Lewenthals's own (circa 1955) liner notes:
" Scriabin's 24 Preludes,Op.11, were, no doubt,inspired by Chopin's, but they have their own charm and poetry.Salon music some of them, but would that we heard such music in salons these days! "
"Some are slightly naughty;there is a certain indolent grace;the delightful occupation of doing nothing.Some, looking innocuous enough on paper, are very demons when aroused...gentlemanly demons,but none the less demons.Some have the true bardic ring and some are a little sentimental.Such are the enchanting sounds we should like to hear when,walking in a strange street on a summer evening, we suddenly hear the elegant,cool tones of a distant piano..."
"The Fantasie is true concert-grand piano music of immense grandeur and sweep...in art a superabundance of enthusiasm is certainly preferable to a lack of it,for time can mellow and temper a surfeit,but it cannot put enthusiasm where it never existed before..."
"Demonism had for Scriabin as great an appeal as it had for Liszt...Vers la Flamme is one of those keyboard works which demonstrate the piano's immense powers of evoking the entire orchestra.Transfer it to the orchestra and it would lose its tremendous impact..."
" In his later works Scriabin was fond of strewing extravagant interpretative indications thru the printed score.Fanatstic as they often seem at first, they are an aid to the player in evoking the mood the composer wants. "Douloureux dechirant " he writes for the first of the Op.74 Preludes,and the piece seems to be the sad shreds of humanity torn asundert by the catastrophe (WW I ). No.2, "Tres Lent contemplatif" the numbness of one deep in thought.In the midst of No.3 he writes "comme un cri"--like a shriek of remembrance.No.4, "Lent,vague,indecis"--slow,vague,undecided.No.5, "Fier,belliquez"--proud,warlike. A phoenix rising from the ashes."
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
A purist sounds off - by Vivien Schweitzer
A purist sounds off
By Vivien Schweitzer
Financial Times
September 6 2005
No one who meets Louis Lortie can be in any doubt that he prefers to go his own route. Venting his frustration with record companies and concert programmers, the 46-year-old French-Canadian pianist says artists should think for themselves, "but most organisations don't allow that. Soloists end up collaborating with conductors they don't know. There is no musical logic when two artist agencies decide their musicians should work together just because they can make more money."Lortie is not alone in feeling constrained by the rigidity of the music industry, but such outspokenness is rare - and may explain why less gifted pianists have had faster careers. The child of unmusical parents, he grew up in suburban Montreal, where his musical curiosity was piqued at the age of seven after hearing his grandmother play. For Lortie, the advantage of this unremarkable, un-Bohemian childhood was that "I came from scratch and had to form my own musical ideas". As he explains in his New York hotel on the eve of a recent Mozart concerto performance at Lincoln Center, these ideas often clash with the robotic schedules and artistic restrictions imposed by a fast-paced, marketing-driven world."Mozart concertos," he continues in his lightly accented English, "were never written to be played with a conductor; it's almost an absurdity. At least if they put people together they should put people together who they know will fit together, otherwise the stakes are very high. You just don't play magical Mozart if you don't rehearse enough. It's not like a big Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich that every orchestra member has played and the conductor can just pull along. All music needs time, but particularly Mozart. A missed note is more of a catastrophe than with other composers."While it seems fair to describe Lortie as a perfectionist, he prefers the (sometimes imperfect) spontaneity of live recordings, which "give a more exact image of who I am as a musician".Lortie has made more than 30 recordings on the Chandos label, but fell out with them over differences in recording techniques. He will soon be working with a new label, which he avoids identifying, except to venture that it's one where he will enjoy "total freedom".His first release on the new label is to be the complete Beethoven sonatas, which he believes will be the first live cycle ever recorded. Lortie finds the constraints of studio recording "very frustrating". Most labels have their own sound, he explains, and want their artists to record in certain halls with certain microphones. "Even as a youngster I could listen to recordings and recognise the Decca sound, then figure out who was playing by remembering who was on that label. And that's terrible! It's more interesting for the audience to hear you with the acoustics of a small wooden hall than a huge hall. It's like they're