Why We Don't Have More Beethovens

"I dreamt that I was composing a symphony … I had gone to my table to begin writing it down when I suddenly reflected, “If I write this part, I shall let myself be carried on to write the rest. The natural tendency of my mind to expand the material is sure to make it very long. When the symphony is completed I shall be weak enough to allow my copyist to copy it out and thus incur a debt of 1,000 or 1,200 francs. Once the parts are copied I shall be harassed by the temptation to have the work performed; I shall give a concert in which, as is sure to be the case in these days, the receipts will cover barely half the expenses; I shall lose what I have not got; I shall want the necessaries of life for my poor invalid wife and shall have no money either for myself or my son's keep on board ship.” … I throw down my pen saying, “Bah! I shall have forgotten the symphony tomorrow.” But the following night the obstinate symphony again presented itself …"

Hector Berlioz Memoirs c. 1850's

It used to be more often said than was even kind, when confronting abortion, that we might be denied another Beethoven. I always found the comment in considerably less than good taste on many levels, chief among them that humanity had not fully realized who and what the original Beethoven was and what he had accomplished under really incredible circumstances.

People are always far too often interested only when there is some “overcoming tragedy” element in a story. Otherwise I guess, anything that gets accomplished must have been done easily because less effort or intelligence was required. Under all circumstances in the modern world, we probably wouldn't be able to recognize another Beethoven were one to fall into our laps.

It's appropriate to mention that Beethoven regarded some trees with more truly fond regard than he ever considered more than a few men. And why wouldn't he? The real Beethoven was an abused child who later suffered from it through profound deafness. No one explains it that way, but that's exactly what it was. Meanwhile, these days the culture destroyers have already made the name Beethoven synonymous with a dog in a motion picture comedy series that soon nobody will remember because that's what commercialization does; it produces a steady stream of worthless trash for a fickle public attention span that itself is manipulated. The real Beethoven wanted more for his listeners and players than that. Those who stood in his shadow and a few who came before him (in whose shadows he stood) certainly wanted more for their audiences, for humanity itself.

An interesting book, Quarter-notes and Banknotes by F. M. Scherer tries to answer the meaty questions concerning how composers managed to earn their livelihood and focuses on a statistical analysis of fewer than 1,000 composers who were born between 1650 and 1850. I bet you thought there must be millions of composers. Well there weren't and still aren't. The bulk of the standard “classical” music repertoire came from perhaps less than 50 people working over the last 300 years. This book is a real eye-opener. We can put the pieces together and get an idea of how small the real “classical” music scene was (and still is). We can see how conspicuous consumption among nobles and a few clergy kept a lot of this musical scene going through the 18^th century, how the industrial revolution and wars altered this music scene through the 19^th century. We can extrapolate from this work what happened to this same musical tradition through the mid 20^th century too. (Did it go underground after about the time I was born?  Or was it for the most point destroyed after two world wars?)

And now we're in the 21^st century and those who are impressed enough by this music and its traditions to take it up and care for it are coming from places largely outside Europe where it all began. We expect great things from these newcomers, not only as performers, but as composers. But what does it take to become a composer?

"No one can become a capable musician without arduous self-teaching, and most undergo on the job training."     Quarter-notes and Banknotes, page 82

It takes work that may not be rewarded in one's lifetime. To take up the craft of making music in this way, by writing it down so others can perform it long after you're gone, takes a considerable act of faith. Once again, I am reminding all those who read this of the parallels between serious music study and religious experience. There's nothing quite like it in this life.

Certainly composition was more than enough for Ludwig van Beethoven and the less than 1,000 others, many whose names are long forgotten or whose music many not have been played often or at all. It's astounding to me that for instance the six Brandenburg Concerti were written by J. S. Bach sometime before 1721 FOR NOTHING but the hope of a sponsorship from a local noble and that these incredible works were left on a dusty shelf in some palace library until they were discovered in 1849! We have a lot of great music that came about this way.

There's ample evidence in Scherer's book to support Andrew Violette's contention that musicians have always been regarded as of lower class than their audiences and the same was true of composers. Those who were employed to play music, or compose it, in private homes were on a par with the rest of the household servants and required to behave in a subservient manner with very little regard for who they were. The composers themselves more often than not came from the emerging middle class or trades backgrounds, a few from wealth too, very few from the ranks of the vast majority of agricultural workers or peasants. There has always been social friction between those who would be leaders of the world (nobles or aristocrats or those who would be those people) and those who worked hard to aspire to a place between the world leaders and the peasantry, long before anyone wrote about it (Karl Marx). 

These days a worship of celebrity, including those with vast riches and national or international power prestige positions, permeates everything that is broadcast over what's called the mainstream media. The magnetism of power and wealth has always attracted musicians and still does. As I said in a previous post, it is almost expected that one looks up to get rewards and the amount of grovelling and boot licking becomes more obscene the higher up one goes. Composers have always faced this problem in order to survive.

Meanwhile if one is a member of an audience, one is expecting to be “entertained” by those who might have tremendous musical talent (as if they were trained moneys or idiot savants) but are nevertheless of lower social rank than themselves. I can even remember when I was young that all everyone wanted to hear me play was something played as fast and as loud as possible. Why? Did they want the musical experience to be over more quickly? And why so loud?  They weren't really listening, but I didn't know that back then. What then happens when the social class to which the audience belongs is forced down in social rank through economic manipulation by those who are socially on top? It's simple; the musicians and the music must be of even lower social class and artistic content or it doesn't satisfy. Real music doesn't satisfy too many and it never did.  Idealistic attempts to make serious or "classical" music into a mass draw are doomed to fail.

