For some years, I have been arguing that music is a form of thinking. (See prior posts
here, published in 2011, and here, 2010.) I realize that this statement would likely be obvious to most musicians, but I still receive push-back to it from those people (especially many philosophers) who believe that thinking requires words. In this belief, they are mistaken. Even with other forms of thinking (geometric, visual, musical, kinetic, etc), though, we may still need words to explain our thinking to others.
Author Archive for peter
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Celebrity page turners
Pianist Roger Woodward in his memoir, Beyond Black and White, (2014, Kindle Edition, location 5265):
Violin virtuoso George Enescu and acclaimed pianist Arthur Rubinstein were once lunching together at Enescu’s Paris apartment when there was a knock on his door. It was one of Enescu’s violin students, who was beside himself. Enescu tried to calm him down as the student explained that his piano accompanist had telephoned half an hour earlier to say he had fallen ill and was not able to replace him for his debut that evening. Since Enescu was as fine a pianist as violinist, he reassured his student he would accompany him. Rubinstein volunteered to turn pages. Next day, one of the Paris critics described the concert in the following way: “Except for the fact that the pianist should have played the violin, the page-turner the piano, and violinist the pages, the concert was memorable.” “
Woodward tells this story when recounting a rehearsal of Iannis Xenakis’ Eonta in UCLA in March 1972 under Zubin Mehta at which Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod turned up unexpectedly, having braved rioters and police on the UCLA campus to get there. Eventually Messiaen turned Woodward’s pages for him. However, Messiaen, who had been Xenakis’ composition teacher and knew his music (and who was always supportive of his student), first helped the brass players (from the LASO) deal with the many challenges and mis-prints in their parts for Eonta.
Four pianists enter a bar (in Paris, in 1832)
Felix Mendelssohn stayed in Paris between December 1831 and April 1832. His stay overlapped with those of fellow-pianists and friends Frederick Chopin, Franz Liszt and Ferdinand Hiller. Hiller later wrote an account of his long friendship with Mendelssohn, telling the following story.
At the time (early 1832), all four men were were aged between 20 and 23. Mendelssohn had earlier met and heard Chopin play in Munich and was greatly impressed with his abilities. The story concerns a meeting the four had with Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), a German pianist, teacher and composer, who was influential in Parisian music circles. Mendelssohn had known Kalkbrenner from Berlin, and suspected him of faking improvisations (ie, playing a written piece from memory while telling people it was improvised). Kalkbrenner had further angered Mendelssohn by insisting, upon meeting Chopin in Paris, that Chopin take his group piano classes to “improve” his technique. Chopin, too polite to refuse, did so for a time.
I remember that one day, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and I [Hiller], had established ourselves in front of a cafe on Boulevard des Italians, at a season and an hour when our presence there was very exceptional. Suddenly, we saw Kalkbrenner coming along. It was his great ambition always to represent the perfect gentleman, and knowing how extremely disagreeable it would be to him to meet such a noisy company, we surrounded him in the friendliest manner, and assailed him with such a volley of talk that he was nearly driven to despair, which of course delighted us. Youth has no mercy.”
Ferdinand Hiller [1874]: Mendelssohn: Letters and Recollections. (Translated by M. E. von Glehn). Macmillan. Page 26.
Concert Concat 2025
This post is one in a sequence which lists (mostly) live music I have heard, as best as memory allows. I write to have a record of my musical experiences and these entries are intended as postcards from me to my future self. All opinions are personal, although music historians from the 25th Century may find some of them of interest.
Other posts in this collection can be found here. The most recent prior post in this sequence is here.
- Kasparas Mikužis in a recital at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London on Friday 14 February 2025. The program was:
- Beethoven: “Moonlight” Sonata, op. 27, no. 2
- Chopin: Nocturne op. 55 no. 2
- Chopin: Ballade no. 3, op. 47
- Chopin: Preludes op. 28, no. 17-24
- Interval
- Rachmaninoff: Sonata op. 28, no. 1
Recent Viewing 2024
This post is the latest in a sequence of lists of recently-viewed streamed TV and movies (in reverse chrono order).
