Notes From a Curious Listener

This program lasts five hours. We'll even be taking a dinner break in the middle. And why do I want to take an entire Sunday afternoon and evening to hear one pianist play? The answer is simple, Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, inspired by his travels throughout Europe, are gorgeous. You may legally download and listen to some of Deuxième année: Italie and decide for yourself.

Another reason is that this concert is quite unique. Marcus Overton, a genuine music aficionado and La Jolla Music Society Consultant for Special Projects, writes,  "...not only is hearing this work in its entirety a rare opportunity, but playing it in its entirety is extremely rare (the physical demands alone are daunting)..." 

So, Louis Lortie has accepted this daunting task of playing the entire work of Années de pèlerinage to celebrate Franz Liszt's 200th birthday. Lortie is also releasing the CD in early 2011.

I'm looking at the La Jolla Music Society Winter Season brochure trying to decide which concert I'm most excited about. Even this beautiful brochure cannot convey the true experience of the concerts. That sentence is a stake through the heart of my friend and blog compatriot, Kristen Sakamoto, LJMS Marketing Director. You see, the marketing team kills itself to make this brochure. They pore through pictures of the performers, discussing for hours - I am not making this up - which to use and where to place them on the page. And, don't get me started on what they go through to choose the wording. With all of this, it is still difficult to tell if a concert is worth the money, time and - let's be honest - hassle of parking. 

During SummerFest, there are many  free opportunities to peek into the lives of musicians. My favorite is the Master Class, where a professional musician who commands high salaries teaches one who doesn't. What could they be learning? Surely these twenty-somethings, who have chosen a career playing classical music, are already technically brilliant. The Master Class uncovers the difference between the experienced and inexperienced and also shows what every musician goes through during their career - many embarrassing classes with demanding teachers.  

For example, at one Master Class last year, Andreas Haefliger, pianist, was teaching a piano trio. He told the pianist that her playing was not strong enough. While many of the students are timid and too nervous to talk to their famous teacher, this one spoke up and said that she was afraid of drowning out the others. He snapped back, "Don't worry about that! Never worry about that!" 

Why had no one ever told her that the piano will not drown out a violin and cello, obvious to any audience member? Surely she had had lessons for most of her life, but perhaps the trio had never had a lesson together. The young pianist got the message and played much stronger thereafter, greatly enhancing the sound.

Remember that guy who comes onstage before each performance? That guy who, when he first arrived, unknowingly fell into the war of the children versus the seals at Children’s Beach by naively saying on-stage how unique it is to have seals so close by? Four and a half years later, he’s fully schooled in the pros and cons of all-things seals; and, as the guy who raises nearly $4 million each year, he never brings up the subject! That doesn’t mean I can’t. Oh how far we’ve all come!

This blog will surely have many anecdotes about and from Christopher Beach, the charismatic, fascinating man with the iron grip on our organization. We could not find a better fit for this job, which requires unsurpassed knowledge of the arts, the ability to negotiate with the most powerful agents around the world (or the musician’s mother), in-depth knowledge of finances, and a genuine caring for the rest of us who love this community and would donate anyway, but might find a bit more in our pocket if we discover that our President really cares.

As board chair, I met with Christopher every week for two years; and me, being from a blue collar family and an engineer at heart, and him, being from an aristocratic family and an artist at heart, have difficulty communicating. Our discussions, even now as old friends, teeter on miscommunication. But, he had to put up with me to keep the job; and I had to keep him if La Jolla Music Society was going to survive and thrive; so we made it work.