After I play through a program or a piece for someone (as a step in preparing for public performance), I don't return to the piano to practice. It can be difficult, if something went badly and I want to work on it. But the separation -- practicing for the real concert by preserving the "non-take-twoness" of the performing experience -- matters most. I've read of Busoni returning to the hall to play through an entire concert after the audience … [Read more...]
Marshall Plan
William Kapell, Van Cliburn, Glenn Gould, Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Jacob Lateiner, Eugene Istomin. These were among post-World-War-II American piano ambassadors. In the 1930s and '40s, so many artists, scientists, and intellectuals came to America. Then, in the '50s, these American-trained, fresh faces went into the world to reread the Classical music canon, part of the accidental urban-renewal of European culture. What happened next? To … [Read more...]