John Lennon's Upright

Most interest bit here: George Michael now owns it.

"Pop star George Michael will lend the piano on which John Lennon
composed his famous 1971 peace anthem "Imagine" to an anti-war
exhibition in the United States organised by his partner Kenny Goss." Read the rest here.

Sa Chen Note

If you thought the recital was irratic wait til you read the review.

link.

transfixing: water, rain, brad

Uhhhh.. I guess that's one word for it.

Details here.

Ross serves up better fare with an earlier post on "keeping the score". (Hey SFSO, why isn't this a podcast yet?).

Then there were five: Honens competition finalists

Revenge of the old dogs or what.

Hinrich Alpers Age 25 Germany
Minsoo Sohn Age 30 South Korea
Serhiy Salov Age 27 Ukraine
Spencer Myer Age 28 United States
Hong Xu Age 23 China

Most the finalists for the Honens are over 25 (competitions usually have age limits around 30 0r so). Surprises? Myer made the finals. Perhaps he wins this one after leaving the Leeds empty handed.

Good luck to all. Details and more here (including the link for the audio webcast)

Malcolm Bilson - Smithson Medal

This is one award that is well-earned. Bilson's done more to promote the fortepiano than anyone I can think of and his recordings are top-notch.


"Bilson, professor emeritus of music at Cornell, was awarded the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal Oct. 8 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for his "extraordinary lifetime achievements" as "a pioneer in the performance of period instruments and chamber music in general."

Read the rest.

Need a Helping Hand?

Then check out the "The Pianist Concert Hand".

The manufacturers say that you'll be fascinated by their precise movement and precision-tuned mechanical genius as the digits play selections from Beethoven's ‘Fifth Symphony’, Scott Joplin's ‘The Entertainer’, or Chopin's ‘Minute Waltz’. " The various gears and levers inside this battery-powered clear plastic hand interact to move the fingers as if they are playing one of six classic piano pieces.

Added bonus: Creepy enough for Halloween fun.

Details ahoy. And here.

And then there were 12: Honens

Semi-finalists for the Honens announced:

1. Stanislav Khristenko, 22, Russia.
2. Gregory DeTurck, 24, United States.
3. Hinrich Alpers, 25, Germany.
4. Minsoo Sohn, 30, South Korea.
5. Spencer Myer, 28, U.S. 
6. Angela Park, 28, Canada
7. Hong Xu, 23, China.
8. Soyeon Lee, 27, South Korea.
9. Sergei Saratovsky, 24, Russia.
10. Evgueni Starodoubtsev, 24, Russia.
11. Serhiy Salov, 27, Ukraine.
12. Maria Mazo, 24, Germany/Russia.

Good luck to all!

I'll be suprised if  Khristenko, Mazo, and Alpers don't pass to the finals.

Linkage.

Don't forget you can listen online to this top-notch competition via streaming media. Check it out here. Wonder when competition will get around to podcasts?

Currently listening to: Frank Martin - Ballade for piano & orch

Leonid Hambro

A remarkable pianist and long-time force at the California Arts Institute, Leo Hambro is dead at age 86

Hambro made more than 100 recordings and toured worldwide, appearing as a soloist with many orchestras including those in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and London. He was known as a skilled chamber musician, who collaborated with Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern and others. He performed under the batons of Toscanini, Mitropoulos, Bernstein, Ormandy, Stokowski and many other distinguished conductors.
Bela Bartok's son selected Hambro to record all of his father's piano music, including the premiere recording of the First Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony. Edward Jablonski, George Gershwin's official biographer, asked Hambro to record 18 of the composer's songs as Gershwin himself had played them, and to introduce them at the Prague Spring Festival.

Read the rest

 

And here's an exchange, reported in the NYT,  that took place at one of his Carnegie Hall performances:

"When a pair of latecomers took their seats after the second piece, he asked, "Where are you from?" When they said New York, Mr. Hambro said: "Isn't that funny? I'm from Los Angeles and I got here before you did.""

Happy birthday to Franz Liszt !

Happy birthday to Franz Liszt ! Born on the 22nd of October, 1811

"I have judiciously made up my mind not to trouble myself about my compositions any further than the writing of them. Supposing that they have any value it will always be found out soon enough either during my life or afterwards. I can wait."
- Franz Liszt

Here's the wiki for Liszt with loads of information and interesting links to keep you busy. And, of course, you might just want to check out the film Lisztomania. More about Liszt at the movies (rather interesting list of things) can be found here.

