My introduction of a concert of piano music performed by New England Conservatory students on April 14, 2026 in Jordan Hall, Boston. This concert is part of two large projects: Mass250 (that’s Massachusetts 250), and America250. Both of these are many-part celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The students playing tonight were chosen through a competition. Any piano piece by an American … [Read more...]
Rise
"You were teaching that pianist like she was a college student" -- the complaint of an observer of one of the masterclasses I gave in Jerusalem. In my defense, the student pianist was 18 (I learned later), and playing one of Beethoven's Opus 10 Sonatas. It seems to make sense that we have differing expectations of musicians -- according to their stage of development. More experienced players may have more musical or instrumental command, or more … [Read more...]
Can we play too well?
It's been suggested (by Charles Rosen) that a pianist who plays difficult passages notated in Robert Schumann's piano music, to today's standard of accuracy, is not giving an "authentic" reading. No one in the early nineteenth century could have done it, so, the argument goes, "mistakes" would be part of "authenticity." (We might speculate on the impact the sounds made or make...) In Ghent, a year and a half ago at the Orpheus Institute, we … [Read more...]