The pianists in the crystal ball

It is funny, every summer I think I will be depressed when the details start arriving about the fall concerts.

Then the details arrive and I feel as if I can't wait!

It happens every year. And this year it happened today. I got the schedule for Slee Hall, at UB, and I made a face, because who wants to think about fall in the middle of August? Well, I do, that's who. Because I opened the booklet and could not believe it.

"Wow," I kept saying. "Wow!"

They have a medieval/Renaissance concert at Christmas time with the New York Virtuoso Singers. I am ready to start listening to medieval and Renaissance carols now, this minute. I am just so psyched. Isn't this funny, I was just writing about the Middle Ages today, and my wacky participation in them, on my other Web log.

I will have to wait for the spring for this but Richard Goode is coming. He is a pianist I am crazy about. That is a great moody picture of Richard Goode I found on the Internet somewhere.

Hmmm, I have interviewed him twice already. I wonder if I can get away with interviewing him again. Perhaps not. "What's her name again?" he will ask. "That sounds familiar. Mary Kunz ... Mary Kunz Goldman ... Oh, I remember. Her again! Forget it, I've already talked to her twice."

I will get around this difficulty by phoning under a different name.

Back to the schedule. They are bringing back Robert Levin, another pianist I think is great. Last time he was here I trailed after him all the way to the airport! My friend Phil was taking him to the airport and let me climb into the back seat.

That concert Robert Levin gave with his wife was one of the greatest piano concerts I ever heard. They played Rachmaninoff, I forgot what else, I was just sitting there loving it.

Alas, I have interviewed him already too. But only once. Maybe I can get away with a second time.

My piano teacher Stephen Manes is also coming back. I do not have to wait that long for him. That is in September. He is doing a Viennese program. Berg is listed and I wonder if it is the Berg Sonata. I played the Berg Sonata with a lot of help from him. That is a piece I love.

I am going to to go every piano concert I can this year and report on it all.

So much to look forward to!

So much music, so little time!