Higdon

I knew there was a reason I love her music:

Higdon came of age listening not to J.S. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven but to rock 'n' roll, folk, reggae and mountain music, courtesy of her counterculture parents. She played flute in a high school marching band.

Read the Rest

Whilst writing this, I was listening to: Georges Cziffra play Liszt - Apres une lecture de Dante

Transformations

Piano Fest in Cambridge, MA

This sounds like good fun! Piano Fest.

- there are 36 pianists scheduled; the event goes on for two days; the Zeitgeist has moved, and the space is now called the Lily Pad - the keyboard celebration is much the same as it's been since that first day.

Website fo the festival is found here.

Read the rest Here

Currently listening to: Beethoven - Piano Sonata 32

Anna Russell, Dies at 94

Anna Russell, revered by music-lovers for her 22-minute sendup of Richard Wagner's epic, four-opera ``Ring'' cycle at New York's Town Hall and other venues, died today in Batemans Bay, Australia. She was 94.

Read the rest: Bloomberg.com: Muse

Currently listening to: Beethoven - Piano Sonata 32

Give it up, please !

This cracked me up

 

My 11-year-old cousin is an amateur musician, but his "music" consists of pounding on piano keys as loudly as possible for hours at a time. (He's not disabled or autistic, just an average kid.)

His piano playing becomes a problem when he and his family attend holiday gatherings at my parents' home.

For the entire time his family is at our house, he is pounding on our piano, even during Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

Been there. Done that. Got that t-shirt.

read the rest here

 

Currently listening to: Beethoven - Piano Sonata 32

Wild Harmonies

 I don't know how this escaped my attention earlier. Hélène Grimaud's autobiography is now out in English and is going to the top of my must-read list. Most fascinating is her interest in wolves.

In her early 20s, she became deeply involved in the study of wolves and went on to found the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Manhattan. It now houses 17 animals and receives more than 20,000 visitors a year.

Read the rest: Here

 

Currently listening to:  Liszt: Hexameron (Morceaux de concert)

Cappella Andrea Barca

Speaking of Mozart...

Mr. Schiff, 52, could be forgiven his crankiness in this, the jampacked 250th-anniversary year of Mozart’s birth. After all, his Cappella Andrea Barca, a crack ensemble handpicked from his most musically accomplished friends and acquaintances, was created eight years ago precisely for the occasion.

Read the Rest Here  So if the Morgan Library isn't your cuppa tea this might do the trick.

Currently listening to: Erik Satie- Trois Sarabandes (N°3)

Mozart at 250

The Morgan Library and Museum presents the exhibit Mozart at 250: A Celebration, through January 7, 2007. The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates the two-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) with an exhibition that traces Mozart's brief life through manuscripts, letters, and first editions of his works.

This should be very good. Very!

Read more here: Artdaily.com - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Website for the exhibit:  Link  (loads of interesting things online)

 

Currently listening to: C.P.E. Bach - Concerto in c Wq.37 - Presto

Glenn Gould Case

Barbara Moore, 62, of Austin, Texas, is accused of pilfering documents from the Gould collection at the Canadian Library and Archives. The items include a ``doodle page'' the musician signed 18 times and a handwritten musical composition.

curious. curious.

Link to Bloomberg.com: Muse

 

Currently listening to: Sviatoslav Richter - Prelude & Fugue No 8 in E flat minor BWV 853

Big Pianist

One for the "Who knew?" file:

Imagine our spy's surprise when he saw none other than famed porn star Ron Jeremy sitting at a piano, playing. As it turns out, Mr. Jeremy is quite the accomplished ivory-tickler.

Read the rest here: Ron Jeremy -- Big Pianist - TMZ.com

 

Currently listening to: Sviatoslav Richter - Prelude & Fugue No 7 in E flat major BWV 852

Honens International Piano Competition

The Honens International Piano Competition gets underway tomorrow. And there will be live audio/video. Some familiar faces the competition circuit trying their hand at another go. Competitors list here. And, yes, live audio webcast! Find it here.

A Love Supreme

A very splendid write-up of pianist/composer Alice Coltrane.

She filled in for McCoy Tyner as Coltrane's pianist in 1966, helping drive her husband's music to new avant-garde dimensions. After John Coltrane's death in 1967, she made a series of albums weaving Hindu and one-world religious messages with free jazz and modal improvisations, switching between outlandish timbres like jazz harp (a historical first), jazz organ, sitar and tamboura. She was accompanied and assisted on those recordings by such artists as Tyner, Ornette Coleman and Pharoah Sanders.