What are most people interested in musically? Not very much actually. They never were either. Back in the Vienna of the 1780's, at the same time Mozart was trying to become on a social level with the nobles he was trying to entertain, the lot of common people were more inclined to hear the … even lower class than themselves, bawdy and ridiculous antics of wandering minstrels and acrobats, jugglers and … inevitable pickpockets. People's ears have never been that good. People's musical taste has often been low and continues to be so. These days we even have many with academic backgrounds who willingly spout such drivel as that the greatest art these days comes from prisons where the convicted felons are featured “folk” artists. This is merely another aspect of Andrew's argument concerning the relationship between audience and musician that has existed in one way or another for a long time.

What were the composers themselves interested in? In most cases, just earning a living through their genuine interest in music. A few of them, including the maybe 50 major luminaries, spoke of something else, of higher aspirations, daring to place themselves above the nobles of their day or of future days, they longed to bring the level of the average man's awareness up and to do it through music . But this was a dream carried by their acts of faith. When one seriously considers how much was delivered to the world, often without remuneration of any kind at all, by these very few people, one almost automatically feels something akin to … a great distaste for the vast numbers of people who just don't get it.

I don't recommend this book to everyone, but along with such master works as Arthur Loesser's Men Women and Pianos, this work should be read and referenced by many of the really interested. You should be able to get it through your local library as it is out of print and relatively rare.

FINIS

Seventh Interview – A Day in New York's Piano Row

Steinway Hall on W. 57th St.  New York City

Our initial conversations on your return indicated that you'd had a good day at the piano stores you visited on Saturday, April 30^th. Perhaps you'd like to introduce them briefly and please tell us what exactly is New York's “piano row”?

Well, first of all, the area I specifically refer to as “piano row” is situated along West 58^th Street between 7^th Avenue and Broadway. There are four piano stores on this block, all of them representing the first tier of great pianos available for sale in New York City.

But Steinway Hall isn't one of these stores, why not include it?

Without question, the American retail headquarters of Steinway, the flagship store in fact, should be included, though it is a short walk away on West 57^th between 6^th and 7^th Avenues. All these places are a short walk from Carnegie Hall, in a manner of speaking, the “spiritual” focal point of the “classical” music world in New York.

But you don't ever go to Steinway Hall.

No, I haven't gone in there in years, but I want it clearly understood that it isn't that I don't approve of them. After all, the name Steinway is synonymous with the best pianos available in all the world and they are certainly still making them.

But you've become better acquainted with their competitors, many of whom offer Steinway pianos for sale. What's the difference?

Well, for one thing Steinway Hall certainly needs no advertisement from me. They'd like it just fine if I came in there, hopefully with a prize I'd won at some piano competition, and a nice bankroll ready to plunk it down on a nice new Steinway. American Steinway has been a leader in pianos and piano technology for over 150 years and I am pleased and proud to have recommended their products (even in some cases above their compatriots' products from Hamburg, Germany) and as I will take some pains to explain, my practically lifelong recommendation and confidence in Steinway pianos has very compelling reasons. For those interested, I encourage them to visit Steinway Hall and get the scoop on their great pianos directly from them.

So you weren't able to visit all four stores?

No, I originally intended to visit only two; Faust Harrison and Beethoven's.

But something happened.

Yes, I discovered that Allegro Pianos had taken Faust Harrison's store location and Faust Harrison had moved a few doors down. I visited these two and then finished up my piano tour at Beethoven's.

The fourth store?

It's Klavierhaus, which is also top tier. I just didn't have the time and really after you get to experience as much as I did, you really begin to experience a kind of weariness similar to what you get from spending too much time in an art museum. Your senses just get overwhelmed.

Sort of like what happens when you practice too long?

Similar, yes. (laughs) Or even listening to too much music. That keen edge gets dulled.

Allegro Pianos, Manhattan showrooms

So let's begin with Allegro Pianos. This was your first introductory visit wasn't it? What made you decide to go in and have a look inside?

The usual curiosity. I'd heard something about the owner from the Piano World Piano Forum, apparently a rather colourful figure, and knew he had some connection with Faust Harrison, but that he perhaps preferred dealing in other makes of pianos.

So you got to see and play several different makes of pianos.

Well, two in particular anyway. I was really more curious to know about Allegro Pianos' special focus and so I spent a lot of time discussing them with the company's Eric Johnson, himself a pianist with his own blog.

You told me Mr. Johnson served you the first cup of coffee you'd had in maybe two years? (laughs)

Something like that, yes. I just didn't have the heart to put the man through whatever difficulties might arise from asking for tea instead. (more laughs)

So was it a good cup of coffee?

Dr. Mark Malkovitch as I'd like to remember him

Oh yes, I enjoyed it very much. He offered me another, but I think I would have been dancing on the ceiling in no time had I accepted. Before I go on, I also want to mention something else Eric Johnson told me that I hadn't heard about before; the untimely death of Dr. Mark Malkovitch, who was practically the heart and soul of the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island. I reacted to this terrible news about as if someone had socked me in the stomach. Through fortunate circumstances, extending over many years, I had been able to attend concerts at this festival and had met Dr. Malkovitch at several remarkable concerts there. It was at Newport that I heard Frederic Chiu perform the Chopin Mazurkas and Agustin Anievas play the Brahms Variations on a Theme by Handel and later his heroic concert in 2009 featuring Schumann's Fantasie Op. 17, after which concert he encouraged me to learn it also.

So Dr. Malkovitch's son is probably running the Newport Music Festival now.

Yes, but for how long I just don't know. He probably doesn't have the intense passion for it his father had. I was once again struck by how tiny the serious music world is (maybe a better term than “classical” music) and how the luminaries often know each other.

So Allegro Pianos' emphasis?

It would be brand new high end pianos which might be brands other than Steinway.

You played some of these and wanted to discuss them?

