During 2020, at New England Conservatory, it happened -- every piano piece by Ludwig van Beethoven was performed. There was a series of 12 concerts involving 73 different NEC students. All 36 piano sonatas were played, 21 sets of variations, and every other piano piece! Six of the concerts were played live during February and March. After the pandemic arrived, the rest of the programs were streamed during the fall. Studying remotely, many … [Read more...]
Mistaken Identity
In a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall, I gave the London premiere of Entranced by Mark-Anthony Turnage. It's a fantastic piano piece, rooted in American gospel music by way of Duke Ellington. I spoke with Sally Groves at Schott Music in advance. Mark was traveling back to London on the day of my concert. He would arrive in plenty of time to hear his piece. The concert went well. Though I didn't play Mark's piece quite as well as I wished, it … [Read more...]
Priceless
Composers may receive commission fees for making new music. Some kind of pricing structure for learning new difficult piano pieces seems to be needed. Presenters will better be able to plan the use of their resources. In addition to a reasonable base fee, pianists can be paid for add-ons in a new piece. Herewith a pricelist for additional or extraordinary services -- like the extra ingredients in an omelette, or atop a pizza. For all notes … [Read more...]
We’re all composers now
I went to The Stone on Avenue C to hear a rather renowned new-music-scene musician. He's a friend of a friend of mine. Somehow we'd never met before. I'd never heard him before. In this show, he played his music. A lot of material from the laptop. Recorded sounds that were processed and manipulated. Some pieces made use of a MIDI controller/trumpet. Some interesting sounds. One piece was based, it seemed to me, on a famous recording by Vladimir … [Read more...]