Read the rest here. She's playing a show in NJ and I'd give a tooth to be there.

Calling All Composers

well, those under 35 at least. The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra wants a theme song:

" The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has launched an international competition, inviting young composers to create a musical work as a component of the city's Charter 300 celebration."

Details and more here. Visit the ASO online here.

Vaugh Williams

Plucking a CD from your collection that you haven't listened to in awhile can lead to some pleasing surprises. Last night one of those was Vaughan Williams "Sixth Symphony". Positively temperamental and dazzling. More curious, was pushing on a tape in the car, one of those 100 greatest piano hits, and hearing Beethoven's "Fur Elise". Given enough time even it can sound "new" again.

In The Hall of the Mountain King [MP3's ahoy]

Here is what the great composer Edvard Grieg had to say about one of his own works:

It is an immensely difficult subject, and I've done something  to the Mountain King, that I myself find unable to listen to - it reeks of cow-dung, Norwegian-Norwegianess and absorbed in it's own Norwegianess! But I expect the irony to be pungent, especially when Peer, after the ordeal with the Mountain King utters against his will 'Both the dance and the playing was [cat scratchily] beautiful.'"

We really are our own worst critics, no?  Read the rest here: In The Hall of the Mountain King

 

Currently listening to: Jean Sibelius - Rigaudon, Op. 78 No. 4

Looking for a Used Car?

Perhaps your search has come to an end. Liberace's stylish Kanzler is now up for bids on e-bay. Little less than a day to go. I like the "get low monthly payments". Sure.

Check it out here:

Link to eBay Motors: Other Makes : Kanzler (item 280037047938 end time Oct-18-06 18:15:00 PDT)

Currently listening to: C.P.E. Bach - Sonata Wq.90 No.3 in C

Desktop Music Composer

 

Desktop Music Composer can do more than just compose music, it can also work as an alarm clock

composing? I'm not so sure about that, but I'd like the "gadget-ness" of it.

details and more here: Desktop Music Composer » Coolest Gadgets

Currently listening to: Ivan Moravec - Chopin - Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52

Composer dedicates music to slain Russian reporter

 

Arvo Part is dedicating all performances of his music during the 2006/7 concert season to the memory of recently slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

details here: Composer dedicates music to slain Russian reporter - washingtonpost.com

 

Currently listening to: Miklos Rozsa - Theme and Variations for Violin, Cello and Orchestra

scary movie

Halloween is on the way and you can get things started with "Mad Love".

An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist's hands with the hands of a knife murderer which still have the urge to throw knives.

Although I myself cheated and started my "scary movie" fest with "Plaga Zombie". Check 'em both out.

Van Cliburn

 A fine write-up of legendary pianist Van Cliburn

"Great music is the breath of God," he said. "It's eternal."

Read the rest here: Star-Telegram | 10/14/2006 | Throughout his life, spirituality has struck a chord with Cliburn

 

Currently listening to: Miklos Rozsa - Theme and Variations for Violin, Cello and Orchestra

In the footsteps of Rubén González

A precociously talented and witty jazz player, like all top Cuban music graduates Fonseca has the discipline and prodigious classical repertoire of a Soviet-influenced system that prizes memory and virtuosity. On stage with Ferrer he often put this to good use, bringing the crowd to their feet in Moscow by veering off mid-solo into Tchaikovsky, and in Warsaw by sliding into Chopin.

 

A nice profile of two pianists working in the long shadow of Gonzalez.  Read the rest here.

Currently listening to: Jean Sibelius - Devotion (Ab imo pectore), Op. 77 No. 2

Rzewski

How many classical musicians do you know with the mettle to pause during a piano piece and utter, “Stop the war,” then resume playing not once but 12 times?

Not many to be sure. The pianist? The inimitable pianist/composer Frederic Rzewski. More here.

Barenboim Interview

A very interesting interview with Daniel Barenboim is up today on the CNN website. Check it out. Link

William Shatner's Musical Brilliance

Click over to "A Million Little Fibers" to behold the magic for yourself.

More about Maestro Shatner here on Wiki.

Currently listening to: Johann Sebastian Bach - Concerto in Am BWV1065

Technorati tags: William Shatner

Chopin's Dream Coming to US as "Eternal Sonata"

 

Trusty Bell, at least in Japan, is the story of the famous composer Chopin just before his death, as he enters a dream world and meets a magical little girl with a "terrible destiny" yadda yadda yadda. It looks pretty and the music should be grea

Source: Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream Coming to US as "Eternal Sonata" - Kotaku

Thanks to "A Million Little Fibers" blog for the tip.

