At University of California, Berkely, The Townsend Center’s Forum on the Humanities and the Public World presents eminent artists, political leaders, writers, and scholars, each representing a unique discipline, viewpoint, and medium. The series brings the humanities into dialogue with the critical issues at play in the public sphere. The Townsend Center at UC Berkeley has a long and distinguished tradition of humanistic scholarship, open dialogue, and pioneering innovation in the humanities. It is in this spirit that the Forum on the Humanities and the Public World presents leading figures from the academic and public worlds in settings designed for scholars and for the public at large.
On May 10th, 2010, the winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson gave a lecture there entitled; “Why Chopin? and Other Questions”.
In this conversation lecture Garrick Ohlsson discusses issues such as Chopin’s relationship to the piano (3.00), Chopin and period instruments (10.28), the “pianistic” Chopin (14.55), the Nocturnes (30.22) and performs the Nocturne in D-flat major Op. 27/2 (54.33).
In the final section he answers questions from the audience:
- On emotional contents, tempo and let go (1.01.12)
- Chopin and other composers (1.04.25)
- Chopin’s relation to opera and singing (1.08.00)
“Without music life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
AlekÂsey IgudesÂman and Hyung-ki Joo are two clasÂsiÂcal musiÂcians who have taken the world by storm with their unique and hilarÂiÂous theÂatriÂcal shows, which comÂbine comÂedy with clasÂsiÂcal music and popÂuÂlar culÂture. Their clips on YouTube, to date, have gathÂered over 15 milÂlion hits, and they have appeared live on teleÂviÂsion in sevÂeral counÂtries, includÂing an excluÂsive interÂview for CNN.
Equally comÂfortÂable perÂformÂing in clasÂsiÂcal conÂcert halls, as well as in staÂdiÂums in front of crowds of 18,000, their uniÂfied dream is to make clasÂsiÂcal music accesÂsiÂble to a wider and younger audience. Aleksey Igudesman and Richard Hyung-ki Joo have been working together since their very first meeting, at the age of 12, when they were pupils of the Yehudi Menuhin School. Very much inspired by Menuhin, their unified dream was to bring classical music to a larger audience.
Now, years later, following in the footsteps of luminaries such as Victor Borge, Dudley Moore, and even Glenn Gould, they have created a ground-breaking show that defies categorization and by marrying humour with music, they have come closer to realizing their dream.
December 31, 2011:
World Record of the Most Dancing Violinists
Igudesman and Joo searched the world and recruited the greatest dancing violinists who travelled at their own expense to create a world record of the Igudesman and Joo “Most Dancing Violinists” for UNICEF. Conducted by legendary Bond actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore, and ably assisted by the violin virtuoso Julian Rachlin, the Morrison Jig came alive in a unique way as they created the world record they journeyed so far and wide to achieve. Keep them dancing in perpetuity by donating to UNICEF in honor of UNICEF Austria’s 50th Birthday and the world record.
Where is the Remote Control?
We live in an age in which the market economy tyrannizes over art. The quality of an artwork is judged by the quantity of sales. We all squint at the sales-volume statistics, the chart placement and the commercial media presence. The more popular, the better. Everyone wants to be a superstar! But in consequence, we all too often lose sight of the true meaning of music: the uplifting union of feeling and intellect, the intimate and profoundly emotional expression of the soul. The humour project BEING GIDON KREMER takes a critical and entertaining look at classical music through a magnifying glass. By means of this close-up, they hope to achieve a healthy distance from all forms of commercial dumbing-down. So lets laugh together about whats laughable, and marvel afresh at musics endless marvels!
Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica, Aleksey Igudesman and Richard Hyung-ki Joo wish you a wonderful musical journey:
Elaborating on musical styles: Alla Molto Turca…
The Youtube classic: Rachmaninov had really BIG hands…
“The funniest show on music and the life of musicians I have seen since the great Victor Borge. I couldnt stop crying of laughter for the whole evening. Go see these gifted musicians. What they show is life at its funniest side. It isn‘t just entertaining, it is hilarious!”
- Gidon Kremer – violinist
Igudesman and Joo are not only musical virtuosi but also comic maestros. Any thing they touch turns to gold and I am enchanted by them every time I see them. Definitely one of the funniest and most entertaining shows I have ever seen and I can’t wait to see them again in action!”
- Mischa Maisky – cellist
There is a flood of Soviet-era material coming out of Russia under the current Melodiya label along with other labels. Evidently, one of them will release some of late John Ogdon recitals from Moscow in good sound.