- The Recruit (Season 2)
- Conclave (movie)
- Departure
The Year 2025
The year 2025 is a square number, since 2025 = 45 * 45. The adjacent years which are also squares are 1936 = 44 * 44 and 2116 = 46 * 46. There will be people who are alive for two of these three years, but nobody for all three (unless human lifespans increase dramatically for people born before 1937).
A Harshad number (aka a Niven number) is a number which is evenly divisible by the sum of its digits, eg, the number 24 is evenly divisible by 6, the sum of 2 + 4. The number 2025 is evenly divisible by 9 (the sum of 2 + 0 + 2 + 5), so it is a Harshad number. Likewise, the past three years are all evenly divisible by the sum of their respective digits: 2022, 2023 and 2024.
A sequence of four Harshad years in a row like this (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) is quite rare. The last time this happened was a millenium ago, in the year 1014, and the next time it will happen will be in the year 3030, a millenium ahead of us.
I feel privileged to be alive at this particular time to witness this sequence!
The sequence of numbers which begin four Harshad numbers in a row are shown at the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences here.
Recent Reading 21
The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books, listed in reverse chronological order.
- Patricia Ludgate [2016] Butterflies of a Brief Summer: Memoires – Les souvenirs sont faits de tels moments. MoshPit Publishing. This is a very personal memoir by the wife of pianist Roger Woodward, who traveled the world, mostly as a member of the Australian diplomatic corps. The detail of the narrative in places could only be possible if she had kept a diary at the time, but there are large gaps in the story and much is omitted. For example, how exactly did she come to join the Foreign Service? Is it really true that she just wrote a cold letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the next thing was being posted overseas? I wonder if she had some intelligence role. I had not realized until reading her account that even junior Australian foreign service officers traveled first class when flying on business.
When I read Mr Woodward’s memoir, I was disappointed that he had said so little about his relationship with Ms Ludgate, but her account has too much information about her relationships. I would have preferred she had said less.
- Roger Woodward [2014]: Beyond Black and White. ABC Books. This book is in two parts, with the first being a memoir of the author’s fascinating life as a concert pianist. Not many Australians spent the decade from 1964 in Poland, for example. The second part of the book – and just as interesting to me – is an account of his relationships with various contemporary composers. These accounts are riveting, even though the author tries to be fair in his recounting of events.
Mr Woodward does, it seems, like a good list, an affinity I fully share. The editing might have been better (eg, we find composer Pascal Dusapin listed twice in one list).
- Tess Livingstone [2024]: George Cardinal Pell: Pax Invictis, A Biography. Ignatius Press, Second edition (originally published in 2002), revised. Kindle Edition. Foreword by George Weigel.
Characters in films
Luca Guadagnino, director of the movie “Queer” (quoted in The New York Times, 20 November 2024):
Every movie is a documentary about the actor playing the character.”
Poor writing from famous writers
I have long thought Australian author Thomas Keneally writes very badly, at least in his mother tongue. A stunning new example of his poor writing skills is the opening sentence – the opening sentence, mind! – of an invited letter that appears in the latest issue of the Australian long-form magazine, Quarterly Essay (Issue 96, November 2024, page 91). Keneally’s words:
What I like about Watson’s mind is his capacity to connect the mytho-poetic to the political, and he can do it without hearing from him, generally, any grunt of effort.”
Animals
Animals
The lion died.
The moons over the forest faded.
The surface was flooded
with mournful tears.
Herons, rats, and hydras
gathered in the raspberry patch,
praying until morning,
chanting hymns.
By morning in the raspberry patch,
everything became unclear:
there’s no one to pray to,
no one to fear.
The elephant started waltzing.
Vermicelli – leeches
began indulging
in women and drunkenness.
With a ruler,
compass, and template,
a frightening scarecrow
was drawn by the lynx.
The animals, astonished,
terrified beyond measure,
fell to their knees
beside the scarecrow.
Everything in the raspberry batch
became clear to the fullest:
there is
someone to pray to,
there is
someone to fear.
– Victor Sosnora (1936-2019)
From In Search of Entertainment (1960-1962)
(translated by and thanks to AD)