More Music, More Hope
Greetings,
In case you missed it. Find a good sound system and a large screen. Invite a few friends. Pour adult beverages of choice for all. Agree to 45 minutes of silence. Turn off all other electronic devices. Listen and watch a recording of Yunchan Lim playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 this past June with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by the renowned Marin Alsop. Open your heart and close your eyes whenever and as often as you wish… for as long as you may wish. Just keep listening. (YouTube provides several options)
Grant me a moment to make the case for why you should make the effort and take the time.
First, it’s a stunning performance of an amazing piece of music, perhaps the most difficult piece ever written for piano. You won’t need to see the classical music audience going wild at the end to know that. The performance transcends genres. In fact, its magnificence overpowers them. It’s simply astounding music. Undoubtedly, had Billy Preston (legendary rock key board player and nearly the fifth Beatle) been there he would have been among the first to rise from his seat and applaud heartily.
Second, collaboration across time, generations, nationality, race and gender. A young South Korean male performing a composition by a turn of the 20th century Russian conducted by a 65-year-old American woman, the first woman ever to lead a major American orchestra (and others in Brazil, Britain, and Vienna), and with a symphony orchestra populated with oh so many faces of humanity. In this production, talent reigns as very different looking human beings, all highly practiced individually and collectively, make great music in a time of worldwide strife, division, and, too often, dangerously self-serving incompetence. Together, all of these musicians show that we humans can still make great music (literally and figuratively), and in this case led by a woman old enough to be the main performer’s grandmother and in concert with a long dead composer and a very much alive and diverse orchestra.
Third, Marin Alsop’s conducting-- her control/direction/guidance of the orchestra--her role, theirs, and a clearly developed leadership relationship of trust in support of the work at hand and the excellence being pursued. She seems well aware of the superlative nature of this performance, occasionally taking visible delight as she drives everyone forward. She manifests clear respect even admiration and affection for Lim—and he manifests his for her. If you harbor any doubt of the tightness of their collaboration, concentrate on their interconnection over the final three minutes or so of the performance as they ‘bring it all home’. Further, note her closing tear and their prolonged and mutual celebratory embrace. She has left it all ‘on the field’. Keeping her back to the audience and partially shielded from them, she leans against the piano, supported by it as Lim congratulates the orchestra and then takes his bows amidst the relentless applause and collegial or peer praise of praise from the orchestra, all accomplished professional musicians themselves: string players tapping (many actually banging) their music stands with their bows.
Fourth, the occasion: the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The best of the best from around the world compete every four years for an award named after one of the finest pianists of all time, an American born in Louisiana and buried in Fort Worth. Van Cliburn was so good and music so potentially transcendent, that as an American competing in Moscow in 1958 as the cold war ‘raged’, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition at 23. Lim is 18 and the youngest Van Cliburn gold medalist ever. The silver medalist? Anna Geniushene, a Russian. The bronze medalist? Dmytro Choni, a Ukrainian.
Finally, David Bowie particularly appreciated Rachmaninoff, just listen to a little Rachmaninoff and then listen to Bowie’s Life on Mars. A reporter once asked Bowie which classical composer he liked the most. To paraphrase Bowie’s playful response, ‘Rachmaninoff, of course. How can you not like a composer with ‘rock’ {sic} in his name?!’
For all the above reasons, enjoy, even savor, the music and think of peaceful, respectful, and admiring cooperation among well led, dedicated, talented, and diverse people from around our world. Breathe deeply and, as John Lennon sang, imagine.
Be well.
Paddle on.
Greg
Two notes:
I found this Economist article of particular value in preparing this newsletter.
This newsletter is the second that I’ve dedicated to hope arising from music.This is the first.