Here is a live recital with John Ogdon in Great Hall, Moscow from 1986:
“a genius of enormous sensitivity and very great humour”
- Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
John Ogdon was awarded joint first prize at the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. It was an extraordinary enough achievement to prompt front-page headlines even in his home country, and it propelled Ogdon and his fellow gold medallist, Vladimir Ashkenazy, into stellar (if very different) careers. Ogdon was, by any normal standards, an unusual keyboard phenomenon. The remarkable catholicity of his repertoire went hand in hand with a staggering technique and a legendary sight-reading ability. He could be presented with the most complex score and deliver a flawless performance after giving it only the briefest of glances; indeed, his students enjoyed testing this astonishing gift by placing full orchestral scores before him. During one recording session late in life, Ogdon was persuaded to play through a piece he had not come across before; after a brief perusal of the score, he began. At one point the page-turner deliberately turned two pages at once. Undeterred, Ogdon continued to play the correct text as if nothing had happened.
John Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, UK and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1945. His teachers included Claude Biggs, Denis Matthews, Gordon Green and Egon Petri. In composition he joined the Manchester New Music Group, which included fellow Manchester contemporaries Birtwistle, Goehr and Maxwell Davies amongst its members. ln 1958, Ogdon made his London debut playing the Busoni Piano Concerto at the Proms. He came to international attention when he won the Liszt prize in Budapest in 1961 and the first prize in the 1962 Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition jointly with Vladimir Ashkenazy. Ogdon was equally at home with the classics and in modern repertoire but he was perhaps most renowned for championing the music of the 20th Century British composers. In addition to first performances of numerous works by the Manchester New Music Group, he pioneered first performances of works by Elgar, Rawsthorne Tippett. At the same time, he explored much neglected music from the late Romantic period. He was a formidable exponent of Alkan, Busoni, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Schoenberg. He never forgot Liszt and was one of the first players to revive almost forgotten pieces by the composer. He also mastered the two piano repertoire with Brenda Lucas, whom he married in 1960. Ogdon leaves an invaluable legacy of recordings made over a span of 30 years.
See and hear Jorge Bolet and Conductor Paavo Berglund in a preliminary rehearsal prior to a full rehearsal with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto.
Here follows part 11 (of 14) of a famous 1983 master class by Jorge Bolet featuring pianists Ira Levin, Jose Feghali, Philip Smith, Marc-Antionio Barone, Wolfgang Manz (in this clip) and Barry Douglas.
Also listen to Bolet’s highly praised 9 CD box (Decca) with piano works of Franz Liszt:
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was composed in 1805-1806, although no autograph copy survives. The first movement opens with the solo piano, playing simple chords in the tonic key before coming to rest on a dominant chord. After a poetic pause of two and a half beats, the orchestra then enters in B major, the major mediant key, thus creating a tertiary chord change. This becomes a motif of the opening movement.
It was premiered in March 1807 at a private concert of the home of Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz. The Coriolan Overture and the Fourth Symphony were premiered in that same concert. However, the public premiere was not until 22 December 1808 in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien. Beethoven again took the stage as soloist. This was part of a marathon concert which saw Beethoven’s last appearance as a soloist with orchestra, as well as the premieres of the Choral Fantasy and the Fifth and Sixth symphonies. Beethoven dedicated the concerto to his friend, student, and patron, the Archduke Rudolph.
Tip: Listen to the video without looking and see if you can recognize who is who of the pianists! In random order they are: Backhaus, Gould, Aimard, Gilels, Fleisher, Pletnev, Arrau, Haskil, Schnabel and Gieseking
A review in the May 1809 edition of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung states that “(the concerto) is the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever” (Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, May 1809). However, after its first performance, the piece was neglected until 1836, when it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn.
Today, the work is widely performed and recorded, and is considered to be one of the central works of the piano concerto literature.
Ablinger transferred the frequency spectrum of the child’s voice to his computer controlled mechanical piano so that “with a little practice, or help or subtitling, we actually can hear a human voice in a piano sound” — and the result is certainly compelling.
A legend among pianists of the twentieth century, Artur Schnabel (April 17, 1882 – August 15, 1951) was an Austrian pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century’s most respected and most important pianists, he displayed a vitality, profundity and spirituality in works by Beethoven and Schubert above all. His performances of these compositions have often been hailed as models of interpretative penetration; and his best-known recordings are those of the Beethoven piano sonatas.
Schnabel did much to popularize Beethoven’s piano music, making the first complete recording of the sonatas, completing the set in 1935. This set of recordings has never been out of print, and is considered by many to be the touchstone of Beethoven sonata interpretations. His interpretations of the late, visionary sonatas of Beethoven were spiritual testaments.