Yes. Let's just say I started my tour at the top, playing a Bösendorfer Imperial grand (Model 290). I'm fascinated by grand piano plate designs and this is a picture I took of the interior of this piano. Sometimes if I can get a good look at a plate's shape and design it will identify the piano to me without having to see the name on the fallboard.

You told me you really hadn't sat down and actually played a Bösendorfer for any length of time since college when someone on the faculty had one in his studio. Can you describe your reactions this time?

Well the first things I noticed were the diminished key dip and the clarity of tone, almost magical in that everything I played sounded far better than I had any right to believe myself capable of. Indeed this piano shows up every imperfection a pianist brings to it. I played through Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words Op. 19, numbers 1, 2 and 4 only, which went very well, and then switched to Beethoven's Andante Favori which seemed a breeze on this piano. Mr. Johnson complemented me that it seemed I had practised. Little did I know then just how perspicacious his remark was. If I had this piano to play every day, I am convinced I would soon tackle more difficult pieces and become a better pianist as the action was quick and responsive and the tone gave immediate feedback on what I was or was not doing. Something else occurred to me later as I put this experience in proper perspective; I was playing a “performance” piano rather than a “practice” piano, so that everything I would have had to learn and make part of how I played a certain piece of music, would already have been formed in me before coming to play it on this piano, which certainly belonged on the stage of some concert hall somewhere.

Or in someone's home as a “salon” piano.

That's a subject for a future conversation because it's the other side of the pianist's equation; if I decide to become a pianist, where will I decide to play, for which people, for what possible gain? Without an interested audience, there's little hope for any music whether it be “classical” or otherwise.

But there are people who would still like one of these big concert grand pianos for their own homes. What are the advantages?

It's like asking why would someone want the best of the best.  For one thing, pianos at this level are quite rare and rarity alone always confers greater value. They are status symbols or investments, like fine works of art. At the present time, a Bösendorfer piano is a product of the longest continuously owned and operated piano maker on earth. That honour used to belong to Ibach, but they closed their business a few years ago. Ibach pianos are still first tier pianos when you can find them.

These are pianos that rival Steinway in quality, but how are they different?

They tend to play and sound differently, but even when a few months back someone had posted tracks of five fine concert grand pianos on the Piano World Piano Forum, I was unable to properly identify the pianos. It may have been the recordings, I don't know.  It's a very personal and unique thing to try and express in words.

While at Allegro Pianos you also played a Steingraeber & Söhne concert grand?

Yes, I also took a picture of the inside of this piano. Notice how it differs from the inside of the Bösendorfer. I decided to try a Chopin Nocturne on it, Op. 15 #1, which turned out better than expected, and also Schumann's Romance in F Sharp Op. 28 #2 (I'd eventually like to play all three of these in sequence). This piece got Eric Johnson's attention: perhaps he might decide to learn it. It's certainly a good one to test how to bring out a melody, a duet really, that floats between a bass and treble accompaniment, to best effect. I guess I'd have to describe my Steingraeber experience as preferable to the Bösendorfer, but that's a pretty subjective assessment, and again I was playing on a piano that really belongs in a concert hall. Another thing struck me at this moment as well, just how much better all these pianos would sound after being played (and kept in prep by a competent tuner/technician) for a couple of years, as their hammer surfaces get compacted through regular use. I left Allegro Pianos quite happy that I could confidently recommend them to those looking for that 1% best of all the pianos out there for sale. Of course the same claim would be made for all the stores on this street, so Allegro Pianos have plenty of competition.

And of course one pays more for the best.

That goes without saying. Another way of looking at these pianos was by comparison with hand made (or small shop, limited quantity manufacturing) of famous race cars or those often called “grand touring” automobiles. Whereas my piano at home drives and sounds like some stripped down utility van or truck, these pianos were race cars. You can't play things on mine that would be attainable on any of these. Once you learn anything, you couldn't cover up any mistake; every missed note would glaringly remind you that you were in need of more practice. Performance pianos are often like performance cars and should be.

And Practice Pianos are different?

Yes they are, as I was soon to discover.

A “Master Class” at Faust Harrison's Manhattan showrooms

Faust Harrison is a company dedicated to helping people find the best pianos available. They specialize in Mason & Hamlin and Steinway but offer other Asian and European piano makers as well. They have done quite well and are expanding into Westchester and Long Island locations. As I stepped into their Manhattan store, I heard what one should expect to hear in any high end piano store; the sounds of great piano music played by aspiring pianists on excellent pianos, sort of what some of us might imagine pianist heaven to be like.

She was quite a talented young lady.

Yes, and Sara Faust was showing her around asking her to play something on various pianos, beginning with a couple Mason & Hamlin pianos. She was playing a Chopin ballade and the finale to Beethoven's 7^th sonata (Op. 10 #3), a piece formerly played by a member of the Piano World Piano Forum who had recently passed away rather suddenly. I recalled his performance as I was hearing hers. What moving ironies there are in life!

Yes.

Sara Faust was doing far more than showing a customer pianos. In this case she was concerned to get the attention of this young lady (who was accompanied by her mother all the way from central Pennsylvania) to the challenges and rigours of concert pianism. There are all sorts of people who for whatever reason need a piano, but of these there are relatively few committed pianists with any real talent. This young lady was clearly one of these. Sara asked her questions like “do you really want to be a pianist?” or “if you really want to become a pianist," etc. because the truth of it is that there are far fewer who can, and ultimately will become concert pianists, and that once one decides one is committed there will be ups and downs, moments when one would willingly give it all up, but where there are certainly plenty who would be there to pick up the mantle should you wish to drop it (unsaid: because for many of them it's their only way out of a life of grinding poverty, misery or obscurity), and for these aspiring pianists something else is required in terms of a piano. Sara Faust was acquainting this aspiring young lady with the facts of life concerning concert pianism, and should there be a piano upgrade for this young lady, just what that piano must be.

