Here's a mystery: The piano is a box of gadgets -- strings, rods, pins, hinges, levers, shanks, screws and iron. With 7,500 parts, it is a factory of sound. So, we ask ourselves: How does a contraption sing? This is the great gift of a piano — the point at which hammers and steel give way to the animation of feeling. At my next class, April 30, we will explore the piano and the pianists who make magic with it. We will hear the piano as birds, fountains, fireworks, a harp, a singer's voice, a three-part conversation and striving to sound like an entire orchestra. Here is one example: the piano as flamenco guitar. Spanish pianist Luis Fernando Pérez performs Isaac Albeniz's thrilling "Leyenda" ("Legend"). Join us!
4 p.m. April 30, Classic Pianos, 3003 SE Milwaukie & Powell Blvd., Portland OR, $20, payable at the door. To register, call 503-546-5622, or email Peggie Zackery at peggie@classicalportland.com
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I know it's only April, but I've been thinking about the next series of music appreciation classes and what I would like to offer. This is one of the most fun parts -- deciding what to include and how to connect the pieces so each class has a compelling theme. Once again, Classic Pianos has been wonderfully generous in offering its recital hall for classes. Here are the dates, all at 4 p.m. on Sundays at Classic Pianos in southeast Portland. Sept. 24 Oct. 29 Nov. 19 Dec. 3 Jan. 21 Feb. 11 March 25 April 29 May 20 Themes will include: Musical mavericks: The murders and madrigals of Renaissance composer Don Carlo Gesualdo, and how Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Charles Ives, Lou Harrison and Steve Reich changed music forever. Intimate conversations: The intricate art of chamber music in classic works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Shostakovich and Messiaen. Choral gems: The great masterworks, including Bach's Mass in B Minor, Mozart's Mass in C Minor, shorter works of Brahms, plus astonishing choral music from around the world. Do orchestras really need conductors? Deconstructing the mysteries of the podium, with examples from Beecham, Toscanini, Furtwangler, Karajan, Kleiber, Celibidache, Bernstein and Dudamel. David and Goliath: We explore the great concertos, where a single musician goes up against an entire orchestra, in works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Bartok and Adams. American majesty: What makes music American? We dive into the richness and variety of Stephen Foster, John Philip Sousa, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Terry Riley, John Adams and Portland's own Kenji Bunch. Great singers: We admire the expressive and virtuosic singers who made their mark on history: Caruso, Corelli, Flagstad, Callas, Caballe, Price, Nilsson, Sutherland, Pavarotti, Bartoli, Fleming and others. Folk-inspired music: Many composers, from Chopin and Brahms to Bartok, Astor Piazzolla and Osvaldo Golijov, found inspiration in folk music, transforming their work while keeping it grounded in the beauty of folk traditions. Timeless Symphonies: Another deep dive into orchestral works we love, as we deconstruct Mozart's G Minor Symphony, Sibelius' Second and Copland's Third Symphony, which contains "Fanfare for the Common Man." Please join us! We heard some beautiful music, Sunday, and I want to thank everyone who came. This was an unusual class because this deeply reflective music can be difficult to listen to, one slow piece after another. Over our lifetimes, we build up associations with works such as Elgar's "Nimrod" and Barber's "Adagio for Strings" that can be painful and sad. Thank you for sticking with me! Here's what we heard: Allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony: Christian Thielmann conducts the Vienna Philharmonic: https://youtu.be/JNnuN8-wlwY Franz Biebl's Ave Maria: Chanticleer performs: https://youtu.be/9WSbq3TCcd0 "Nimrod" from "Enigma Variations" by Edward Elgar: Colin Davis conducts the London Symphony Orchestra: https://youtu.be/aqvOVGCt5lw Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony: Herbert von Karajan conducts the Berlin Philharmonic: https://youtu.be/Les39aIKbzE "At the River" by Aaron Copland: William Warfield, bass-baritone, Copland conducts the Columbia Symphony: https://youtu.be/liIePs_-ULQ Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber: Dover String Quartet: https://youtu.be/lKrxPTePXEQ "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" by Henryk Gorecki, David Zinman conducts the London Sinfonietta, Dawn Upshaw, soprano. We heard the second movement, starting at minute 26:48. https://youtu.be/Mcfy3UmnyDY "In Paradisum" from Gabriel Faure's Requiem: Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Choeur Accentus, conducted by Laurence Equilbey. "In Paradisum" starts at minute 33:15. https://youtu.be/PnQl18sVyig Just to change the subject from music for a moment, I wanted to mention a bike ride I'm doing with my brother, this summer. Nothing