Thursday, May 31, 2012

Letter From London

London in May was suddenly hot, which makes Mad Dogs and Englishmen seem quite true. Looking out my window onto Green Park found masses of people trying to make it into the Riviera, or at least the Costa Brava. The days leading up to the Jubilee seemed to find the English happy with their Queen, and indeed, photos of Elizabeth and Phillip showing them walking up or down airplane stairs without so much of a holding on, instead straight down the middle, would seem to say they are both amazingly fit. There was not so much decoration around, the thought being on village parties, especially "The Long Table" set for this weekend, where everyone in the UK sits down to celebrate with Coronation Chicken, that famous Constance Spry recipe from the Queen's Coronation Celebration....seems like yesterday. You would have to enjoy that blend of curry, apricot, mayonaise, chicken and rice...rather a dated affair, but I still fix it, and will do so this weekend. I visited my friends at Attadale Gardens in Scotland. Nickie Macpherson has the artist;s eye, and has transformed this estate into the most popular garden in Scotland. Taking a chalenging landscape of hillsides, rock cliffs, meadows and bogs, she has created a series of gardens witnin a garden. I like best the original rhododendrum planting, all brought from the Himalayas in the 19th Century. They are all towering trees now, and looking ar the tops full of bloom, the eye is carried up rock cliffs, where all firs and decidious trees tower at the top...over 150 feet above you. It is rather like a Chinese scroll painting from ancient times. This part of Scotland is very wild, and one goes miles at times with only barren hills and lochs, with great penensula jutting out into the Atlantic, even wilder still. I love the little train that goes from Inverness to Attadale, having to request a stop at Attadale, where the estate station sits beside Loch Carron. You have to make sure you are at the head of the train when you alight, as the platform is only one car in length, otherwise you plunge into the void. I noticed many Japanese are now discovering this area to tour, and in fact, Attadale with its Japanese Garden is a magnet. This was not a musical trip for once, and I didn't see a piano the whole time, which is good for the body in general. I never seem to have to search again for my fingers after a break, and I attribute this to the Matthay technique of relaxation. When I have a moment in the days ahead, I will comment on Stephen Siek's new bio of Matthay, which reveals an astounding amount of detail about his life, and the politics of music in London at the turn of the last century. Thought provoking, and worthy of a long article. Be back soon!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

"La Mer" in Charlotte

A wild, wind-swept drive to Charlotte March 2 found me fighting pounding rain and black clouds trailing omnious fingers. I was a month earlier than expected, when a last minute cancellation brought a call the day before, asking if I could trade places with the March 2 presenter, rather than coming March 30, as planned. Since I had just been in Charlotte the week before, and stopped by Miller Pianos to try out the piano, I decided I was ready...so go for it. I last played for the Charlotte Piano Forum about 40 years ago!...right after I came to USC. At that time we were a very small music departmant, with a low profile. What a surprise to find our USC School of Music is a recognized force; many people told me of family members or friends who have attended USC, and several had students there at present. The best thing was the respect for our piano program, and several teachers told me they had students planning to audition for scholarships. So I felt at home, and could communicate easily with the group assembled to hear Debussy's "La Mer".

Audiences are surprised with this Lucien Garban arrangement of the orchestral score. As I may have mentioned before, Garban was an editor for Durand and Sons, the Paris publishing house for Debussy and Ravel, and a host of other famous French composers. He was a close friend of Ravel, and there is a letter from Ravel to Garban in my Collection of French Music in the USC Music Library. He made this arrangement in 1938, and I had never heard it performed publicly when I started learning it about one year ago. I am sorry now I didn't learn it years ago, as i could have enjoyed introducing it over the years.

Judging from the comments I received, i think many teachers are somewhat uncomfortable with teaching Debussy as he does not give any pedal indications, and certainly no fingerings. It's all up to "the ear" and one's sense of style. I promised to return and give a class on these points, with approachable literature for intermediate students. It is so interesting to me how Germanic our approach to muisc remains in the USA, but that was the early prevailing influence.

The Charlotte Symphony will perform "La Mer" this coming season in honor of the 150th Anniversary of his birth.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Genius of Liszt

Getting around to Liszt has always been difficult for me. Not that I haven't taught most of his larger works to students the past 50 years. Now the opportunity has arisen to prepare a new Piano Portrait for next year. I did one on Liszt at the Villa d'Este some years ago, and a friend sent stunning slides of all the fountains, gardens and other water features of this fabulous villa in the hills outside Rome.
Now I am reworking the original Portrait, and returning to some of the scores he was inspired to write during his years there.