A Steinway piano?

Yes, a Steinway piano with the typically warmer sound than the crisp and clear Mason & Hamlin, that is more difficult to bring out because the action is weighted to be slightly heavier than many others. As the young lady played these Steinway pianos, Sara would occasionally stop her, have her repeat the phrase with a little more emphasis and to assess just what the pianist needs to know to learn how to control, contour and develop all those extra rich nuances that Steinway pianos are capable of. Sara pointed out something I never hear from anyone but which happens to be true; the bass end of a piano will always project, it is the upper registers that require extra attention. (Sara mentioned, attributed to Vladimir Horowitz, that we all play with our little fingers. All pianists should immediately recognize the importance of their right hand little finger, but also of their left hand little finger for those big bass leaps.) Sara had the young lady play many Steinway pianos and as I watched and listened, I was hearing all the incredibly subtle differences between these instruments, like distinguishing between fine wines, fine chocolates or fine teas. We were, as it were, getting a “master class” lesson, a very detailed, profound and for me timely piano lesson. There were but five of us there, Sara Faust, the young lady and her mother, myself and Mr. Sam Varon who would be managing Faust Harrison's new Long Island showrooms. Through Sara's demonstration, we were encouraged to think differently about pianos, to consider the merits of a “practice” piano as well as of a “performance” piano. The former are what one learns music on, all the way from identifying the notes and phrases to play, as well as getting through the “sculpting phase” where after perhaps 150 times through the same piece, one is able to play it as an inspired and incandescent masterpiece, to bring all it contains to an audience of other people, which is really the final goal of the art form itself. A good practice piano should make you more confident to play on any performance piano you come across as many will be in worse repair and tuning than yours at home, nevertheless a performance must go on. Maybe for the first time I realistically considered the merits of the smaller Steinway models as practice pianos; the O's, M's, L's and even S's, that are often neglected by those seeking their A's or killer B's.

So Sara Faust was trying to get the young lady to understand the merits of a piano that was perhaps a bit harder to play but which promised greater musical rewards?

From a concert pianist standpoint, yes. It was really quite wonderful actually, like getting an insightful look from an experienced insider.

You told me before that Sara Faust was herself a considerable talent.

Once she played a few passages in Debussy's L'isle Joyeuse to demonstrate a piano. Her confidence in that performance blew me away. She knows what she's talking about. Let's just say that I left Faust Harrison having certainly been given a terrific piano lesson, one I'll probably never forget and one likely to colour my perceptions of kinds of pianos for the foreseeable future.

Beethoven Pianos Manhattan store

Ah, so what's new at Beethoven's?

Well, you might ask. Of all the piano stores on New York's “piano row”, Beethoven's has always struck me as innovative to the point of doing things, whether the cost or effort justified them or not, just because certain things are so precious as cultural treasures or of such artistic importance that they just must be done. Sitting out front this time is a peerless Bechstein semi-concert grand piano (I think it was in the 7'4” range) in a fabulous art case. It's a magnificent musical instrument as well, which looks, sounds and plays as if brand new. It was at Beethoven's where many years ago now, I discovered what the new Estonia pianos were like, and I recommend them, though their representation has since passed to Allegro Pianos and Faust Harrison. It was here that I got to play a piano that took them ten years to rebuild, an American Steinway from 1873 with 85 keys, real ivory and stunning performance characteristics. 

Ah yes, 85 key grand pianos.

I want to make a few comments here about the 85 key grand pianos of this vintage when competently rebuilt. These would ordinarily be Steinway A's, but could be by others made around the same time. These pianos, with the three keys that are seldom used missing at the top of the keyboard, sell for considerably less than their 88 key counterparts and represent a good bargain for those who know they wont need them. I even heard from the staff at Beethoven's that some concert pianist had bought an 85 key piano and had them make the three extra fake keys as if to continue the keyboard so that the pianist wouldn't be visually confused. Knowing the quality of their cabinetry, I am sure they could make it look as if those fake (and of course not working) keys had always been there.

You'd say this was your favourite of all the performance pianos you played all day?

It certainly was. I played the Beethoven Sonata Pathétique, a little of it anyway, as well as some other things. It was as if I were playing a brand new Steinway piano with hardly any miles on it and recalled to me a similar piano at Faust Harrison a few years back that I also liked tremendously. They were different instruments but cousins, the one here a little brighter and less sweet sounding. But we are describing the differences in the finest pianos in terms similar to different vintages of the finest wines, the finest blends of tea from various estates, etc. It's difficult appraising masterpieces when you must compare them. I saw many masterpieces that day at Beethoven's.

Like this “brand new” ancient upright piano?

Here's innovation for you. They take an old vintage upright piano with a good art case, this one is a German make, but some they've had are American. They save the case and throw out the inside, repair and restore the cases to “as new” condition, then replace the piano inside with a new modern German upright piano and sell it all at an astoundingly reasonable price. The result is a masterpiece of both visual art and musical instrument. There are all kinds of people who want pianos for various reasons. Some care as much about what a piano looks like as how it performs. In this case one will get a very good practice piano in a wonderful old style case of the kind that can't be made any more.

You were interested in other things here too.

After Sara Faust's lesson, I realized that what I should really be looking for, for my own living room (and future studio), was a good practice piano, that wouldn't hold me back, but would encourage me to take on more difficult piano pieces as well as encouraging me to work harder to achieve the required balances and tone. I began to wonder about how some pianists I admire acquire their strength and recalled that I had the misfortune to grow up with a piano that had a light touch. I have always preferred pianos with a slightly heavier action, but nevertheless responsive.

You began to see pianos as either “practice” or “performance” instruments?