travelling with you."Having no control over which piano he performs on is another irritant. "Thank God there are still several recording companies on the market, but you still have one piano brand [Steinway] that is in 99 per cent of concert halls. Imagine if you had only one brand of car to ride in! It's a communist idea and it doesn't work in a free society. I always ask what pianos are available, but [staff] don't like to bother as it's too much trouble with unions to move pianos around. I have discovered sometimes after the concert that there were other pianos in the hall. I think this is really repulsive; it's treating us like machines and I have no mercy for this kind of attitude."One composer Lortie shies away from is Bach. "I love his music," he says, "but I have a problem with Bach at the piano. I learned the harpsichord as a teenager, and if you give me Bach and there is a piano and a harpsichord I will sit at the harpsichord." In support of his Canadian colleague Angela Hewitt, who is due to give a Bach-on-the-piano recital later that evening, he diplomatically assures me, however, that he doesn't have any "pre-conceived ideas" about other people playing Bach on the instrument. On the contemporary side, Lortie has a particular affinity for Thomas Adès, whom he calls "a great genius. Many composers can flick a baton, but Adès can really perform," he adds.In the taxi over to Lincoln Center to hear Hewitt, Lortie can't find his ticket and jokes that he is jetlagged from the trip down from Montreal, where he has spent several weeks swimming, biking and enjoying the mountains at his country house.He frets about the dirty air in New York, describing himself as "a little bit of a freak. I do so much travelling through dirty and unhealthy cities that I'm obsessed with pure air and food." But perhaps it is this obsession with purity that has earned Lortie critical praise for his freshness of interpretation, insight and individuality.Louis Lortie plays with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra on September 17 and 18, the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam) on September 28, 29 and 30, and the Dallas Symphony on October 20, 21, 22 and 23
By Vivien Schweitzer
Financial Times
September 6 2005
No one who meets Louis Lortie can be in any doubt that he prefers to go his own route. Venting his frustration with record companies and concert programmers, the 46-year-old French-Canadian pianist says artists should think for themselves, "but most organisations don't allow that. Soloists end up collaborating with conductors they don't know. There is no musical logic when two artist agencies decide their musicians should work together just because they can make more money."Lortie is not alone in feeling constrained by the rigidity of the music industry, but such outspokenness is rare - and may explain why less gifted pianists have had faster careers. The child of unmusical parents, he grew up in suburban Montreal, where his musical curiosity was piqued at the age of seven after hearing his grandmother play. For Lortie, the advantage of this unremarkable, un-Bohemian childhood was that "I came from scratch and had to form my own musical ideas". As he explains in his New York hotel on the eve of a recent Mozart concerto performance at Lincoln Center, these ideas often clash with the robotic schedules and artistic restrictions imposed by a fast-paced, marketing-driven world."Mozart concertos," he continues in his lightly accented English, "were never written to be played with a conductor; it's almost an absurdity. At least if they put people together they should put people together who they know will fit together, otherwise the stakes are very high. You just don't play magical Mozart if you don't rehearse enough. It's not like a big Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich that every orchestra member has played and the conductor can just pull along. All music needs time, but particularly Mozart. A missed note is more of a catastrophe than with other composers."While it seems fair to describe Lortie as a perfectionist, he prefers the (sometimes imperfect) spontaneity of live recordings, which "give a more exact image of who I am as a musician".Lortie has made more than 30 recordings on the Chandos label, but fell out with them over differences in recording techniques. He will soon be working with a new label, which he avoids identifying, except to venture that it's one where he will enjoy "total freedom".His first release on the new label is to be the complete Beethoven sonatas, which he believes will be the first live cycle ever recorded. Lortie finds the constraints of studio recording "very frustrating". Most labels have their own sound, he explains, and want their artists to record in certain halls with certain microphones. "Even as a youngster I could listen to recordings and recognise the Decca