to do with music! Bear with me while I figure out how to categorize this under "Cycling." Beginning in June, Martin, and I are cycling across the country. We start in Astoria, Oregon on June 18 and arrive in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Aug. 7. Marty and I started a bike blog about how we're training -- soggily -- and how we're fueling, gearing up and feeling about the ride. We hope you'll follow along. I enjoyed talking about music of grieving to Dave Miller on Oregon Public Broadcasting's program, "Think Out Loud," yesterday. We had an engaging conversation about why sad music is pleasurable to listen to and the difference between sad music and grieving music. I think there are subtle distinctions. We also had time to hear snippets of some gorgeous music. If you'd like to hear a preview of my class on grieving music, March 26, you can listen to yesterday's segment here. Sad music can be some of the most beautiful in the world. And researchers are discovering why melancholy music has such a powerful effect on us. In my next class, March 26, we will listen to music of the gravest beauty: The consoling serenity of "In Paradisum" from Gabriel Faure's Requiem; the rising heartbreak of the Allegretto from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony; the nostalgia of the simple American folksong, "Long Time Ago" and the noble power of "Nimrod" from Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations." Plus works by Bach, Schubert, Mahler and Gorecki. Some scientists think melancholy music is linked to the hormone prolactin, a chemical that helps curb grief. The body prepares itself to adapt to a traumatic event, but when that event doesn't occur, the brain is left with a pleasurable mix of opiates with nowhere to go. We like to listen to sad music because it can amplify the feelings of sorrow and loss, says Tuomas Eerola, professor of music cognition at Durham University. These experiences often aren’t pleasurable, but reflecting on them can be therapeutic, he says in a story on Lifehacker. Melancholy, often thought of as a negative feeling, can actually enrich creativity. People who listen to sad music may simply enjoy “being moved.” I know I am one of those people. I bet you are, too. In a recent study led by Eerola, published in Frontiers of Psychology, many participants who listened to sad-sounding music described feeling “intense, pleasurable, and yet sad emotions” all at once. "Additionally, the same participants showed high levels of “empathic concern,” or the ability to empathize with someone’s perceived emotion while also feeling tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for them," writes Patrick Allan. "Basically, if you’re a highly empathetic person, there’s a good chance you feel a whirlwind of emotions when you listen to sad music -- and you probably find it enjoyable overall." "Empathy is one of the most important skills you can develop because it can strengthen your relationships and make you a happier, more gracious person." Come find out more, as we listen to these and other examples of powerfully beautiful music. My next class, Sunday, is all about endings: triumphant, hushed, sarcastic, unfinished, funny.
But here’s the thing about endings. We remember openings better than closings. Think of the beginning to Bach’s thundering Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, or Grieg’s Piano Concerto, or Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” Same in literature: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” — “A Tale of Two Cities.” “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” — “Pride and Prejudice.” “Four score and seven years ago…” — The Gettysburg Address. On Sunday, I explore great endings that will linger in the memory long after the music stops: Mahler’s First Symphony, where the French horn players stand for the heroic finale; the thrilling close of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, when the pianist rivals the entire orchestra for sound and glory; the hushed benediction of old age in Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs”: “Oh further, silent peace! So profound at sunset.” We’ll have fun starting at the end. Please join us! 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, $20, payable at the door. Classic Pianos, 3003 S.E. Milwaukie Ave. in southeast Portland, next to the Aladdin Theater at the corner of Milwaukie and Powell Blvd. Parking: You may park in the store's parking lot behind the store or in the unreserved spaces in the Brooklyn Pharmacy parking lot. You may also park on 11th Ave., the one-way street behind the store, accessed from Powell Blvd. And you can find ample neighborhood parking on Franklin, as well as 10th Ave. Store contact: Peggie Zackery: 503-546-5622; peggie@classicportland.com davidstabler1@gmail.com Web site: davidstabler.net Sarah Chang, Yuja Wang, Vladimir Horowitz: Why prodigies and virtuosos are not like you and me1/22/2017 This is going to be fun.
