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So I was accompanying a couple of wonderful high-school violinists yesterday - prize winners in the local Etude Club Competition in Berkeley. (All the other prize winners were pianists - LOL!) I was talking to one of the audience members before the concert started, and he told me how much he was looking forward to this particular set of performances. He then went on to say that he attends many concerts presented by local musicians and that these local concerts are his primary source of listening to music these days. He claimed that, while the locals (some of whom, as in this concert, are only high-school age) aren't as good as the big international names who travel around and play with the likes of the SF Symphony, they're ALMOST as good, and the difference isn't worth the extra expense of the ticket prices or the travel hassles (getting to Davies Hall for instance). He also claimed that he had a lot of friends who are classical music listeners and who felt the same way about this that he did!
I have to say that his comments surprised me, because whenever I go to concerts, I habitually go for the big international names myself. Other disadvantages of concerts by the locals can include the quality of the instruments too. (International touring soloists and ensembles tend to get access to the primo instruments. For instance, yesterday, the piano was a pretty old 7-foot Steinway, not in tip-top condition by any means, although it had been tuned just before the concert.)
One might think that local players, especially of high-school age, might be more conservative in their repertoire choices. But, in addition to the expected Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and Prokofiev, the players yesterday included works by Schnittke, Oscar Morawetz, Takemitsu, and a contemporary Hungarian composer whose name now escapes me (not Ligeti).
But in certain respects, I'm almost always amazed at how good these kids can be - the first prize winner in the senior division played the first movement of Beethoven's C-major Sonata, Op. 2 No. 3 with such musicality and clarity of articulation that I'd go as far as to say that parts of her performance were even better than my standard Richter recordings! (She also had a memory slip too, but was able to weasel out of it, and continue without too much damage - and let's not forget that touring professionals sometimes have memory slips too!) Before the concert, she came up to me and declared that I'd saved her life two years ago! I didn't recognize her at first and didn't know what she was talking about. It turns out that she was in a concerto competition and her accompanist didn't show up. I happened to be there (accompanying another pianist) and said I'd be glad to accompany her if she didn't mind taking a chance on a completely unrehearsed performance (and pretty much sight-reading on my part - I hadn't played her piece, the Mendelssohn G-minor Concerto, in years). So we went in and just "winged" it (just talking through the tempos right beforehand) - and she won! So that was what she was referring to - but I have to say that she has grown to be a an even finer player in the intervening two years!
OK - enough going off on a tangent and bragging from me! Does anyone here feel similarly to the way the guy who spoke to me before the concert feels (i.e., that big name soloists are hardly worth the extra bother and expense, compared to local yokels)?
Follow Ups:
In my experience, younger musicians and artists in general-- yes, here comes a sweeping geralization:)-- haven't lived long enough to have experienced the depths of emotion at the heart of many or most masterworks. They may have great technique, but what does a 20 year old know about love, pain, grief.. Not to mention awe, wonder and ecstasy? Expression of feeling is what I'm after and that come from having lived and having lived with great works of art, and even minor ones.
My two cents, plain.
Harry
It's not one I hold to myself, bur I certainly can't say you're wrong. A lot of it depends on the repertoire of course. I mean, how much love, pain, grief, awe, wonder and ecstasy is one going to find in the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 3? To me, this movement is more about Beethoven telling the world, "Hey - look over here! This is what I can do!". ;-)
Fair enough. I don't hold to it either, but it's been my experience by and large. And I've heard many very fine performances by locals, too... the vast majority have been mature artists.
H
Yakov Kasman was Silver Medalist at the 10th Van Cliburn competition in 1997. But this is about his daughter Aleksandra (Sasha) more than him.I first heard Sasha play more than a decade ago, solo pieces and two-piano pieces with her father. She was just entering her teens at that time. Today, having studied under her father for a lifetime (but with additional studies under a long list of noted pedagogues), she is quite accomplished, entering Julliard. It's really interesting to watch an artist grow and develop over the years. You see it first hand much more than I do, Chris.
A friend of mine has a "music room" outfitted with 2 Steinway pianos that seats around 30-40 comfortably in easy chairs and sofas. He and his wife host 3-6 chamber music recitals throughout the year. No charge, of course. Everyone brings finger food and appetizers for the reception after the recital. The artists have separate quarters if they want to stay overnight. Just like the old band days, they receive only what guests drop in the basket at the door.
Sasha's program includes Prokofiev's Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Myaskovsky's 2nd piano sonata, Beethoven's A major sonata (101), and in duet with her father Yakov, his two-piano reduction of the first movement of Brahms' 2nd piano concerto.
I'm particularly eager to her her play the Myaskovsky piece. This is a very challenging work of shifting chromaticism. The dedicatee struggled with it for a very long time and was a flop in the premier. Prokofiev tried to console him, remarking how difficult the piece was. Prokofiev himself, no slouch at the keyboard, apparently was a bit more successful with it. I've heard several recordings, but never heard it live, because it is a daunting 12 minutes of music.