sound, then figure out who was playing by remembering who was on that label. And that's terrible! It's more interesting for the audience to hear you with the acoustics of a small wooden hall than a huge hall. It's like they're travelling with you."Having no control over which piano he performs on is another irritant. "Thank God there are still several recording companies on the market, but you still have one piano brand [Steinway] that is in 99 per cent of concert halls. Imagine if you had only one brand of car to ride in! It's a communist idea and it doesn't work in a free society. I always ask what pianos are available, but [staff] don't like to bother as it's too much trouble with unions to move pianos around. I have discovered sometimes after the concert that there were other pianos in the hall. I think this is really repulsive; it's treating us like machines and I have no mercy for this kind of attitude."One composer Lortie shies away from is Bach. "I love his music," he says, "but I have a problem with Bach at the piano. I learned the harpsichord as a teenager, and if you give me Bach and there is a piano and a harpsichord I will sit at the harpsichord." In support of his Canadian colleague Angela Hewitt, who is due to give a Bach-on-the-piano recital later that evening, he diplomatically assures me, however, that he doesn't have any "pre-conceived ideas" about other people playing Bach on the instrument. On the contemporary side, Lortie has a particular affinity for Thomas Adès, whom he calls "a great genius. Many composers can flick a baton, but Adès can really perform," he adds.In the taxi over to Lincoln Center to hear Hewitt, Lortie can't find his ticket and jokes that he is jetlagged from the trip down from Montreal, where he has spent several weeks swimming, biking and enjoying the mountains at his country house.He frets about the dirty air in New York, describing himself as "a little bit of a freak. I do so much travelling through dirty and unhealthy cities that I'm obsessed with pure air and food." But perhaps it is this obsession with purity that has earned Lortie critical praise for his freshness of interpretation, insight and individuality.Louis Lortie plays with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra on September 17 and 18, the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam) on September 28, 29 and 30, and the Dallas Symphony on October 20, 21, 22 and 23
Sleepless night
I had a sleepless night. Thoughts, music, sounds, and visual images just kept crossing my mind. Or I should say clouds of them? Because I cannot seem to crystalize them. Thoughts on students' progress, their future career hardships, attitudes of freshman class, Tchaikovsky Trio melodic lines, Peter, his students, our schedule, Totoro, Tiger, ...
I tried to stop the train of thoughts, but it was at a point that it was easier to just let them float across my mind than stopping them. Oh, how am I going to get through the day with no sleep?
I sent out a few important emails. I felt the need to clarify some requirements and roles my students and I play here in school.
Oh, I only wish I can just be strong and confront when I need to. Yes, Peter is correct, if I don't do so, it would only hurt people I care and myself. Do problems have to turn really ugly before they can be solved?
I tried to stop the train of thoughts, but it was at a point that it was easier to just let them float across my mind than stopping them. Oh, how am I going to get through the day with no sleep?
I sent out a few important emails. I felt the need to clarify some requirements and roles my students and I play here in school.
Oh, I only wish I can just be strong and confront when I need to. Yes, Peter is correct, if I don't do so, it would only hurt people I care and myself. Do problems have to turn really ugly before they can be solved?
Friday, September 02, 2005
Katrina
How come people don't listen to the government? When you are asked to be evacuated, you are to be evacuated. I can understand if you are sick, old, or disable, and unable to do so yourself, but other than that, why take the chance?
On the other hand, what does one do if there are no means to get out? No car/rental car, no bus/plane ticket, no gas, ...
Could this be the reason for such a disaster?
The failing levees allowed the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to inundate the streets of New Orleans on Tuesday. The breach apparently is still not fixed as of today!
Our President, cuts short his month long vacation to oversee the recovery effort. Did I hear that right? United States President has a month long vacation? I don't even get a week long vacation, and our President in the midst of the war with terrorism, nature disaster is on vacation? I am speechless.
Biloxi, a Mississippi city is completely flatten by the hurricane Katrina.
New Orleans is literally a swamp at this point.