Yes, and what I needed to focus on was a practice piano. I was expecting a greater variety of makes on the main floor than usual. What was I seeing instead? I remember laughing to myself. Under the circumstances it really shouldn't have surprised me. Why was I asking myself why I hadn't seen things this way before?

They were all Steinway pianos.

Mostly, yes. I was going among them trying various things out to ascertain their tone. One I liked a lot, an M or L in a mahogany case. I even liked an S I played in an ebony polish, which I far prefer.

You like your pianos black?

For me, and it's probably related to how I see, a black piano reduces distractions. I also like my keys dull, not shiny, with a little extra grip to them.

Then you prefer genuine ivory?

I don't need it and probably wouldn't pay extra for it.

You dulled the keys on your own piano after you got its keys recovered.

A little steel wool was all it took.

At Beethoven's you wanted to take a serious look at a new contender in the piano world, Hailun pianos. What did you think?

If you think all those piano makers that aren't Steinway have given Steinway a run for their money over the years, you'd be right. Steinway was the first great piano maker to get it all together and by the 1860's they had defined the modern grand piano. All the others were either trying to catch up or trying to make theirs different enough to compete on its own terms, like Bösendorfer. Many just couldn't make it and folded. Weber and Knabe and so many others in America that were later folded into Aeolian American in order to survive weren't what Steinway had become. As close as they got, they were not a Steinway. Steinway has been careful to preserve its reputation as practically owning the concert pianist world. But starting with Yamaha, Steinway began to get some real competition. Now they'll have stiff competition from China that simply can't be ignored. The Hailun pianos sell for less than half what Steinways usually go for and out of the box have striking similarities in tone, touch and overall feel. Will they hold up? Will they develop their tone as their hammers get compacted through use? Will their action parts hold up? Who are their designers? You take a look at the plate design and whose does it most look like? Bösendorfer's. We understand that many of their staff come from the great house of Bösendorfer as well as some other European makers. This fall Hailun will release a newer series of pianos that will “blow away” what they have already produced.

You are going back down when they arrive?

Yes indeed, sometime early in November. (5/27/12  Nope, it wasn't to be.  I couldn't arrange transportation and other things came up as they often do.  This is certainly still a goal for a future trip to New York.)

So what will you do about getting a better piano for yourself?

It depends on many things. This conversation may inspire others to think ahead about what they are going to do, whether they will acquire a new practice or performance piano for themselves, what music to tackle and even where they may be five, ten, twenty years from now in their musical lives. Of course everything depends on costs for everything. There are never any guarantees. In human history, civilizations as we have known them are relatively rare, barbarism is more often the rule. Hence one begins to see another fundamental behind an interest in pianos, pianism, the so called “classical” music, certainly other music as well, certainly other art as well, the fine arts generally including everything that matters to make life bearable, comfortable, interesting and yes, worth living.

That's really what you are all about in a way isn't it?

It's what all the really great music was ever about, what the greatest of everything we have made is about; the very meaning of our lives.

Closing remarks?

You'll simply not go wrong dealing with the piano stores on New York's piano row. From all of them, you can expect the highest standards of integrity and honesty in this business, which has at times suffered from tactics similar to those of used car salesmen. People come from all over the country and around the world to find their pianos in New York and there are very good reasons for this. You simply wont often find this much of the top tier regularly displayed in one place. There is bound to be a preponderance of Steinway pianos as this is Steinway town. But as I said, there are reasons for this too. For many it will be not which piano they are seeking as which Steinway. Never fear, there are very many of them here, all just a little different from each other.

You said your next excursions are going to deal with the piano shops that supply these stores?

It will require a more extensive trip to locations outside New York City. I'd also really like going down to have a look at a piano store in Philadelphia. Those efforts will take more time and money than I can commit at this time.

Understood. Please keep us posted. Thank-you for sharing your experience, I'm sure many reading this looking for pianos will have a better idea of what to look for.

FINIS

Sturm und Drang in Mozart

Sturm und Drang (German: "Storm and Urge", although usually translated as "Storm and Stress") was a European artistic and philosophical movement which ran counter to the Enlightenment rationalism of the times. It ran from 1776 (though it can be traced back as far as the 1760's) when it first appeared in common usage, through the early 1800's. Sturm und Drang is actually a better term to describe all the “classical” music which followed it commonly known as “romantic” music today, because counter to the false notion implied by the word romantic; i. e. fictional, Sturm und Drang represented an attempt at emotional realism, focused at an individual and personal level, which the movement's proponents considered to be neglected by the schools of “enlightened” rationalism, empiricism, and universalism.

A perennial favourite of mine is this piano piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) called the Fantasy and Fugue in C Major K394, which was written in 1782, clearly within the influence of Sturm und Drang. Almost all of Mozart's music is catalogued with what some have called K numbers, the more learned call them Köchel [KUR-shel] numbers after the man who created them, the Austrian musicologist Ludwig Ritter von Köchel (1800-1877).

Mozart was among the most prolific composers. He probably dashed this out, or as was more likely ... was just taking dictation, as few of his original manuscripts show any corrections of any kind. I want that point to sink in. Mozart was also clearly ambidextrous, able to use each hand independently of the other, as was demonstrated on many occasions, one good example being while sitting on a terrace behind a café in Linz, writing music with his left hand while writing a letter to his father with his right.

The date of this particular work, 1782, places Mozart in Vienna and established as a composer there; during the time he was being paid in solid gold snuff boxes if one remembers rightly from that mix of urban legends, etc. made of his life called Amadeus. He was already world famous before his big arrival in Vienna in 1781. From this point in his career, Mozart would have but nine years to live and would compose most of his greatest works within a span of ten years. I'd like that point to sink in too, because when one contemplates Mozart, there is just so much of it, a veritable ocean of music that literally poured through him. There's never been and probably never will again be another Mozart.

