tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88561870752240981182008-08-28T14:05:06.688-07:00A journal including subjects related to the arts, with a strong historical connection to the subject of choice, as I taught both in the arts and history as well.LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-28087320385662716832008-08-28T11:29:00.000-07:002008-08-28T14:05:06.702-07:00

The other day I took out my copy of the Rachmaninoff Preludes, as played by Constance Keene. I found myself searching for other recordings by Keene, and after listening to her Bach and Hummel performances, and after all these years of having heard these recordings, I find myself compelled to add to the small list of American-trained pianists who have always been considered among the truly great

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-50003219257894104122008-08-26T14:21:00.000-07:002008-08-26T15:05:02.582-07:00

The great actors have possession of their own shape of hubris; a unique combination of facial expression; the voice, and how it projects the actor's entity and how it inexorably fuses with the actor; the way the actor moves, and how the movements add to the total image of the actor's identity, and so on. One of the most compelling examples of the total actor is one that may surprise you, as

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-12123098799214046742008-08-18T13:43:00.000-07:002008-08-18T14:55:34.920-07:00

Two painters crossed my brow today; one, the neo-classicist David, the other the romanticist Delacroix. I thought of them primarily because of their paintings of two little men; one, about five feet four inches, the other, one who stood a bit over five feet in height. David, who became Napoleon's official painter, did two works that come to my attention because of the political implications in

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-57174517395432645672008-08-12T11:34:00.000-07:002008-08-13T12:29:19.106-07:00

Vladimir Horowitz resides in the memory banks of those of us who were witness to his performances as one of the truly great musicians of his or any other time. His demonic powers at the piano were like no other known to me, certainly. I was part of his audiences as a young person for probably twenty or more times, and the almost football game -like atmosphere after his final piece was a

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-79394004209349052052008-08-06T06:44:00.000-07:002008-08-06T07:26:29.744-07:00

As a young artist, I recall a day during a conversation with a brilliant historian; a question was posed by him, and what I remember about his question was not only the content, but his eyes, looking directly into mine, informing me silently that this was indeed a pregnant question. The question was " why does Beethoven's music sound the way it does?" There was silence; then, the reason for

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-25316354525135179222008-08-04T13:29:00.000-07:002008-08-04T14:16:36.717-07:00

It was in 1989. when I decided to go to various sources and record back-to-back all of the Horowitz transcriptions for the piano. I remember as a child my first hearing of one of his transcriptions; namely, Danse Macabre of St. Saens. It overwhelmed me, as it was impossible for me to understand how ten fingers could accomplish such feats. From that time I became interested in the piano

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-51356174994162712112008-07-26T12:08:00.000-07:002008-07-28T14:45:05.362-07:00

As you know, I at times divert from the arts when I ponder other aspects of man's history - having taught certain phases of history; chiefly, arts history, I had dug deeply enough into various facets of the subject, resulting in such actions as having exchanged letters with the great historian, the late Stephen Ambrose. What floated across my translucent blackboard were two incidents in the

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-22804369566212906802008-07-23T13:16:00.000-07:002008-07-26T12:07:58.886-07:00

During the first year or so of teaching, I was called by one of the FM stations, and invited to discuss and perform a project I had just completed. One of my students was a phenomenal harmonica player, and was on the constant search for material that was in the so-called "classical" realm. Be assured that classical music for the harmonica is not in the upper level of popularity. Most pieces are

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-81252481595121028912008-07-20T13:24:00.000-07:002008-07-20T14:12:55.425-07:00

I had the great fortune of having studied with great men, and most of these musicians were as warm and friendly as they were great teachers. Two of my favorites were Jerome Diamond, who taught at Eastman, and who became a veritable second father to me; the other, Dr. John Hasson, out of Boston University, who had a profound influence upon me as well. I had just begun work on the Mozart piano

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-81768568386402874102008-07-15T11:58:00.000-07:002008-07-15T12:43:53.378-07:00

We all know, of course, of the town of Bayreuth, where the music of Wagner established its base and world identity. The great music dramatist, we know, had an immense hold upon the young Hitler, who identified with the great music and attendant sagas of Richard Wagner. It is known that Hitler had seen the drama Rienzi at least forty times. Winifred Wagner, the daughter-in-law of the fabled

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-29633457574787862162008-07-14T13:13:00.000-07:002008-08-27T12:05:56.166-07:00

Music has been my oldest friend (other than my parents). I cannot bring back a day in my memory book without its presence, in one or more of its countless forms. And at times I wonder, and think, and muse, without a shred of an answer expected. How, in that first century, the Christians huddled around this thing in order to aid in enhancing the existence of a new, a wondrous expression of

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-58759205578385356422008-07-12T15:03:00.000-07:002008-07-14T13:12:50.918-07:00

During my teaching career, I taught at all levels; that is, from elementary and high school through college. During one period, I taught all three every week. During a break at the high school, I motored down to one of the elementary schools I was servicing, and invited the principal to consider an issue I had been thinking about; namely, to give an exam to all of the children, from

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-32201813356788272252008-07-06T15:14:00.000-07:002008-07-06T15:59:36.731-07:00

In, I believe, 1902, Dr. Edwin Welte constructed one of the most important machines in the history of the arts. The player piano was, of course, a most popular form of entertainment in countless homes. It was, as well, a contrivance for recording pianists, giving us the piano roll, known as a medium for recording early jazz and rag-time compositions. It was also called upon for classical