Artur Schnabel’s editing of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas (1000+ pages total) stands as one of the most unlikely and yet colossal resources of pianistic wisdom generally and piano technique in particular ever compiled. The original edition of the 32 Sonatas edited by Schnabel was published in Milan, Italy by Edizioni Curci in three volumes. A re-engraved and corrected two-volume, five-language (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) American edition is available from Amazon.com
Hear Schnabel play the three last Sonatas of Beethoven:
La Linea (”The Line”) is an Italian animated series created by the Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli. The series consists of 90 episodes which are about 2–3 minutes long each and were originally broadcast in the Italian channel RAI between 1972 – 1991. Over the years the series aired in more than 40 countries around the world. Due to its short duration (usually 2 minutes 30 seconds), it has often been used in many networks as an interstitial program.
Even though the episodes are numbered up to 225, there are, in fact, only 90 La Linea episodes. The Lagostina series had eight (5 min) episodes, the 100 series had 56 (101-156), and the 200 series had 26 (200-225).
The cartoon features a man (known as “Mr. Linea”) drawn as a single outline around his silhouette, walking on an infinite line of which he is a part. The character encounters obstacles and often turns to the cartoonist to draw him a solution, with various degrees of success. One recurring obstacle was an abrupt end of line. The character would often almost fall off the edge into oblivion and get angry with the cartoonist and complain about it. He was voiced by Carlo Bonomi in a mock version of Milanese that resembled gibberish as much as possible, giving the cartoon the possibility to be easily exported without dubbing. The tune played in the background of the series was created by Franco Godi but in this episode we hear Mr. Linea perform Mozart’s Sonata K 545 in C major.
Acclaimed as one of the greatest interpreters of Mozart, Portuguese/Brazilian pianist Maria-João Pires (b. 1944) is an artist who combines exquisite stylistic refinement with a serious effort to plumb the intellectual complexities and spiritual depths of music. Refusing to conform to the traditional image of a concert virtuoso, Pires emphasizes the spiritual dimensions of music, always searching for hidden meanings which may elude the analytical performer. This remarkable reverence towards works of music, clearly manifested in her performances of Mozart, was made explicit by her remark that, as a performer, she acts as a channel for the composer’s ideas.
Her recording of Mozart’s complete sonatas received the 1990 Grand Prix du Disque. One of her highly acclaimed recordings is “Mozart: The Piano Sonatas”. According to the Penguin Guide: “Maria João Pires is a stylist and a fine Mozartian. She is always refined yet never wanting in classical feeling, and she has a vital imagination. She strikes an ideal balance between poise and expressive sensibility, conveying a sense of spontaneity in everything she does”.
*** Live Video – Limited Availability ***
Maria-Joao Pires and Chamber Orchestra of Europe perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto no 27 in B-flat major K. 595. Video available until January 29 2011:
W. A. Mozart´s last piano concerto No. 27 in B flat major K. 595 followed by some years the series of highly successful concertos Mozart wrote for his own concerts, and by the time of its premiere Mozart was no longer so prominent a performer on the public stage. It is a popular assumption that this concerto was first performed at a concert on 4 March 1791 in Jahn´s Hall by Mozart and by a clarinetist Joseph Bähr.
Seen from today’s state of scholarship however there is absolutely no proof that Mozart actually performed K. 595 on this day. The concert might well have been premiered by Mozart’s pupil Barbara Ployer on the occasion of a public concert at the Auersperg palace in January 1791.
This was Mozart’s last appearance in a public concert, as he took ill in September 1791 and died on 5 December 1791. The manuscript is dated 5 January 1791. However, Alan Tyson’s analysis of the paper on which Mozart composed the work indicated that Mozart used this paper between December 1787 and February 1789, which implies composition well before 1791. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the concertos is the extent to which Mozart (or other contemporary performers) would have embellished the piano part as written in the score. Mozart’s own ability to improvise was famous, and he often played from very sketchy piano parts. Furthermore, there are several very “bare” parts in the concerto scores that have led some to deduce that the performer is meant to improvise embellishments at these points, the most notorious being towards the end of the F sharp minor second movement of No. 23 in A major (K. 488) (the end of the first subject of the second movement of No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 is another example). Manuscript evidence exists to suggest that embellishment did occur (e.g. an embellished version of the slow movement of No. 23, apparently by his gifted pupil Barbara Ployer). In 1840, evidence was published from two brothers, Philipp Karl and Heinrich Anton Hoffmann, who had heard Mozart perform two concertos, Nos 19 and 26 (K. 459 and K. 537) in Frankfurt am Main in 1790. Philip Karl reported that Mozart embellished his slow movements “tenderly and tastefully once one way, once another according to the momentary inspiration of his genius”, and he later (1803) published embellished Mozart slow movements to six of his later concertos (K. 467, K. 482, K. 488, K. 491, K. 503 and K. 595).