That being said, you will hear things under the strict playing of the inimitable Glenn Gould that you'd likely miss or take in another way, especially in the fugue. More than anything else I have always believed that this piece represents Mozart drawing directly from nature, especially in the mathematical games he plays with turns in the tonality; what are often called harmonic progressions, or episodic series. In the Fantasy you can imagine scenes from a country setting, perhaps the day is fair interrupted by an occasional pelting of rain or hail, or there is something arduous being done, perhaps something to do with animals, horses maybe, anything at all your mind can imagine. This is not music about anything in particular.

With the fugue Mozart is offering, as it were, a toast to the great Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) who was and is in “classical” music's sense of it, everyone's musical grandfather. But Mozart takes the fugue into harmonic territories Bach seldom dreamed of. This is truly modern music in ways that Bach was not. As usual, I have a few criticisms of Gould's interpretation, but one has to admit that he makes the work cohesive. And there are contours, more geometric games with the harmonic progressions which leap out at you, which can only be achieved if one plays the piece at this galloping gait of his.

Featured: Glenn Gould's performances on You Tube

Fantasy 

Fugue 

FINIS

Sixth Interview – Of Time, Times and The Times

Kanye West, Lets Have a Toast Runaway

"I went upstairs to my room, but I was not alone there. I could hear someone mellifluously playing Schumann. No doubt it happens sometimes that people, even those whom we love best, become permeated with the gloom or irritation that emanates from us. There is however an inanimate object which is capable of a power of exasperation to which no human being will ever attain, to wit, a piano."

Marcel Proust

Cities of the Plain

Chapter Two

We've made it to Spring, 2011 and you have finally decided to make a trip back down to New York at the end of this month.

Yes.

You plan on going straight to piano row once you get there?

Yes. I kind of would like to take in a museum too, but we'll see. I'll only be there a few hours, then back home. Anyone who wants to meet up with me can contact me at dpbmss@aol.com.

OK. You're still reading Proust …

… and other things …

… and still practising?

Of course.

Nevertheless, you find your piano exasperating.

Even were my piano among the better ones it would be, but I put that Proust quote up to give pianists some idea of one of the most common obstacles to attaining pianism; the dislike for piano among others who have to endure a pianist's practise sessions.

Yes, that's a problem some think they've solved with electronic keyboards. You don't really agree though.

No, I don't, but then again my practise sessions may be quite different from others'. Any musician must rely on their memory one way or another, either the music is written out down to the individual grace note, or it is “charted” or is of some universal form, like a blues. It all requires some non-distracted memory. If playing with others, the musician has to know when to play and how to play and memory is always involved. As long as a musician plays with the intention of being heard by others, they will use their memory. When their memory fails a musician, intuition can sometimes pose “creative” solutions, and most people probably wouldn't know the difference in the music anyway …

Why is that?

Because they aren't usually listening hard enough to catch it.

Will they know if a musician blows it or if the performance …

Sucks? Yes, they'll know. If they don't know the music; what to expect next, they'll just experience a temporary disappointment, and may not even know why or even care to know.

Music for them is …

Ephemeral; it isn't really a prime concern, just something to do or something to keep the non-committed mind occupied while doing something else.

That's what music is to most people?

Apparently.

So your practise sessions …

… often have to coincide with others not being around. And then there's the other problem, they may not like what you play.

You have that problem?

Yes, of course and it shouldn't be too surprising. Many find the music I play “too pretty” or even worse.

You would perhaps like to be playing more popular styles?

If I wanted to play them, I would learn how, either with a teacher or on my own. I have enough technique to grasp a lot of it at least in theory. But none of it is really me, so I don't. And even so, some of the music I play now isn't really me.

For instance?

Well Chopin is really a different style from say J. S. Bach. I'd say that Bach was a lot closer to “me” than Chopin.

You could play whatever you want, I don't really get it?

You mean why try and play Chopin? Because he was really the first composer dedicated to the piano and his achievements are associated with the instrument in many inescapable ways. Most people recognise his music immediately and like it. It's like learning anything, you have to master certain techniques to fully appreciate playing piano. Chopin was in his day a great piano teacher and he still is; if you really want to learn how to play the piano, you must master some elements of Chopin and make them sound convincing or accomplished. That's one possible goal to attain pianism; learn to play a few pieces by Chopin.

But others who might be bothered by your practising and your music have their music which you no doubt have heard.

Of course.

You wanted to say something about this?

Well, I'll start with something Andrew Violette told me years ago, something about class and musicianship; that most people tended to expect musicians to be from a lower class background than themselves, that it would have been unthinkable for a prince back in the day or these days for a corporate mogul, to commission any original musical work from a person of his own class.

You still think this idea has legs?

Look around, check out what we have now. We have a lot of different kinds of popular music these days. But it all has something in common. Every bit of it is projecting values from social strata that are below the level of the average American, European or Asian middle class, expressing a preference among the “market” for musical forms and styles, for what I'd pretentiously term the “sub-bourgeois.” This applies to all so called “world music” too, which is music usually from some local aboriginal group which again lives below the level of the average middle class from any of the first world countries.

You're saying that this preference for … low class music is …

It's largely unconscious, but it's part of a longer historical process. The other books I'm reading these days are history, particularly from the late Middle Ages into the present time.

You said you were making a study of the history of financial institutions.

Yes. I'm also trying to see historical events and developments from different perspectives than the rosy “progressive” slant they were given by my American “public school” education. Most people just blithely and thoughtlessly digest whatever attitudes, perspectives and outlooks they got from their teachers, while a few of us, who are often fated to be regarded as obdurate, obtuse or recalcitrant, or in my case profoundly sceptical and unconvertably cynical, must continue to ask why and demand to see things form different perspectives.