I think as a young pianist I made a detour around Liszt as I was not drawn to this type of overt virtuosity. I think the thing that held me back was my (then) inablility to wade through so many notes that seemed to be there only for
display. Later studies, and teaching experiences, awakened me to the need to look at his compositions organically, trying to place each note, whether in small print or large, into the whole. Well, at this stage of life that sounds elemental "Dr.Watson".
If I could penetrate the most complicated Bach and Beethoven, surely I could conquer Liszt. Still the spirit was willing, but the flesh.....!

The thing that turned the trick was my ear for sound. I began to see that a clear need for aural color, inflection and timbre was vital, as it unlocked the technical
side. In other words, the vision had to come first, and then the rest would follow. Suunds rather easy doesn't it. Often one sees a half-page cadenza, full of tiny notes. I have watched many students try to encompass these passages, only to fall apart halfway through. Only by breaking these passages into manageable cells of notes...not simply drawing imaginary measure strokes, but actually finding the small melodic gem that is used to hold the whole thing together, will you find the necessary guideposts for your ear. Hence, small cells lead to the whole cell. As always, the ear is the great detector.

Octaves abound in Liszt, and finding your way through them can be at your peril. I studied the Kullak octave studies while a teenager, and this helped tremendously. Also, listening for the melodic core will help, keeping one's ear open to inflection, so you don't play every octave with the same intensity. In an octave passage the hand has to recover the best it can from the strain, so keeping a flexible wrist behind a firm hand is mandantory. Also, weaving in and out between black and white notes means subtle adjustments of the angle of the hand itself. Forcing your hand into an octave mold and just blazing away can lead to injury. You have to think of octave passages as MELODY..two melodies in one hand. To find the inflection and curve of it, play the passage with both hands, so you just hear the line, and not tax your technical powers before you are ready to make music from it.

Not to digress...but I will, naturally!...I heard a most interesting discussion on PBS Nightly News last evening, probing why we have failed in our efforts to improve student achievement. The gist of the argument centered around the fact that we have resorted to holding the stick too high, and pushing everyone to jump over it. Of course, this is proving to be a failure. The correct psychology is to find where the student actually is in their development, and start from there. Well, I am sure that more than we would like to recognize fall into the bottom of the barrel. This is where teaching piano can solve the educational crisis. Good teachers make an ASSESSMENT, then prescribe the cure. This seems so logical, but apparently is unsaleable in Washington D.C. The parallel thought is the same for solving problems at the keyboard. Start with a great teacher, then proceed with caution, and a path will open before you.

Back to Lizst. I am convinced that Liszt made his points as a performer with great clarity of line, and an overall eveness in execution. The only person I studied with who was a descendent of his teaching was Ilonka Deckers Kuzler in Milan. When I knew her she was in her late seventies. She was Hungarian and had studied in Budapest with a teacher named Arnold Szekely. She traced his roots back to the Liszt/Czerny/Beethoven tradition that many claim, rightly or wrongly. Ilonka also taugh Edith Farnardi, who recorded an enormous amount of Liszt for Westminster Records in the late 1940's-early 1950's. Quite a few of these are in the University of South Carolina Music Library, and are real treasures. They exhibit the qaulities I remember from Ilonka's teaching. She also taught the great Annie Fischer as a young prodigy, Annie going on to become one of the greatest pianists of the last century.

When I listen to so many young pianists today play Liszt, I feel the energy and bravura of their playing, but usually notice a lack of pianistic color and expert pedaling. Of course, it is all too fast for words, and can end up sounding like a stunt. Sometimes the sound is just too black...without depth or timbre. Paul Ulanosky said it best .."Speed is a poor substitute for spirit and nicity of detail".

So, dear readers....to be continued.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

La Mer...."Bring an umbrella!"

Many Thanks are due to Charleston Southern and USC for two splendid venues for the first performances of "La Mer" in the transcription by Lucien Garban. Charleston Southern has been generous in inviting me, and this year we had a full house. I presented my new Piano Portrait "Debussy and the Sea", and I found the audience entirely receptive and involved. At USC I returned to the "September Concerts", still going after almost 35 years, first as the Fall festival I organized for 5 years, and then, in the same format, September Concerts since the early 1980's. Columbia audiences can be difficult to predict, but this series draws out the best in the concert going public. You can tell when you walk on stage that this is a very special atmosphere, and that has existed since the beginnings. I have decided to document the genesis of this unique festival, and place this with my papers in the USC Music Library.

As for "La Mer", the thing that struck me was the many comments about the power of this score, even in the smaller frame of a piano solo. It transcends the medium, and comes across as a musical drama on its own terms.

