Why I Love the "Eroica"

When attempting to concretize our visceral reactions to great music, we often start out by outlining the big picture—the novel concepts or structures that enthrall us.  But an equally tantalizing component of those indescribable stirrings in our core is the “great moment”, a passage or bar or even one single note that haunts or pains or thrills.  So, instead of a comprehensive declaration, today I’ll just enumerate a few places in the score that I wouldn’t trade for the entire empire of Napoleon (and, in honour of the  that finally defeated the Emperor of Elba, I’ll limit myself to the first seven places that catch my eye in a sequential review of the score).

Benefit in Honour of Stolypin & Klebnikov

It was a privilege to play a benefit concert last night to benefit the Paul Klebnikov Fund. As many readers will remember, Paul was a brilliant journalist who served as editor of Forbes Russia until his shocking murder in 2004, for reasons indubitably related to his investigations of the shady Russian business underworld. 

Richard III at BAM

I am excited for many reasons beyond the excellence I expect to encounter from the principals.  Richard III is the first play I ever saw in the theatre, and its unremitting drama (and those fearsome ghosts!) left a permanent deep impression.  Also, my own view has been that this play is undervalued by comparison with the other transcendent tragedies of the Bard...

Re-thinking Ginastera

Tomorrow I am performing, with my great friends, the phenomenal Brentano Quartet, a rarely-heard piano quintet by the Argentine master Alberto Ginastera.  Written in 1963, it is largely a dodecaphonic work, shockingly discordant to an ear more familiar with the famous works of his nationalist period, such as the First Piano Sonata, the Variaciones concertantes, the Danzas Argentinas, or the Harp Concerto.

The Great Blondin Returns

the Great Blondin over Niagara Falls

the Great Blondin over Niagara Falls

Does anyone else remember reading, in grade school, about the mythical Charles Blondin, a.k.a. The Great Blondin, cooking an omelette while perched atop a tightrope strung across Niagara Falls?  It’s something that’s remained lodged in my brain.  Well, now comes news that, after the obligatory regulatory hand-wringingde rigueur in our timorous age—the stunt can be attempted again, for the first time in over a century.  WOW.