A century ago, before the world was so flat, national styles of music making were a given. The French school of pianism, for example, was known for its fleet technique and lyrical delicacy – the aural equivalent, perhaps, of the nation’s haute cuisine.
* Pianist Murray Perahia presents highlights of live recordings made during Cortot’s 1954-60 Master Classes in Paris, featuring the pianist playing many works he never formally recorded.*
This unique historical document came about when Perahia — a great admirer of the French pianist’s playing — learned that Cortot’s master classes between 1954 and 1960 at the École Normale de Musique in Paris had been recorded, with Cortot’s permission, by Pierre Thouzery. Despite the variable sound of the tapes and the fact that Cortot did not always play complete works during the classes, Perahia was convinced that these recordings yielded some remarkable playing and an unparalleled insight into the world of one of the greatest interpretive artists of the twentieth century. He is executive producer of Alfred Cortot – The Master Classes, and he offers extensive commentary in the accompanying booklet.
Alfred Cortot teaches and plays Schumann´s Kinderszenen Op.15, “The Poet Speaks”:
Translation of what Cortot says in French in the above video:
Introduction: It seems to me that this last piece, The Poet Speaks, which is the title Schumann gave to this immortal work, should be a transition into a kind of intimate reverie. It is not just about making a beautiful sound and expressive phrasing. You also need to create a sense of dreaming. The truth is, you need to dream this piece, rather than play it.
Will you allow me to take your place?
Bar 4-6: These two phrases are not connected.
They are two different elements…
of the same musical state.
Bar 9-10: Here, like a question…
Bar 11-12: And here again, another, tenderly asking the way.
Bar 13-16:
And from this moment, you should convey the music not just through the notes but through some kind of inspiration drawn from its immortal spirit.
Bar 21-25: Now the sonorities should fade away…grow fainter and dimmer…and you are left simply in the presence of a reminiscent dream.
John Ogdon was awarded joint first prize at the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. It was an extraordinary enough achievement to prompt front-page headlines even in his home country, and it propelled Ogdon and his fellow gold medallist, Vladimir Ashkenazy, into stellar (if very different) careers. Ogdon was, by any normal standards, an unusual keyboard phenomenon. The remarkable catholicity of his repertoire went hand in hand with a staggering technique and a legendary sight-reading ability. He could be presented with the most complex score and deliver a flawless performance after giving it only the briefest of glances; indeed, his students enjoyed testing this astonishing gift by placing full orchestral scores before him. During one recording session late in life, Ogdon was persuaded to play through a piece he had not come across before; after a brief perusal of the score, he began. At one point the page-turner deliberately turned two pages at once. Undeterred, Ogdon continued to play the correct text as if nothing had happened.
Jorge Bolet was born in Havana, and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he himself taught from 1939 to 1942. His teachers included Leopold Godowsky, Josef Hofmann, David Saperton, Moriz Rosenthal and Fritz Reiner. Bolet is particularly well remembered for his performances and recordings of large-scale Romantic music, particularly works by Franz Liszt, César Franck and Frédéric Chopin. He also specialised in piano transcriptions and unusual repertoire, including the fiendishly difficult works of Godowsky, many of which Bolet had studied with the composer himself. In an interview given to Elyse Mach (Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves, Dover), Bolet extensively mentioned an obscure piece by Joseph Marx which was, according to Bolet’s own words, his favorite among virtuoso concertos because of the enormous show of strength required from the soloist.
A legend among pianists of the twentieth century, Artur Schnabel (April 17, 1882 – August 15, 1951) was an Austrian pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century’s most respected and most important pianists, he displayed a vitality, profundity and spirituality in works by 
Acclaimed as one of the greatest interpreters of Mozart, Portuguese/Brazilian pianist Maria-João Pires (b. 1944) is an artist who combines exquisite stylistic refinement with a serious effort to plumb the intellectual complexities and spiritual depths of music. Refusing to conform to the traditional image of a concert virtuoso, Pires emphasizes the spiritual dimensions of music, always searching for hidden meanings which may elude the analytical performer. This remarkable reverence towards works of music, clearly manifested in her performances of Mozart, was made explicit by her remark that, as a performer, she acts as a channel for the composer’s ideas. 