Currently listening to: Morton Feldman - Patterns in a Chromatic Field - 3

John Cage Festival

 Yet another reason why Canadians are lucky.

What:	Silence: John Cage "Vancouver New Music has assembled an impressive four-day survey of Cage's music. Performances of Variations I, III, and IV (Wed Oct 18) presage the next evening's performance by Cage compadre (and BC resident) Gordon Mumma, who screens his documentary film *TIMESPACE*/Time'sPace and then performs David Tudor's Rainforest. " http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=87868
When:	Sunday, October 15, 2006 7:00 PM
Where:	vancouver,   canada

 

Link to Vancouver New Music 2006-2007 Festival

 

Currently listening to: Morton Feldman - Patterns in a Chromatic Field - 3

vandals and musicians

Crickey, this really does sound ugly.

Vandalism, mail tampering, a razor blade, anonymous threats — it all sounds like something out of a "Sopranos" episode. But it appears to be musicians, not sopranos, who have been targeting their Seattle Symphony colleagues with anonymous acts that one player calls "orchestral terrorism." Thus far, there have been no injuries and no police involvement, although the symphony's acting executive director, Mary Ann Champion, said Benaroya Hall security is working on the matter.

 

Link to The Seattle Times: Arts & Entertainment: Vandalism, threats strike sour note in Seattle Symphony Orchestra

Currently listening to: Morton Feldman - Patterns in a Chromatic Field - 3

Bebo Valdés

 

Link to Far From Cuba, but Not From His Roots - New York Times

Words to Ponder

"Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art." - Frederic Chopin


Currently listening to: Schubert- Three Piano Pieces D946

Day of the Dead Composers

What a brilliant idea! A concert in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Though I suspect some might be more frightened of a night of living composers. Well, some folks. Link.

Currently listening to: 01 - Schumann - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54 - I. Allegro

Technorati tags: composers

Freddy Fender

I was saddened to learn this morning of the death of Freddy Fender.

"Three-time Grammy-winning country musician Freddy Fender, best known for his '70s country hit "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died at noon Saturday at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, according to a spokesman. He was 69."Link..

 

Currently listening to: Vienna Octet - Dvorak String Sextet, Op.48 Allegro Moderato

Technorati tags: musicians, freddy fender

Pianomajeur.net

I've added a new site to the WTB's list of "Piano Links" and it's a great one. The site is "Pianomajeur.net" which provides a wealth of resources for pianophiles. You find it here.

Currently listening to: Sofia Gubaidulina - Musical Toys - VIII. A Bear Playing The Double Bass etc

Is Wagner going to the Dogs

Maybe. And for a good reason:

"Richard Wilhelm Wagner, best known as the composer of the series of four operas that make up The Ring Cycle, had a strong faith in the musical appreciation of dogs. His dog Peps, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, was required to be present when Wagner was composing. A special stool was provided for Peps, and he was expected to stay awake and listen while Wagner would play on the piano or sing passages that he was working on. The composer kept his eyes on the dog and modified passages based on how the dog reacted."

I'll bite. After all at least one of the WTB's mutts seems to like listening to me practice. Read the rest here.

what to put on your iPod?

I think emejota is on to something with this apt remark, "tell me what's on your ipod and I'll tell you who you are". Now something to add along with your music is "Wikipedia". That's right. Read about it here.

Fall Scene

Today's Web Pick

Today's web pick with pianist Mathieu Papadiamandis' website. Why? The magic of flash. Lots of graphics and animated images. Quite a project. Perhaps too much, but fun enough.  After that check out his new Liszt CD.  You find it all here.

Cliburn in Colorado

A standing ovation seemed to surprise Cliburn as he walked onstage with newly arrived Colorado Symphony associate conductor Scott O'Neil. Naturally, when he finished playing Grieg's Piano Concerto, the crowd rose again .

That's the good news. In between ovations, things didn't go so well. Link.

The Piano Tuna

Ah the spoils of young love:

X FACTOR favourite Ben Mills’ ex-girlfriend hid chunks of stinking TUNA under his piano keys after he cheated on her. Link.

So mean.

Exploring the Piano Concerto

Those lucky Canadians!

CBC Radio is producing and broadcasting a 10 part series with pianist Emanuel Ax that explores the history of the piano concerto. It will air this fall.

