Question

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Charles,
                 A great post, very fair and balanced.
Recently, I was faced with a pianist that wanted to practice full tilt
untill curtain time.
I was so miffed that I did not stay for the concert.  The performance got
good reviews, and the Pianist and Ochestra were happy with the end result.
Your post has given me more than a little food for thought, and to accept
that this will happen from time to time.
It is still not a comfortable feeling when you feel your best work is not
on centre stage.
Faceless stage left.
Roger



At 09:28 AM 04/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>It is interesting to see the range of responses this thread has 
>inspired.  Being a recipient of a copy of Horace's excellent letter 
>to the reviewer, I am looking forward to his sharing his letter with 
>the list.  Tempted as I am to share some details, I will content 
>myself to say that Horace discusses in some detail his perception of 
>the present day loss of the skills of fine action set up, regulation, 
>and voicing--skills which he learned from past masters.  Horace 
>apparently deduces from the wording of the reviewer that the piano 
>was not properly prepared.
>
>This may very well be true; however, I posted Horace an account of my 
>experience preparing a piano for Kissin a year ago.  Kissin's 
>management had reserved every available moment in the hall during the 
>day preceding and day of the recital, and he, with the guidance of 
>his teacher, worked tirelessly and relentlessly during the entire 12 
>hours at an intense concert level with a heavy Russian program--right 
>up to curtain time.  Despite my gentle attempts to gain access to the 
>piano for touch up, Kissin, while remaining courteous, dismissed me 
>with the assurance that everything was okay.  Clearly, it meant more 
>to Kissin and his teacher to have the rehearsal time, than for me to 
>have time to refine the tuning and voicing.
>
>The local reviewer commented that the instrument's sound became harsh 
>at times during the many big climaxes.  For my part, I was elated 
>that the piano stood in tune and sounded as good as it did despite 
>the heavy use and deficient prep time.  Furthermore, unlike the 
>Davies Hall piano in Horace's speculations, I flatter myself that 
>this instrument was properly set up, was regulated properly, and that 
>the hammers had the appropriate shape and resiliency.
>
>Horace, in his letter, also shares his insights into Kissin's 
>technique and the acoustics of Davies Hall.  There are also a host of 
>other factors that go into a performance--factors which those of us 
>who are frequently backstage observe from a perspective denied to the 
>public and the critic.  I recently read an account of a late Caruso 
>performance, written by his late son, in which he recalled his 
>anguish at the unkindness of the public and critics toward 
>shortcomings in his father's delivery and stage presence, knowing 
>that they had no idea of the pain, both mental and physical, with 
>which his father performed in his last days, and the professionalism 
>and sense of responsibility that lead him to go on stage even though 
>he was really, unbeknownst to him, probably in the latter stages of 
>lung cancer.
>
>
>So what conclusions may we reach from all this?  Basically that, 
>quite properly, "everyone is a critic", but that the conclusions we 
>reach and the judgments that we make really often say more about us 
>than about the actual situation, about which we rarely have 
>sufficient information to make fully informed judgments.  Was the 
>performance truly flawed?  Is Davies Hall really acoustically 
>deficient?  Was the instrument really inexpertly prepared?  Is 
>Kissin's technique really flawed?  Did he misjudge the limits of the 
>instrument?  Certainly there are objective criteria upon which one 
>can base such judgments; however, criticism is most incisive and 
>persuasive when tempered with humility and compassion.
>
>I believe that Horace's letter could stimulate an excellent 
>discussion about concert preparation techniques of today, contrasted 
>with those of the halcyon days of yore.
>
>
>Charles
>
>
>
>Charles Ball, RPT
>School of Music
>University of Texas at Austin
>ckball@mail.utexas.edu
> 
Roger Jolly
Saskatoon, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505