So, what lately … (much laughter)

Let's begin with the Renaissance as a huge misnomer. They weren't waking up from anything to anything else. In many ways the world is still asleep. We're in the same mess today that our ancestors were in the 16^th century; war upon senseless war, regime after regime going into stupendous debt and declaring bankruptcy, the common people insensible to what was going on and being dragged along by events. There has been material and technical progress since then, especially concerning the means to kill more people faster and destroy more of the earth's surface faster. There are many more of us than there were then too …

… and some still think there are too many …

… and the people are essentially the same kinds of people in charge back then, with many of the same attitudes ...

So there's been no real progress?

Materially and technically, yes. Otherwise, no.

And this surprises you?

No, not really. The other day I saw something on You Tube where someone was asking people in the street if they knew the news facts of today and they didn't know any of them about their own country, let alone the rest of the world. Should I dare ask the embarrassing question here about WHY we should be paying for public schools that produce this shoddy level of performance? Or was that intended all along? Should I perhaps ask why people don't want to know the correct answers? Because it wouldn't matter to them if they did? Should I ask why they don't care about not knowing? Should I ask why they would be content with the rude “bread and circuses” the great republic turned empire (without their consent but certainly while they were kept sleeping and didn't ask why) is doling out to them?

… and the music they listen to …

… is part of the big picture and it agrees with Andrew's point about music and class consciousness; people want music and musicians to express an even lower level of social status than their already pretty abysmally low level.

They don't care about the smut that is part of the rap scene.

No, and why should they? They can and do usually just laugh at it. It gives them someone or something they can look down on whether consciously or not.

And so all the popular music is like this?

For the most part, yes. Even though, and this is really sort of interesting, most of the popular music of today shows evidence of great precision and intention, particularly evident in the percussive effects.

Those may all be mechanical or created by mixing sound tracks on a computer.

Well, we can all look down on computers as having lower social status than ourselves.

(Laughter)

You said that this social status thing has all sorts of resonance in other areas of our lives.

It certainly seems to. Look we're in a worldwide depression that is being fought by those who are in control of the financial institutions who are afraid of being found out. If the average dumbed down person in the street knew, and some do only dimly, then those in charge fear they might be toppled from power.

And replaced by who?

Very good question. But in the meantime the average Joe knowing little or nothing about what's really going on way above his head can feel content to look down on someone else; some scumbag with billions of dollars is still essentially “lower class” than he and his six pack swilling friends with barely passing high school educations. They already consider everyone else below their own dignity except raw power, “the man” with his tazer or other implements of pain or destruction.

So this isn't really a good time for eh, “serious” music.

I don't believe any particular time has been really great for it. It's just that here and there in Europe and to a lesser degree elsewhere, once in a while, out of a culture that supported it, a few talented musicians were encouraged and provided with enough money to get them to produce what we have today as the miracle of so called “classical” music. How it manages to continue amounts to a “religious” effort among the “interested.”

And you can't get people interested if they aren't interested.

Which is why when they do get interested, it's usually like a religious experience; something awakens in them. If they aren't aware of it, then develop the thirst for knowing more, they may hear something and it only sounds “pretty” or “antique” or in whatever way not modern, current or popular.

And anyway all that's popular is only of limited interest to its audience.

Someone else I know said they don't listen to music by people who have died.

That would certainly cut out everything you play.  (laughs)

Yeah. It would. But I want to drop another bombshell of sorts having to do with the foregoing argument concerning music and musicians as traditionally looked down upon. The argument doesn't just apply to music.

It applied to the English as a nation from the time of Purcell (1659-1695) to Edward Elgar (1857-1934).

Well they were importing everything including their kings from elsewhere. Perhaps they admire the institution (which they put back up after tearing it down) whilst they look down upon those currently bearing its titles. It's possible.

You're stretching this to apply to human relations aren't you?

Well look around and what do you see? A lot of people are with people who are beneath them in dignity and attainments. They even seek them out. Some even set themselves up as persons of lesser social status just to get dates. Often the very good looking or well accomplished are among the loneliest.

They may not want the association of their equals. Too predictable, too boring.

Exactly. The people of lower orders, which would be the vast majority in their many faceted ways, are often more interesting and less threatening than those at one's own level. One looks up to those from whom one expects to gain something, and looks down to those from whom less is required. It gets weird when those one looks up to are worse than those one looks down upon.

You're saying everyone does it.

Giving some people more esteem and respect than others? It's done all the time. Watching people do it is highly instructive. The higher socially one goes, the more absurd the ingratiating becomes too. Nobody is sincere up there.  It is seen all the time in great corporations, large organizations, governments, academe, etc.

Well one can't just stand there and say nothing.

Indeed and the habitually silent among us often risk pejorative labels as sneaks, underhanded or back-stabbers, whether they are or not. It's always best to say something.

So an ingratiating comment …

… is something to say in the hope of getting something beneficial from someone above yourself in social status. That could even include being otherwise left alone.

Yes. OK, well what about electronic keyboards for being left alone while practising?

They just aren't the real thing. Most don't even play like the real thing, with all its peculiarly exasperating qualities. Pull the plug and they're off. No electricity and you're without a piano. No, I own one, a good one, and I never use it. The piano I own, limited as it is, is still a piano.

So you insist that a person committed to pianism must work on a real piano?

People do whatever they can with what they can. If an electronic keyboard is what they can do, then that's all they can do and it will have to work for them until they can get something better. If I could get something better, don't you think I would?

But every committed pianist should have their own real piano.

It's something to work for, something to go out there and look for, something to aspire to. You wont really know what it's like to play a real piano if you only play an electronic keyboard and don't go out there and see what real pianos can be like.

You aren't making some claim that acoustic instruments are better than electronic ones are you?

