The album Eno Piano will be released by InFiné on November 10, 2023. Additional tracks will be released in 2024. My new album got started with a question: Is it possible to play Music for Airports on the piano? Brian Eno’s original studio recording contains a lot of piano sounds, but they are manipulated, redistributed, dehumanized, or rehumanized. And then there are long, long sustained tones. The … [Read more...]
“Gifted”
In the world of music conservatories, in the classical music community, exceptional musical talent is usually considered to be the ability to quickly recognize pitches by ear, the possession of reliable musical memory, and the athleticism and dexterity to navigate complex patterns on an instrument. We have not considered imagination, or artistic idea-making. Perhaps these are difficult to recognize? Perhaps it's assumed that with fine skills will … [Read more...]
Everest
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mount Everest, 1953 excerpts from my remarks as part of the webinar “ResiliArt: Classical Music’s New World” presented by the Global Foundation for the Performing Arts and UNESCO, June 22, 2020 “…Now, we need to be living music so that it matters, so that it’s useful. We are in an intense period of artistic interaction — technologically enabled. Music is a group activity. "Music and … [Read more...]
Dispatched
Dispatched from the Audition Room (mit Bolzano auch dabei) After the third day of piano auditions at New England Conservatory, I attended an evening recital given at the school by one of my piano faculty colleagues. Backstage, he said that while he was playing he imagined my stern voice from the audition room. Making a fairly unpleasant face, he told me, "You know when you say, 'Mmmmm, not really good...'" The cold fact is that from about … [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...]
Moving Target
I don't know how to play the violin. In a master class in France, a violin prodigy played rather brilliantly for me -- while standing on one foot. "Try the beginning again, and be sure to keep both of your feet on the floor," I suggested. With string instruments, I notice that when the position of the fingerboard is not fairly stable spatially, playing is more difficult. It makes sense. The left hand finding pitches, and the bow contacting the … [Read more...]
How to cook a fish
The first time I ate skate, I'm sure it was a fillet that was sautéed and crispy. A piscatorial classic of the bistro, it was made with lots of butter, and probably capers. It's a classic that requires an act of virtuosity, the cutting of the fillet. Fancy fish sellers and well-trained chefs turned a rather ordinary ingredient into something most cooks couldn't really do. About ten years ago or more, skate started showing up unfilleted on … [Read more...]
No fervor
Hearing Liszt's "Feux follets" at Alice Tully Hall -- it crossed my mind that it was the most accomplished performance of the étude ever played! This solo recital was won by the pianist as part of a competition prize. Tully Hall was mostly empty. No critics and no bloggers were there to document this considerable piano-playing achievement. And that makes sense -- it wasn't "news." It may be puzzling that today's highly accomplished, … [Read more...]
“Of which vertu…”
Alongside music representing elephants, swan, and kangaroos in Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals, there's a section of music titled "Pianists" -- additional creatures caged in the zoo. There are still plenty of occasions when classical performers' hands, feet, and fingers are ogled, when playing is lauded just for dexterity, and coordination, for the technique that may allow art. For today's virtuoso musician, the term "virtuoso" can be … [Read more...]
Repertoire Inflation
In this spring's auditions, I've heard prospective undergraduates perform Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Schubert's A-Minor Sonata, D. 845 -- and, of course, many offerings of Liszt's Sonata, Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka, and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. These seventeen- or eighteen-year-old pianists are grappling with, or storming through, music that's considered to be at the pinnacle of musical or virtuoso difficulty. I … [Read more...]
Simple is difficult
The simplest things can be the most telling. A very small, simple bit of music reveals everything about a player's technique, sound -- dare I say, soul? Consider the two-note slur: a group of two notes, frequently a descending step, connected, bound, by a legato phrasing tie (slur). A very basic building block, frequently realized very poorly, even by celebrated, professional executants. Classical musicians often strongly desire to perform … [Read more...]
Chill
Today's the first really cold day that I have been in Boston this fall. At New England Conservatory this afternoon we had the preliminary round in a competition to pick a student pianist for a performance of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. (The performance will be in April with Hugh Wolff.) These competitions are a continuing part of conservatory life. A few schools with many excellent pianists do this--specify a particular … [Read more...]