Others - Read On...When Anton Rubinstein launched a new program at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1861 dealing with pedagogical methodology pertaining to the piano, he established the so-called Russian School, which continues with unabated success to this day. Rubinstein's particular attachment to Liszt and his unprecedented legacy is the catalyst which brought this gargantuan contribution to the LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-90209211219832552222018-06-01T13:56:00.000-07:002018-06-01T16:04:41.229-07:00A Deeper Look Into the Phantasmal Imagery Created by Pianist Art Tatum...It has been related to us that on an occasion when a conversation took place between Art Tatum and the brilliant jazz pianist Bobby Short, Art Tatum, with a smile, replied to a statement made by Short "look, you come here tomorrow, and anything you do with your right hand I'll do with my left."
Now, to me, it is irrelevant as to whether this statement is or is not apocryphal - LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-76359312135954486512018-05-25T13:42:00.000-07:002018-05-25T13:44:51.922-07:00The Lesser Known Side of a Great Pianist...During my childhood period, two of my heroes of the piano were Artur Rubinstein and Alexander Brailowsky. Rubinstein, of course, is so well-remembered for his unparalleled performances of Chopin. His singular attraction to the great composer was most assuredly enhanced by way of his performing Chopin for a period twice the length of the composer's life span. Many still consider Rubinstein's LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-3526286815385201812018-05-13T14:19:00.001-07:002018-05-13T14:22:21.750-07:00On This Special Day, How Motherly Advice Can Help Shape History...As this day is Mother's Day, I thought that I might share this vignette with you:
The time -early 20th century.
The place - Western Europe.
The situation - two young men forming and establishing their budding reputations in piano recitals and concerts as they moved westward.
Both happened to be situated quite near one another, although never meeting during this period.
One was LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-80045577883378614582018-05-09T13:51:00.001-07:002018-05-09T17:16:29.307-07:00 A Recording That Is The Apotheosis Representing the Power of the Horowitz Presence? Read On...I was one of the fortunate who saw the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz live in recital at least twenty times. The first encounter with his presence was as a child taken by his father around age 9 or 10. The final time was as a faculty member of the Longy School, with a couple of my students, in an auditorium in Western Massachusetts.
Of all the great artists I have seen and heard LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-46708149951632168452018-05-02T14:05:00.001-07:002018-05-02T16:00:46.374-07:00Imagery and Composition - Does it HAVE to be Music?...When I think of the word 'art,' the word 'imagery' also appears. The creating of an idea and the imaging of that idea are, it seems to me, really one and the same when it comes to the promulgation of transfer from that 'image' to the outside world. As an example, when I compose music, I 'see' the formation of whatever statement I come up with, and then shift it over to LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-58770976633926165562018-04-23T14:05:00.000-07:002018-04-23T14:06:18.185-07:00A Great Work for Piano - and Two Famous Names in Pop Music...The cast of characters:
Irving Berlin
Richard Rodgers
Vladimir Horowitz
Samuel Barber
The League of Composers -
In the year 1950, a new work for solo piano was introduced. This work was commissioned by the money of Irving Berlin (remember "White Christmas?") and Richard Rogers (remember "My Funny Valentine?"), in an organized move by way of The League of Composers, a LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-79351020672580937882018-04-13T14:48:00.000-07:002018-04-13T14:54:54.736-07:00I Forgot! Please Forgive This Muddled Musician...I should have acknowledged yesterday, April 12, as a date to be remembered, so do please forgive my forgetting that on April 12 in 1945, arguably the most powerful American Head-of-State in our time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt , passed away at his retreat in Georgia.
There are no political attachments involved in my recognition of this man - it's all so simple, from my humble view. A number LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-51500889874941523212018-04-11T14:22:00.000-07:002018-04-11T14:26:15.668-07:00The "Warsaw Concerto," a Pianist I Never Got to Know, and the End of an Era...This week I learned of the closing of Mt. Ida College, a well-known and highly regarded little liberal arts school nestled in a pretty setting in Newton, Ma.
With a student population of about 1400, insurmountable fiscal problems have forced Mt. Ida to close after this year's graduation exercises are complete. At least this is what I was told the other day.
Then the LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-10005478208576861552018-04-04T14:11:00.000-07:002018-04-04T15:19:08.547-07:00In Music, a Triumvirate to be Noted...At times, whenever I am involved with the composer Chopin in whatever pursuit I will have chosen, my thoughts form around the reality of an experience beginning with the birth of this man, and ending just one generation short of our present century with the passing of Artur Rubinstein. The third component is Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who occupied the last forty years of the 19th century and LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-36482237802538473792018-03-25T13:31:00.001-07:002018-03-25T13:36:18.645-07:00Mozart, Salieri - Other Composers As Well...Guys Out There Just to Make a Buck...How about the evening that the Emperor had arranged to have both Mozart and the Court Composer Antonio Salieri be present in order to have some of their music performed? Seems to me that I had written about that evening in one of my prior blogs. Wouldn't you have loved to be that fly-on-the-wall during THAT night? I most certainly would.
And how about that group of LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com0