If you aren't familiar with it, here is a recording of Sherbakov playing it. You will hear some "familiar" melodies embedded in the Myaskovsky piece. (The YouTube "embed" code doesn't seem to actually insert the video, so I guess you'll just have ti click the link,)
View YouTube Video
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Edits: 05/20/17
I saw (Yakov) Kasman in the Rachmaninoff Second (Concerto) not long after he won the Silver Medal at the 1997 Cliburn Competition. I liked his performance, although I was a little less impressed with a couple of his Calliope CD's I heard at the time (Scriabin, I believe). I do of course have his Lukas Foss CD on Harmonia Mundi, where he shares solo duties with Jon Nakamatsu.
(BTW, your embedding of the uTube video worked fine for me.)
Prokofiev and Myaskovsky were very close friends fr their entire adult lives. They often offered each other feedback n compositions that were "in process." So it's appropriate that the first half if the recital features these two friends.
Yes, Yakov can be a bit uneven. I agree that his Scriabin was not top flight. I much prefer him with more romantic repertoire. I heard him perform (same venue) Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" one afternoon. Previously, I could never warm up to that music. It just seemed flat and uninspired to me. But his performance breathed life into it. As with many artists, I think he has matured over the years, secure in his position teaching and as artist-in-residence. Since my friend who hosts these chamber music series sponsored Kasman's immigration to the U.S. and was influential in getting him settled academically, Yakov has played recitals pretty regularly over the years at friend's home. He's a pretty good "local yokel."
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
It is his daughter's recital today that I originally mentioned as the "local yokel" performance -- and we diverged onto Yakov.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Suggest you have a listen, and look, at the free concert on the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall site by the Young German Philharmonic under Jonathan Nott. Ravel, Mahler, Shostakovich.
They're an excellent group (die junge deutsche Philharmonie). I also have a couple of installments from Nott's Mahler cycle - the performances are. . . shall we say. . . variable, but he certainly has his moments!
I'll watch the video you linked to later today - thanks!
Really appreciate the post, Chris.
You and I have interacted for a few years now about the younger musicians. We must help our younger people grow, and they have potential to be outstanding.
My take is no, they're not as good as big names, but they work hard, often understand the music, and play with intensity and art. Kudos to their teachers and conductors, like you.
I am sure you've heard or read such stories before, but the weekend prior to their NY trip, my kid (co-president violinist) complained, "no one is disciplining them and they're not practicing (the younger players), the conductor won't say anything, and we're going to Tully Hall." She was pretty upset (rare). But God answered prayers, as we say and they won. Forgive me, yes, I posted this before, the YT copy (link) of my kid's public high school orchestra performance in NY from 2015.
As for younger soloists, when I am free, I listen to From The Top, which plays weekly at 6 pm on KUSC.org, don't know when in the Bay Area. Remarkable.
High schools aside, the quality of playing of American (and European, and Asian) regional orchestras and artists has never been higher. Today's Conservatory orchestras play 20th Century pieces with aplomb, that baffled the original artists.
, Just because a scrappy provincial English orchestra got reviewed by Gramaphone does not mean it is superior.
I think Wm. Kempff began the trend of perfect recordings (ie 100 takes with 99 tape splices!) There is a frisson in a live performance that you don't get from a canned one, and at least for me, local talent is generally affordable. I might add that my local band is the BSO at Tangelwood (lawn seats!) tempered with artist-graduation performances at from McGill music programme!
I'd only add that perhaps there's more variability with the locals (although that in itself can lend a certain excitement to a performance!). And even provincial British orchestras don't sound scrappy (to me at least) these days. ;-)
I know that, to some, this thread may read as a "Praise of Mediocrity", but it's really a celebration of how widespread high-level attainments in music have become. And I don't want to be misunderstood - the pianist in my OP who I claimed performed parts of Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 3 better than Richter also performed other parts worse than Richter. But overall, I still thought it was an amazing and rewarding performance.
I suppose it also has to do with expectations. My expectations of the international touring musicians are high, and, often, the performances don't live up to these expectations. OTOH, with local musicians, I'm not expecting as much, and the performances often surpass my expectations! ;-)
I don't think there is enough of a trend one way or another to make a broad claim. I know several local musicians, members of the L.A. Phil and even students that I believe are as good as or in some cases better than some well known soloists. But certainly it goes the other way as well and much more so in many cases. It's a lot like food. You can't judge the quality by the price tag but the best usually is more than the price of a Happy Meal.
What's the threshold at which a given listener becomes satisfied (as the guy said, where the best are better, but not THAT much better)? It's going to be a different threshold for each person, but I was surprised that there seems to be a chunk of the overall audience (and I don't know how sizable this chunk is) where, indeed, good enough IS good enough.
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