I was amused when leaving USC to see a tremendous storm approaching. Indeed, parts of the city had a terrifying hour of pounding rain and wind. Such is the peril of playing "La Mer"....don't mess with Mother Nature!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

"LA MER"

JOHN KENNETH ADAMS performs "La Mer" by Claude Debussy

September 20, Charleston Southern University Band Hall, 7:30 PM FREE

September 25, September Concerts, USC Columbia, 3 PM Tickets required

December 11, Heritage at Lowman, 3PM FREE

March 30, 2012 Charlotte, NC Piano Teachers Forum (more info to follow)

(additional dates in progress)


Quite a few months preparation has gone into getting this score ready for performance. "La Mer" by Claude Debussy was first performed in 1905 in Paris, and was not an unqualified success, perhaps due to the advanced nature of its form and harmonic complexities, but also dragged down by Debussy's bad publicity for leaving his wife for another woman. That is a story within a story, but the work slowly made its way, and now is considered a landmark in 20th Century music.

The transcription is by Lucien Garban, an editor at Durand in Paris, and close friend of Murice Ravel. This transcription dates to 1938. Surely it is a daunting task to try to squeeze onto the keyboard the sweep and power of an orchestra, and Garban has not tired to do this in any overt way. Instead, he concentrates on the melodic and harmonic inventiveness, and in so doing, shows us the framework and the inventive ideas is a startling clarity of expression.

In preparing this score, I have concentrated on the sonority of the piano, and treated the score as an extension of his piano repertoire. When I performed all of Debussy's piano music in the 1980's I often looked at orchestral scores, and also that of "Pelleas and Melisande", his opera produced at the same time as "La Mer".
The fact that Debussy found the piano his muse in creating the bulk of his compositions makes this a logical path to follow.

I often think, after rehearsing this score, how very beautiful it is in this transcription. The Art of the Transcription has a long, distinquished history, and I hope to add to that with these upcoming performances.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Back Home in Alabama - June 2011

An invitation to play and lecture for the Alabama State Music Teachers Convention in Jacksonville made for a great visit to the land of my youth. Having lived in Birmingham until the age of 13, I was eager to see if any traces of those years still abounded. The weather was hot...and that means hotter than Columbia, which is a stretch. The plus side is that the Jacksonville State campus is surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in Alabama, so everywhere you look brings a new vista. But.. those cooling mountain breezes were on vacation.

I was asked to speak about how I go about finding a concept in a piece of music, one that I could pass on to the student in such a way as to help them learn useful learning tools. That seems logical enough in concept..(no pun intended)..but in reality was a great challenge. I opted for the deeper route, hoping my reliance on simple tools to solve complex issues would hold up. The other thing was, it was a richly illustrated presentation, meaning hands were on the keys the whole time, yet the audience had no score. So every example had to be clear and focused, and not too long. I choose the Brahms Intermezzo in B Flat Minor, Opus 117 as the opening work.
It didn't take me long to discover that it was a complex piece, hidden under a beautiful, moving melodic line. Finding just that small cell of notes at the beginning lead me on a journey of discovery that I was able to share. It always amazes me how complex Brahms really is, and yet how approachable.

I moved on to the Schubert Impromptu in G Flat Major, and by contrast it could not have been more different from the Brahms. The main themes of my presentation began to clarify, and here one has to draw dramatic contrasts between major and minor, with mood changes very introspectively introduced. The repetitions in Schubert are an opportunity to expand not only the emotional content, but also challenge the player to find infinite variety of details to bring out or subdue.

The "Ondine" by Debussy finished up the presentation, and it proved a child of the Brahms in more ways than one. Like Brahms, Debussy's technique is very Beethoven in that he works with the smallest cells available, but they become transformed in an almost kaleidoscopic world of instant variation and new coloristic discoveries.

I had a rather plodding Steinway concert grand, that only yielded what I hoped for in short flashes. The main problem was a very uneven action, where every key seemed to have a different tone spot. I soon forgot about it and things went along acceptably, but I am spoiled by my own Steinway concert grand which is kept in excellent order.

Comments were surprising. Almost everyone spoke about the Brahms, and how moved they were by its profound spirit yet haunting melodic appeal. The comment about repetition in Schubert caused comments about my take on repeating sections in a Beethoven sonata, and how important they are in giving the proper weight to the depth of the composition. Viewing repeats as opportunity seemed to be a new insight to many. A prominent teacher from Birmingham made the comment that she was delighted to hear someone lecture and play with such obvious love for the music, and the relief she felt in being challenged intellectually. "Far too many come and say..do this, do that..don't do this.. but you avoided the commercial aspect with just good old fashioned common sense and love of the art" Thank you kindly, lady!

The comment that touched me most was from a long time Alabama teacher who said I should have never been allowed to leave Birmingham. That really touched me to the core. Thanks, Alabama, and God Bless.