Help is on the way. Is it really? How can the most powerful country in the world respond to emergency so incompetently? un-organized, slow with no plan? Bureaucracy is the problem. The second when the emergency status is declared, there should be no obsticle between the help and the needy. The State should not blame the Federal government for lack of better preparation and plan, and Federal should act IMMEDIATELY without any stupid evaluation while it is a TRUE EMERGENCY! Is there no direct communication line from the lowest branch of our Gov. to the highest branch even when there is no electricity? I would surely hope that the most ancient way of communication has not been lost already. Plus if United States of America's government cannot rebuild a communication system quickly, that is truly unbelievable.
What if this is not a nature disaster? What if this is actually a terrorist attack? What kind of the emergency system we have here?
How can people loot, rape, or kill in the middle of all these? Are we not human? Are we not civilized? Are we so primitive still?
As an American, I am ashamed, speechless, troubled, scared, ...
If our system does not work, that is like the foundation of the house is not secure, which means the country is not secure, which means we as Americans are not secure.
Help is on the way, I can only do what I can by donating. Even whenI donate, there is always the fear of this: did my donation really make any difference? If the money is not used to help the people, but is wasted for all the stupid paper work, then what is the point?
It is a troublesome time. The nature is going crazy, the world is going crazy, the people are already crazy, and the gas price is totally out of control.
On the other hand, what does one do if there are no means to get out? No car/rental car, no bus/plane ticket, no gas, ...
Could this be the reason for such a disaster?
"the levees that ring the city have led to the rapid decay of nearby
wetlands during the past century, removing a crucial buffer zone that once
protected the area from hurricanes. Hurricanes quickly lose force when
they hit land, but New Orleans is now vulnerable to violent storms because the
land around it has been rapidly disappearing. Today, New Orleans is almost
completely exposed to the Gulf of Mexico" said Val Marmillion, a consultant for
the America's Wetland group, which is lobbying for the Louisiana coast
area.
"There are almost open water conditions around New Orleans now," Marmillion
said. "Because of wetland loss some areas of Louisiana are no longer protected
at all."
Wetlands act as a "speed bump," slowing down storms almost
like dry land does, said Kip Patrick, spokesman for America's Wetland. "They
take some of the brunt of the force of the hurricane, weakens the storm like any
land mass would."By Bob Sullivan, Technology correspondent, MSNBC - Aug. 29, 2005
The failing levees allowed the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to inundate the streets of New Orleans on Tuesday. The breach apparently is still not fixed as of today!
Our President, cuts short his month long vacation to oversee the recovery effort. Did I hear that right? United States President has a month long vacation? I don't even get a week long vacation, and our President in the midst of the war with terrorism, nature disaster is on vacation? I am speechless.
Biloxi, a Mississippi city is completely flatten by the hurricane Katrina.
New Orleans is literally a swamp at this point.
Help is on the way. Is it really? How can the most powerful country in the world respond to emergency so incompetently? un-organized, slow with no plan? Bureaucracy is the problem. The second when the emergency status is declared, there should be no obsticle between the help and the needy. The State should not blame the Federal government for lack of better preparation and plan, and Federal should act IMMEDIATELY without any stupid evaluation while it is a TRUE EMERGENCY! Is there no direct communication line from the lowest branch of our Gov. to the highest branch even when there is no electricity? I would surely hope that the most ancient way of communication has not been lost already. Plus if United States of America's government cannot rebuild a communication system quickly, that is truly unbelievable.
What if this is not a nature disaster? What if this is actually a terrorist attack? What kind of the emergency system we have here?
How can people loot, rape, or kill in the middle of all these? Are we not human? Are we not civilized? Are we so primitive still?
As an American, I am ashamed, speechless, troubled, scared, ...
If our system does not work, that is like the foundation of the house is not secure, which means the country is not secure, which means we as Americans are not secure.
Help is on the way, I can only do what I can by donating. Even whenI donate, there is always the fear of this: did my donation really make any difference? If the money is not used to help the people, but is wasted for all the stupid paper work, then what is the point?
It is a troublesome time. The nature is going crazy, the world is going crazy, the people are already crazy, and the gas price is totally out of control.
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