Word: pianist
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...friend from home I hadn't seen for a couple years bumped into me the other day right outside Elsie's. "My big brother's taken up the piano," he told me. "He wants to be a concert pianist." In the past five years, big brother has taken up the sax, the cello, the flute and the clarinet. A combination of mediocre talent and slim job pickins had prompted a quick and tragic end to one instrumental fascination after another. Given this unfortunate history, I couldn't figure out why big brother decided to take a stab at the piano...
...Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the twelve main players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, joined by pianist Gilbert Kalish, begin their three-concert series this Sunday with another romantic-contemporary program. Among the works performed will be Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel" Op. 28, arranged for chamber ensemble. The piece is a good introduction to the unusual musical world of Strauss, although I don't know how much of the real flavor actually comes through in a chamber transcription. Beethoven's "Kakadu" Variation for Piano Trio, Yehudi Wyner's Serenade (1958) for seven instruments and Brahms' Quintet for clarinet and strings...
Birnbaum belongs to a musical family: his wife is a professional violist, one of his sons a pianist who also happens to practice law, the other son a flautist who is studying composition at Stanford. Birnbaum himself admits to playing the piano "badly." Can he play a stringed instrument? "Only a tennis racquet," says Birnbaum solemnly, "but I like fiddling with words...
...from the announcer's list. Says she: "I would listen to myself being obliterated." Slava adds: "It was like a slow-motion plan against us. Step by step. Already, our names could not appear in newspapers. My recordings were not played on the state radio." When he performed with Pianist Sviatoslav Richter, only Richter's name appeared in the next day's reviews. Rostropovich concerts were canceled everywhere. "I request engagements in other countries," says Slava, "and Ministry send telegrams saying, 'Rostropovich ill.' They cancel my television appearances. Why? They say, 'Oh, Rostropovich is not very talented...
Composer Aron Copland and pianist Leo Smit will discuss the music they will play in concert on Wednesday night at a "Learning from Performers" lecture in the Kirkland Junior Common Room at 4 p.m. The lecture is free, but tickets are required and can be obtained at the Holyoke Center Ticket Office starting today...