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-77322649030326269642008-06-28T10:36:00.000-07:002008-06-28T11:09:10.032-07:00

Mozart called Clementi a "mechanic" (even though more of Clementi's piano music than Mozart's was found in Beethoven's personal library). Chopin called Beethoven a "thumperer"; also, a "noise-maker." One of the composers in the group that included Moussorgsky once stated that "Moussorgsky's music should be placed at the bottom of every ash-can in Moscow." Tchaikowsky called Brahms "that

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-27856612821763656252008-06-28T10:20:00.000-07:002008-06-28T10:33:59.656-07:00

In 1941, the lunatic solo flight that Rudolf Hess took to Scotland is known, of course, to the world. His bizarre attempt to forge a peace with Great Britain, behind Hitler's back, is one of the strangest episodes to emerge from World War II. Churchill, upon hearing of this unfathomable act on the part of one of the three most powerful men in Nazi Germany, incredulously asked "do you mean to

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-19546478986856713362008-06-26T12:12:00.000-07:002008-06-26T12:46:31.948-07:00

I haven't dealt with popular music for quite some time now; therefore, please allow me to do so: I have in my vast library of historical performances two gems that delightfully represent the wonderful pianist from Britain, George Shearing. The video I have was done at a Boston Pops concert around 1980, and includes the following morsel: With conductor John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-7669826370984103302008-06-22T12:58:00.000-07:002008-06-22T13:32:24.590-07:00

I will digress from the arts once again to remind the reader about a fateful decision made on this date - a decision that places us all where we are at this point in time. On June 22, 1941, the greatest land war in history began when Hitler's Germany invaded Mother Russia, better known then as Soviet Russia. Around dawn of this fateful day, some three million German troops, on a line of some

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-41772880873111499362008-06-19T15:04:00.000-07:002008-06-19T15:24:24.500-07:00

Frederick Chopin, that third member of the great Polish Triumvirate (Paderewski and Artur Rubinstein the other two), was indeed unique, in that every composition he created included the piano. Even the songs written early had, of course, piano accompaniment. What strikes me is that because of the history-shattering precedent of writing exclusively for the piano during his all-too-brief life

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-71872851981666418512008-06-14T14:35:00.000-07:002008-06-15T06:21:50.474-07:00

Upon hearing of the untimely passing of Tim Russert yesterday, I thought of his personal view of himself upon having achieved his certainly deserved stature. He was in absolute awe, and without a trace of ego, of where he had taken himself ; that is, as one of the most powerful journalists of his time. He, more than once, remarked to either members of his family, or close friends a virtual

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-85552992876392460882008-06-13T14:16:00.000-07:002008-06-13T15:12:38.989-07:00

Whenever I think about the music of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, I sometimes ponder the relationship between the product the composer gives us and the road that his life travels upon. To explicate: Mozart , the grinding poverty and denial, in general, of his entity. Beethoven, his deafness and the essential destruction of social intercourse. Chopin, the constant struggle

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-50752075415856845442008-06-06T14:15:00.000-07:002008-06-06T14:36:47.782-07:00

Sixty four years ago on this date, June 6, the greatest armada in history landed on the beaches of Normandy to begin the liberation of Europe under Nazi rule. This story is one of the most thoroughly researched in the history of warfare; therefore, it would be a waste of the reader's time for me to re-enact any phase of this great military operation. I should simply like to acknowledge our

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-48065417101355493062008-06-03T13:03:00.000-07:002008-06-03T15:28:42.677-07:00

I remember reading, years ago, a book by David Ewen, titled "Beethoven - The Man Who Freed Music". The title is perhaps a bit simplistic; however, the author effectively deals with Beethoven's struggle and ultimate victory in representing, for the first time, music reflecting the vocabulary of man's emotion simply for the sake of its existence - or, to cite briefly, the creation of Romanticism

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-9629813617978579312008-05-30T11:46:00.000-07:002008-05-30T12:17:47.821-07:00

Ernst (lovingly called Putzi) Hanfstaengle was a Harvard grad, and the only guy I know of from Harvard to work for both President Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler. You don't believe that? Well, if you 'google' Putzi's last name, the above statement may show up. At any rate, Hanfstaengle was a member of a powerful and aristocratic German family; came to America, went to Harvard, and at least

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-67228875815570863322008-05-22T10:58:00.000-07:002008-05-22T15:14:38.445-07:00

Those who read my blog know that I periodically digress from the arts to project some thoughts germane to the history/mystery of human nature; so, do read on: In 1942, the Americans initiated its first large - scale encounter with the Nazi; the location, North Africa. Operation Torch, commanded by a then relatively lesser known Dwight David Eisenhower, was an operation designed to squeeze the

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856187075224098118.post-49021576121866430372008-05-20T12:06:00.000-07:002008-05-22T13:59:57.870-07:00

Beethoven quite regularly was in the habit of writing notes down about himself on blank pages of daily calendars; not only about issues concerning music, but also about aspects of daily experiences outside of music. For instance, he wrote quite a bit about the problems of housekeeping, especially during the years 1819, 1820 and 1823. And what a terror he must have been! (1819) January 31 - Gave

LHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09721318510287778919noreply@blogger.com