Latest News!     12/28/08

Events of Reactions to the Record II

There are some remarkable events planned for this symposium which you won't want to miss!

Charles Rosen! Distinguished scholar, and performer Rosen will be with us for all three days of the symposium. He will be performing on Friday evening at 8pm and lecturing Saturday at 11am on "Fetishes and Performance Practice." He will also be on a panel discussion Friday at 4:45pm on the "Future of Performance."

"Future of Performance": Joseph Horowitz, author of numerous books including "Classical Music in America" will be with us as well! He will take up the issue of the "Future of Performance" in his 3:30 lecture and will then lead a panel discussion that will consider what new directions classical music performance will take in the coming years.

Classical Improvisation Contest! In a truly unique experience for audiences today, we will have two expert improvising pianists, Genadi Zagor and William Cheng in a mock contest improvising on themes submitted by the audience. This harkens back to the great improvisation duels in the history of music between Beethoven and Steibelt and Liszt and Thalberg among others! This is a rare opportunity to experience improvisation out of the context of popular and jazz idioms. We will have a discussion with the pianists immediately following and consider the role improvisation might play in today's classical music world!

Pianola! Do you know what a Pianola is? Did you know that there were musicians who played pianolas as an instrument professionally? We will have one of the only remaining professional 'pianolists' in attendance, Rex Lawson from Great Britain! He will introduce us to the lesser-known world of mechanical pianos and you won't believe how surprisingly musical they can be! This event will be Saturday afternoon at 1:30pm. Rex Lawson will then perform on the Saturday evening concert and will give an exciting solo recital on Sunday evening at Stanford University (both at 8pm). Don't miss this very rare opportunity to hear a viruoso pianolist live! Click 'Concert Details' for the full programming information!

Rare recordings! We will be unveiling a significant newly discovered recording by a well-known artist (to remain a mystery until after we hear it!) from c.1930. It is a world premiere performance and will soon be released on CD! We will also hear very rare recordings by violinist August Wihelmj from the 1890s (which have never been released commercially!). Some of these will be played on beautiful phonographs from the collection of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound!

Russian Cylinders First Hearing! Did you hear about the newly discovered Russian cylinders made in 1890s with the first ever recordings of Anton Arensky, Paul Pabst, Sergei Taneyev, and Anna Essipova among others! We will preview some of the material from the recent Marston Records release with context and discussion of the contents from our panel of experts! See http://www.marstonrecords.com for more information.

"Joachim" in Performance! We have with us David Milsom, violinist and author of the book "Nineteenth Century Violin Practice." He is one of the first string players in the world to consider fully the potential for a nineteenth-century performance practice revival. We all know what it means to be a "Baroque" violinist, right? But might we be witnessing the birth of a new category of "Romantic" violinist? He will lecture on Thursday morning and will be performing in the style of the great nineteenth-century violinist Joseph Joachim on the Thursday evening concert (playing Brahms Violin Sonata No.2 in A Major, Op.100) with Stanford pianist Kumaran Arul!

Early Singers on Record! Well known musicologist, critic, author and conductor Will Crutchfield is one of the world's authorities on historical vocal recordings and nineteenth century style. He has been using the styles he has studied and written about with singers that he works with. Rebecca Plack, soprano, is one of his former students and a scholar of early vocal recordings in her own right. They will collaborate on a unique project of bringing to life early vocal styles and will discuss the process of working with unfamiliar techniques in their Thursday afternoon workshop. Then on Friday evening, we will have a chance to witness the fruits of their labor in the evening concert (8pm)!

Concerts! There are EIGHT exciting concerts planned for the symposium! These varied programs include Charles Rosen, one of the great pianists of our day (Friday evening). We are also featuring some bold new classical artists making music in the passionate, vivid styles they've heard on early recordings. This makes for exciting and unique performances that point the direction to a new future! We have two pianists who specialize in romantic music improvisation, something rarely heard today! And we have some stellar young performers for the Thursday midday concert (at 1:30pm) who will perform Brahms chamber works and virtuoso solo piano transcriptions! And of course don't miss Rex Lawson on Pianola (Saturday and Sunday evenings!) Check "Concert Programs" for full programming details!