The book of Liszt

Yikes, I should just let this Web log go. I never write in it any more. I have been so busy and then often when I try to write the computer messes up on me and I end up walking away.

Maybe I should make a last stand. So often through the week I walk around with something on my mind I want to write about.

Today it is Schubert songs arranged by Liszt.

I have been working on a few of them in my spare time. I am doing "Das Wandern" and "Der Muller und der Bach" from "Die Schoene Mullerin." I also have "Wohin" lying around and that will be next.

The challenge with these pieces of course is that you have to keep them flowing smoothly at the same time that Liszt is bending and stretching your hand in all these different directions.

Listen to how Rachmaninoff pulls it off.



What a romantic he must have been, you know? The way he plays the Serenade. His hands are not always together which ordinarily would bug me but in this case you have to forgive it,.

And I like how he does "Das Wandern." A few other pianists I listened to were too clinical with it. Too staccato, too, with the introduction. I have listened to that song cycle millions of times and that intro does not have to be choppy.

Anyway we are back to the idea of David Dubal, play the piano daily and stay sane. I get my little half hour with these pieces as long as I have gotten in my other work. It is a kind of reward. It is funny because you walk over to the piano with a glass of wine and an hour later the wine is still sitting there. That does not happen too often!

You heard the man.

Play the piano daily and stay sane!

Master Class

The other day I wound up watching this master class taught by Jorge Bolet, a pianist I like. This is funny, I always said Bo-LAY. It is not as if his name came up in conversation a lot, you know? So I did not have a lot of practice hearing it or saying it. But anyway, in that clip, the British announcer says right away, very matter-of-factly: "George BOL-let."

George BOLLet it is.

A couple of things about this video. The kid is obviously very good, playing the Rach 3. While he plays it is fun to watch Bolet restlessly pacing around in the background. Pacing, thinking, brooding about what Rachmaninoff intended, what Rachmaninoff had in mind, how we may do honor to Rachmaninoff's vision. That is what Bolet is thinking.

Periodically he stops the kid. And this is the best: He tells this story at one point. "It is like the farmer, who was going to the market and ...."

And this kid's face is just this blank. He's looking at Bolet and you can tell he doesn't have the foggiest idea what this old mustachioed guy is talking about. He just knows he has to wait it out.

As Howard said, "You just have to eat it."

That is the truth, when you are a kid in a master class! You just have to take it. You have no choice.

I covered a master class once at UB that Leon Fleisher was teaching. Fleisher had stopped one of the kids and he launched into this sing-songy talk about Schubert and the maid of the mill. He returned to the subject later. "Now, Schubert's maid of the mill..."

Much as I loved him for bringing up "Die Schoene Muellerin" I was there with my notebook thinking: Are you on drugs?

Do you actually think these kids have the foggiest idea what you are talking about?

Mill, Schmill!

Back to Bolet. I was seeing how many master classes there are on YouTube, more than a few by him. Bolet was very pedigreed in the teacher department. He had famous teachers and he felt he had an obligation to pass on what he learned.

Lucky for us, you know?

I am game!

My dinner with Andre

A couple of weeks ago I was astonished to realize that Andre Previn, the conductor and pianist, is 80 years old. You do not think of Andre Previn as being 80.

As a matter of fact I made a note in this notebook I carry around with me, because I thought maybe I should put that on the, ahem, Web log. I wrote: "Andre Previn is 80 (!)"

I was not the only one thinking that! Today in the Wall Street Journal there is a big story by Barrymore Laurence Scherer on Andre Previn being 80 and it begins by acknowledging what a youthful image of him we all have. The story goes on to list all the celebrations going on in his honor.

You can read that story here.

Oops! Mistake! That was a gossipy story I found when I was looking for a picture and could not stop reading. Those British, they love their gossip! Here I was just looking for a picture and I wind up finding this dirt.

Here is the story from the Wall Street Journal.

Where was I? Previn's birthday celebrations. For one thing he is playing tonight at Carnegie Hall with his ex-wife Anne-Sophie Mutter and also the great cellist Lynn Harrell.

Here is a picture of Previn with Mutter.


I do not care for Anne-Sophie Mutter, I have to be honest. Her playing is too self-indulgent for me. It is as if she always goes out of her way to do something different and that distracts me from the music. She did one recording of Brahms that began to make me seasick, it was so this way and that.

But Lynn Harrell, I think he is terrific. And he was so nice to me talking to me about Leonard Pennario for my book. It makes me feel honored when I think about it, that Pennario trusted me with calling all these people he esteemed. I do know that he thought Harrell was great and loved playing with him.

Next I would like to catch up with Andre Previn. He and Pennario worked together in the early '60s. They recorded Rachmaninoff's Piano Concertos No. 1 and 4. That is the album cover up above. I always liked that picture of Pennario.

The Rachmaninoff First has the most beautiful slow movement. The opening makes me think of "Tristan and Isolde." Here it is with Andre Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. I will have to work with my YouTube friend Larry and get Pennario's performance up there.

Meanwhile, here is what I will do. I will give Andre Previn's birthday celebrations time to taper off, and then he will get a call from me.

We have much to discuss!