To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet..."William Shakespeare: King John Electronica artist Max Cooper and I launch a new project this spring, a collaboration called “Glassforms.” It’s a commission from the Philharmonie de Paris and we will play it as part of their Philip Glass weekend in May. Shows follow in London, Barcelona, and Bordeaux. We overlay electronic sounds — onto … [Read more...]
Thoughts while playing Knee Play 4
It can happen, in the laboratory of the concert -- you notice things, discovery occurs. Suddenly, sometimes surprisingly, associations are made, even in music long-practiced. During the summer in France, I performed my solo piano transcription of "Knee Play 4" from Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach. And, in an auxiliary channel of thought -- aside from the monitoring of my playing, aside from giving the performance -- I made … [Read more...]
Immeasurable
If they throw stones upon the roof While you practice arpeggios, It is because they carry down the stairs A body in rags. Be seated at the piano. ... Wallace Stevens: "Mozart, 1935" I ask many young pianists to play un-measured preludes by French composers Louis Couperin, Gaspard Le Roux, or Rameau. These are written pieces in which pitches are specified but rhythm is not. I offer no instruction, no advice. Louis Couperin: Prelude You … [Read more...]
Triangle
I perform a piece with Butoh artist Maureen Fleming in which I play Philip Glass's Etude No. 5. The performance includes a video of Maureen moving, projected larger-than-life-size on a scrim. Behind the scrim, Maureen performs live. In front of the scrim, onstage, I sit at a piano and play the etude. Maureen made the video first. She started improvising movements and shooting video, with careful, subtle lighting. The movements are slow … [Read more...]
First Glass
Tim Page suggested I play some music by Philip Glass. It was a solo piano arrangement of part of the opera Satyagraha -- Gandhi's final, Act 3 aria. Tim wanted this music for a solo piano CD we were making for BMG's Catalyst label. The arrangement wasn't easy. According to Tim, the pianist Rudolf Firkusny had struggled with it, and given up -- Firkusny thought it was too hard to play! Though the Catalyst recording was never made (some details … [Read more...]
Withdrawn
Sometimes a piece of music is "withdrawn" from a composer's catalog. Music that was composed, published, and available is taken back -- rescinded. You can't get it anymore. Usually, the composer has thought better of it: the music doesn't hold up now, the composer's style has changed a lot, it's an early piece that just doesn't seem good enough for public display... All of Philip Glass's early non-tonal music is unavailable now. I play(ed) a … [Read more...]
Humble pie
In Cleveland, at the Ohio Theatre, they told me Philip Glass just recently played there on the piano I was using. The next pianist coming soon is Krystian Zimerman. This sort of thing makes you feel humble. And it occurred to me -- that might even be about where my playing is artistically (?), pianistically (!), or aesthetically, somewhere in between Glass and Zimerman... … [Read more...]