One doesn't do that if one's discussing electric guitars as they are distinct from acoustic ones. One could do that when discussing electronic keyboards that attempt to reproduce acoustic piano sound and feel and what I said before wouldn't really apply to synthesizers that use the keyboard as an interface because we'd be discussing sound that wouldn't be acoustic piano sound.

This applies only to pianos that sound like pianos.

To unique piano sound, yes.

Some think maybe electronic pianos will take over.

If there is no “classical” piano music, or if interest in it dies out, as is possible, since the market for music that one looks up to rather than down upon isn't going anywhere and hasn't for at least 66 years (see my previous entry), with the possible exception of Nikolai Kapustin, then who cares how the “piano sound” is reproduced? Nobody will be listening that hard to care anyway.

You still working on your compositions?

Not right at the moment no.

Why not?

Isn't it obvious yet?

But surely someone might really want to hear them.

You think?  Well, let them grapple with the works of Andrew Violette first.

FINIS

Did Bartók write the last great piano concerto?

Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major (Sz. 119, BB 127) was composed in 1945 by the Hungarian composer during the final months of his life. As is typical with compositions calling themselves concertos, this piece has three movements; 1. Allegretto, 2. Adagio religioso and 3. Allegro vivace. (For the present, a movement is synonymous with a section. To most people, each movement will seem as a separate song, so this piece will have three songs to it.) It was not commissioned (which would have meant he got paid for it), as was much of Bartók's work, but composed as a surprise birthday gift for his second wife, Ditto Pásztory, who was a skilled pianist, as was Bartók. One must be serious to play this piece, though it is usually considered technically the easiest of Bartók's three piano concertos.

Bartók died on September 26, 1945, after a long fight with leukaemia, with this concerto unfinished. We know that it was complete but for the last 17 measures, which fell to Tibor Serly, a friend and pupil of Bartók to finish. He did a superb job too. We also know that before his end, Bartók had managed to be able to travel to North Carolina and to the Adirondacks in upstate New York. The entire work was written in America and as can easily be heard, strongly resonates with much that is typical of this country. The second movement, possibly the emotional focus of the entire work, was probably written in North Carolina and maybe even the middle section, the climax, may have been written at the same time as first atomic bombs in combat brought about the end of World War II. For Bartók, this part was most likely a personal statement of existential agony, but Bartók was always keenly aware of his duties as a serious composer, to attempt the almost impossible task of writing music for the ages. From our vantage point we can look back on this period right after the war, which gave us some notable pieces by composers who had sought refuge in America, as about the last time that music of the spirit of doing what those of the calibre of a Bartók would have been produced.

The question at the top is hardly rhetorical. I ask all my friends and acquaintances to suggest any composition of standing that merit comparison with this concerto written 66 years ago this year. If this was indeed the last great piano concerto to be written, what's that say of the future of piano concertos, of this business of daring to write music for the ages? I maintain that it is a sign of a kind of degeneracy borne of modern times, of factors and conditions that shaped the world long before any of us were born. Will these conditions continue? Could the idea of doing something in music that will be as close to immortal as it is possible to achieve will take root and flourish elsewhere on the planet once again? Could we hear the next great piano concerto come perhaps out of Asia? We'll just have to wait and see. 

But some things are certain; the audacity required to create it will have to be matched by enough people to respond to it, that it may become a thing of universal memory. As it is, I know of perhaps a dozen people who have ever heard of Bartók (and of those few pronounce his name correctly!), fewer still know this piece, fewer still who have ever heard it. For me things like this might seem tragic but for my realization that after all people like Bartók were and are rare. Their music is rare too, and those who like it or play it may be rarer still. We have always been in a minority as those who admire the greatest poets are.  Yet I honestly can't think of too many pieces I would be sadder not to have known as this one (how can one even say such a thing?). I find in it an ode to the longing in the human spirit, with a keen sense that the longings for this particular composer happened in and around New York City, a place I consider to know well, of other places that seem familiar to me through my travels and life down south and here in upstate New York.

My personal acquaintance with this great piece goes back into my teens when I first heard Peter Serkin play it. He is still playing it as of March 5, 2011!  Those in the vicinity of Tanglewood take notice; it's time to get behind the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, in Williamstown, Massachusetts!

So now it is with great pleasure that I draw your attention to an accomplished performance of this wonderful concerto by Andrãs Schiff, the ... Hungarian born pianist. Is there anything he can't do? The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (UK of course) is directed by one of my favourite conductors, eh, SIR. Simon Rattle. Imagine being a conductor with the name Rattle, isn't it funny? Well, his interpretations are not funny unless that's exactly what the music intended, you know, intentional as in “on purpose.” That's what makes all of this stuff any good. It's all strictly intentional, every little nuance of it.

You might notice that these videos take a while to download and stopping and having to wait in the middle of a piece is really a drag. So to avoid that, you may want to select each of the videos in a separate window and wait until they're all downloaded to play them. Enjoy.

Featured Videos:

1. Allegretto

2. Adagio religioso

3. Allegro vivace

FINIS 

András Schiff and Chopin

Once again, Classical TV provides a unique glimpse into the life and work of one of our favourite composers whose 200^th birthday was celebrated last year. András Schiff came to my attention years ago as a marvellous interpreter of Beethoven. In the two featured videos Schiff is revealed as a wonderful performer of Chopin's music as well.

Two things; first in the video on Chopin's life, which is really remarkable, Schiff as the narrator comes off as one of the most humble, gentle and worshipful souls in the world; the kind of person one would cherish meeting in person and secondly, in the video of the Chopin preludes, the sound and texture of the music played on a piano which is a Pleyel rather than a Steinway, gives us another glimpse into the smaller venues, the Paris “salons” in which many of Chopin's works were first introduced by himself and his pupils.

Featured videos:

András Schiff on Chopin

András Schiff: Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28

FINIS