For my next class, I’m going to do something a little different. Instead of focusing on the music and its meaning, I thought just this once, it would be fun to focus on the performers. Generally, we want to resist the cult of stars and celebrities. They come and go and they often have egos the size of Utah, which puts attention in the wrong place. But for this class, I thought it would be fun to look at a dozen performers who have done extraordinary things without obstructing their art. Performers fascinate us because we enjoy watching someone do something well. And almost all accomplished performers — let’s call them virtuosos — start out early. Many of them were child prodigies; children who do adult things astonishingly well. So, we are going to look at two types of musicians: prodigies and virtuosos. We will thrill to videos of young-and-old violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Joshua Bell. We will see the great Bejun Mehta as a boy soprano and then, years later, as a formidable adult countertenor. We will watch the violinist Sarah Chang dazzle as a 14-year-old and as a poised adult. We will also shake our heads in disbelief at the artistry of such virtuosos as pianists Martha Argerich, Glenn Gould and Yuja Wang, the incomparable mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and old lions Vladimir Horowitz and Jascha Heifetz. No, they are not like you and me. Or, as Tom Lehrer, the singer, songwriter and satirist, put it: “It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.” 4 p.m. Jan. 29, Classic Pianos, 3003 SE Milwaukie & Powell Blvd., Portland. 503-546-5622. Join us! I am writing to apologize for an unfortunate incident that approaches. My Feb. 5 class is the same day as the Super Bowl. I did not think to check when I booked the dates last summer — beginner’s mistake! I tried moving the date, but Classic Pianos had no other Sundays available, so I am going ahead with the class, knowing many of you will rightly want to stay home.
I have booked dates for 2017-18 and avoided all important conflicts — Super Bowl, Easter, Tax Day, Epiphanies, Equinoxes. See you Jan. 29 for some major fun with Prodigies and Virtuosos. We braved a lot of musical weather in my class, Sunday, from the ravishing daybreak of "Daphnis et Chloe" to the fierce mountain storm of Richard Strauss' "Alpine Symphony" to the surging tides of "Become Ocean" by John Luther Adams. I had a blast putting this class together. Thanks to everyone who made time on the last Sunday before Christmas. Here's the list of music and links to the YouTube videoes we watched. 1.“Daphnis et Chloe,” Suite No. 2, Maurice Ravel Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa: https://youtu.be/amGl9Qmgu7E 2. Claude Debussy plays his “Jardins sous la pluie” (“Gardens in the Rain”): https://youtu.be/c0VZoprw03g 3. “Der Leiermann” (“The Hurdy Gurdy Man”), the last song from “Winterreise,” Franz Schubert: https://youtu.be/tnuvs2w7ges. Ian Bostridge, tenor, Saskia Giorgini, piano. This is the entire song cycle. “Der Leiermann” starts at 1:11:13. 4. Sea Interlude: Storm from “Peter Grimes,” Benjamin Britten: https://youtu.be/J20ROYLZfX0. BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner, London, BBC Proms, 2010. This clip contains all four Interludes. “Storm” starts at 11:43, to the end. 5. “Alpine Symphony,” Richard Strauss: https://youtu.be/FQhpWsRhQGs, Vienna Philharmonic, Bernard Haitink, BBC Proms 2012. The storm starts at 36:24. 6. Storm from “William Tell” Overture, Gioachino Rossini: https://youtu.be/_n52_yLz2hs, Halle Orchestra, Mark Elder, BBC Proms 2004. Start at 2:55 to the end. 7. Storm scene from “Rigoletto,” Giuseppe Verdi, “Ah, più non ragiono!” (“Ah, my reason has left me”): https://youtu.be/VpXJIjpH2E0 8. “Winter Wind” Etude, Op. 25, No. 11, Frederic Chopin: https://youtu.be/YJMIIxm1bGo Maurizio Pollini, piano 9. “Become Ocean,” John Luther Adams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGva1NVWRXk&feature=youtu.be Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot 10. “Morning Mood” from “Peer Gynt,” Edvard Grieg: https://youtu.be/-rh8gMvzPw0 Spanish Radio and TV Orchestra, Guillermo Garcia Calvo |
AuthorDavid Stabler is a teacher, writer, dad and cyclist. He's working on a novel based on his childhood years living in Africa. In 2017, he rode across America with his brother. Archives
December 2020
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