My remarks at the beginning of the second of 13 concerts of Beethoven’s complete piano music played by New England Conservatory students during 2020. Let me tell you... I almost never do stand-up comedy on a Thursday night. Friday is better. Sometimes even Tuesday can be good. I mean not a Thursday though... tonight is a Thursday right — and you see what I mean. You can see how this is going, … [Read more...]
Piano Sonata as Video Game: Anomalies in My Reception of Beethoven’s Music
A transcript of my spoken remarks at Boston University last week, as part of a symposium on piano sonatas by Beethoven. “I’d like to talk about what I would call anomalies in my own reception of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. “I can certainly remember -- as I’m sure many of you can remember -- a time when I first played through a piano sonata by Beethoven from beginning to end, in a kind of performance. It was in my living room, I think I was … [Read more...]
Conflict of Interest
The character of a piece of music is strongly influenced (or sometimes distorted) by the technique necessary to play it. The physical motions of fingers and arm will color the music being made. There is always an interaction between a musical idea (perhaps written) and the movements of a human body that are necessary to realize the idea in sound. Delicate or fragile music that requires advanced virtuosity is especially challenging. As is any … [Read more...]
Construction Zone
“Down below, in the dark of the street lamps, Eusebius said, as if to himself: Beethoven—what lies within this word! Beautifully, within the deep ringing of the syllables, sounds an Eternity.” (“Unten im Laternendunkel sagte Eusebius wie vor sich hin: Beethoven — was liegt in diesem Wort! schon der tiefe Klang der Sylben wie in eine Ewigkeit hineintönend.”) -- Robert Schumann, 1835 Also, this begins with a statue. Every day I'm in the Jordan … [Read more...]