In each program, Ax chats with Studio Sparks host Eric Friesen about a particular piano concerto, ranging from Mozart to Schoenberg and American composer John Adams. Ax offers an insider's look at each piece, talking about its qualities and technical challenges and its place in the composer's musical output. With a piano in the studio, Ax performs brief excerpts to illustrate his points, and he and Friesen listen to some of Ax's favourite recordings.

Read the rest here .

Visit the CBC website for the series here . You can hear some takes from the series (music and conversation) here. (note: in .ram format).

You can even submit questions for Maestro Axe via the web.

Mark your calendars the series runs Friday October 13th until December 15, 2006.

La Jeune née: Franz Schubert?

This is definitely one for the "things - that - make - you - go - hmmm" file:

"...least one influential 19th-century writer maintained that Schubert resembled a black woman. When Schubert's remains were exhumed in Vienna in 1863, his skull was described by an early biographer as having a "delicate, almost womanly structure" as well as a "Moorish (Negroid) appearance.""

Schubert as a woman? Read the rest here.

What to listen to?

This is pure piano goodness.

Read a review here:

The youth and enthusiasm that Davide Cabassi transmits to these four piano transcriptions makes for a truly thrilling recital."

You can get your copy online here.

Harpsichord Made of Legos

Amazing. A working harpsichord made entirely of legos. Wow.

Next a piano? Not likely. "Originally, upon thinking about the potentials of making a LEGO musical instrument, I had hoped to reproduce a piano, but ditched the idea due to the enormous tension involved (40,000 lbs.)--there's a reason why pianos have steel frames. "

Click here for details, photos, and mp3's of the lego harpsichord.

Sugar Chile

Put some sunshine in your face and head over to YouTube to catch boogie-woogie child prodigy "Sugar Chile" Robinson doing "Caledonia". Link.

A history of group piano lessons

A very interesting article on the topic of group piano instruction: "1815, Johann Bernhard Logier (1780-1846) started teaching group piano lessons in Ireland. He quickly gained international fame, and in 1818 at least two teachers traveled from the eastern United States to take his pedagogy course.1 Prior to the Civil War, classes in piano were taught at schools for females in the South." Read the rest here.

The entire website is a worthy bookmark for piano students and lovers to visit often.

No Support for Quarter Note Piano

"Iranian music teacher Hamidreza Rezaii complained on Wednesday over the lack of official support for the mass production of his invention, a quarter-note piano" Details. Color me not surprised

Everybody gets a new Steinway

or so it seems. Brown. Ithaca.

A history of the Casio Keyboard?

You'll find it here. It's the go-to if you wondering how a manufacture of calculators got into making instruments.

1492

1492. Granada falls and the Reconquista ends, Nebrija's Grammatica sees the light of day, and Columbus sails the ocean blue. I believe they are all ingredients that significantly shape the history that unfolds from the Columbean voyages. And for centuries.

I had got to thinking about Columbus by way of a post on Circomper about the term "culture". It seems there are two notions of "culture" at work in that post that aren't clearly distinguished and that "culture" in it's anthropological/social scientific sense finds its genesis earlier than the 18 and 19 centuries. I think the very outlines of modernity's idea of "culture" starts with the colonial writings of folks like Bartolome de las Casass (Historia de Las Indias) and Bernardino de Sahagun (Cosas de Nueva Espana). Perhaps I'm wrong about that. But so it seems to me.

Lessons Learned

Always have a back-up of your post. That said, I have been playing with Live Writer which is very nice. But I'll stick to writing the posts the old fashion way. Online. Sadly W.Bloggar is not compatible with Blogger Beta. But still if you're on the fence about migrating to blogger's beta platform (hint, hint emejota), I say go for it. Tags/labels and the ability to create your own widgets. All good stuff.

Accoustic Triumph

Piano giant Van Cliburn lights up the new Carnival Center in Florida. Details.

Technorati tags: piano

Glenn Gould's Sweet Hereafter

The Lincoln Center's "Voices and Visionaries" swings into view this month. Details here. Noteworthy is the event's attention to Glen Gould. Which is just fine with me as I'm a diehard Gould fan. The event will include a wildly late NYC premiere of the film "Glenn Gould Hereafter". Happily you don't have to be in New York City to enjoy it. It's also available on DVD. You can find it here on Amazon.com

And that reminds me of two reviews of "Glenn Gould Hereafter". The first is a bit of what stricks me as some misplaced snark from Tim Page at the Washington Post. Most curious graf: "As things stand now, it is a bitter irony that Glenn Gould, one of the most original and articulate of musicians, is still not permitted to speak for himself."

The ponderable terms here are the words "still not"? Permitted?

Compare with this from another review, "Monsaingeon's 106-minute film, however, has its own inner logic. Pulling together remarkable archive material, it tells Gould's story in his own words and indeed his own voice."

Critics. Go figure. Or better go see the film/dvd.

After thought. Maybe the 20th century visionaries and voices can be boiled down to three (and why not three): Gould, Elvis, and Lacan.

WNYC Radio's Beethoven Festival

Tomorrow WNYC Radio's big ol' Beethoven love fest gets underway.

Visit their webpage for details and links. It's right here. 

San Marino Competition Winners

1st Prize
Evgeny Brakhman

2nd Prize
SashaGrynyuk

3rd Prize ex aequo
Domenico Monaco
Gabriel Alexandru Teclu

Special Prize "Repubblica di San Marino 2006"
Domenico Monaco

More of the Reich Stuff

If you didn't catch it over the radio, I found you can still catch audio clips of Reich's music and an interview with him on NPR's website. Find it all here.

Interivew with Iturbi Winner

You can find it here.

I like what I read. I agree with this view point 100 percent.

"¿No piensa, pues, dedicarse exclusivamente a la carrera de concertista?
-No lo tengo todavía decidido, pero lo que sí creo es que hoy en día un músico, un intérprete, no puede ser, como quizá sí en el siglo XIX, un virtuoso de su instrumento y nada más. En mi caso, por ejemplo, me interesa la dirección de orquesta y la composición. Y la pedagogía. Ah, y también escribir." (emphasis mine).

Curiosités pianistique

That's the focus of a recent great post at WTB's most recent "Blog of the Day" tip.

Click on over and say, "hello".

Today's blog pick is: Paris - Broadway

De klank als handschrift

Maestro Haiitnik is not a happy camper:

"Haitink is so angry about a biography about him that he is threatening to boycott an event at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw to mark the 50th anniversary of his first appearance as conductor with its orchestra"

and why is he reportedly angry? Nobody seems to have a clue.

Read about it here. Anyone got more on this story?

cell phone concertino

A few days back I put up a post on a composition featuring cell phones. Here's a review:

" "You are a part of history," Freeman soberly informed his listeners as he gave them their pre-performance pep talk. When a green light flashed, the downstairs audience was to switch on their ring tones; when a red light appeared, it was the cue for the upstairs crowd to do the same.

Audiences, however, seldom do exactly as they are told, so there often were moments of chiming, jingling chaos as various cell-phone noises went off randomly when they weren't supposed to. (John Cage would have adored the effect.) Order was restored—sort of—when four players onstage sounded repeating figures on their mobile devices that were picked up by the rest of the orchestra."

Does sound fun ! Link.

collusive activity?

Curious to see what the courts make of the counter-suit:

"Lime Wire's case is that the RIAA is an anti-trust operation out to destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them.The countersuit charges that the RIAA is carrying out antitrust violations, consumer fraud, and other misconduct."

Details here.

Pianolicious

New gym t-shirt?

Naw.. I'll pass. But have a look.

Move Over World Piano Competition

Get Ready for "The Ultimate Pianist" Competition. "

"...experience the finest pianists outplay each other in a competition to prove the ultimate pianist."

I'm so there already.

Pedro Burmester's new CD

Another reason why there's never enough Schumann.

Full review here.

Interview with a Piano Technician

Best graf:

"And the career prospects?

I could take a map of the world and stick a pin into any country to go and set up as a piano technician and I'd be busy all the time"

Ménage à trois

Now this does look interesting:

"On her new recording, "Reflection," French pianist Helene Grimaud digs into the complex, special relationship that developed among these three composers and the way it's reflected in their music."

Those three composers: Brahms, Robert Schumann, and Clara Schumann. Get the full dl here.

Not sure if this a promo for a Dateline segment or a new classical cd, but it does sound tempting.

The Other Martha

"Is Condi playing Jazz at all? Or is she just thumping her fists down on to the piano keyboard in a random fashion in the only way that someone who is learning to play the piano can?"

You decide for yourself. Check it out.

From the Vestibular Syndrome Files

Some things just speak for themselves:

"When the sound of sledgehammer on piano was music to my ears"

Word

Seattle Post Intelligencer get's it right in this nice write-up: "Pianist Stephen Beus a joy to hear". He caught short changed at the last VC.

Happy Birthday Steve Reich

Celebrate the Maestro. Go here.