Isler's Insights

15/12/2023

Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variation (arr. Bauer) played by Lisa Yui)

César Franck (1822 - 1890)Prélude, Fugue, et Variation for organ in B minor, Op. 18, FWV 30 (1862), arranged for piano by Harold BauerFranck was the organist...

02/12/2023

A holiday gift suggestion for anyone interested in 1) Classical music, 2) The piano, 3) Great pianists who have performed in New York over the last 50 years, 4) Stories about great musicians, teachers, and students, and 5) A life with music at the center of it. (Available from Amazon, and many other companies.)

Afterthoughts of a Pianist/Teacher: A Collection of Essays and Interviews Paperback
by Donald Isler

"This is a book I would readily recommend to any performer, teacher, student, or lover of the piano,” says pianist and composer John Musto. Pianist and professor Lisa Yui writes, “Donald Isler’s collection of articles and interviews are delightful! They are written in the charming and breezy style of Huneker, Loesser, and Hough (three of the most esteemed writers on the piano and pianists), but underneath lies a depth of knowledge and experience. The interviews are informative and observant, the articles witty and self-reflective. Each is fascinating, informative, enlightening—in short, a wonderful read!” According to Jerome Lowenthal, professor at the Juilliard School and one of the most renowned pianists of his generation, “If there was a golden age of pianophilia, it is nobly continued today by pianist-journalists like Donald Isler.” Author Donald Isler reflects on more than fifty years’ experience teaching, attending concerts, and living a professional life dedicated to music. Though the responsibilities of being a true artist or a good teacher are taken seriously, there are also many lighthearted and amusing stories. The thirty-five essays that comprise Part I of the book include provocative titles, such as “Up from Mediocrity,” “In Praise of Rule Breakers,” “Do I Keep an Open Mind,” plus articles about great musicians Isler heard, knew personally, or studied with. The thirty-one interviews that make up Part II followed in-depth conversations with each subject. They reveal much about the lives and careers of great artists of the older generation, such as Gary Graffman and Ruth Slenczynska, several child prodigies and many distinguished musicians in-between, as well as two acclaimed radio personalities, one impresario who has devoted her life to developing the careers of many important musicians—and Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the s*x therapist, who speaks about the music in her life!

05/11/2023

Interview with Clayton Stephenson

Recently I heard a marvelous New York recital debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. The artist was the young American pianist, Clayton Stephenson. His audience was large, and enthusiastic.

A number of other things also impressed me:

1) His terrific technique - though one takes that for granted nowadays from a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finalist, which he was last year,

2) That two piano legends who are NOT his teachers, Jerome Lowenthal and Ursula Oppens, were in the audience,

3) The enormous range of the repertoire he played, from Bach, Beethoven and Mussorgsky to Fazil Say's Variations on Gershwin's "Summertime" and Hiromi Uehara's "The Tom and Jerry Show" - the latter inspired by a cartoon program,

4) His ability to convincingly shift moods from something as powerful as the last two movements of Mussorgsky's "Pictures At an Exhibition" to a deeply spiritual and soulful interpretation of the Bach/Hess "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

A few days ago we did a telephone interview.

The first thing I wanted to know was: What was the last of the four encores he played at the recital? It was meditative and thoughtful, with gorgeous sprays of fast notes in the treble. It was, he told me, "Green Tea Farm" also by Uehara, whose parents were green tea farmers in Japan.

Then he went on to tell me much about his life. And the amusing reason that led to his start at the piano.

"I grew up in Brooklyn" he told me. "My father was from Belize, and my mother is a native of Beijing, China. I was a troublemaker, always running around! When I was seven my mother discovered that, whereas a babysitter cost $30 an hour, a piano teacher charged just $5 more, and for that difference, I could do something productive, and learn a craft. She sent me to a basement music school in Chinatown. My first teacher, Ms. Zoya, was perfect for me! She didn't give me Czerny or Hanon, which I wouldn't have appreciated then, but got me to love the pieces I played."

It can be expensive to study music, but fortunately community programs and summer camps were free. His first summer camp was at the Third Street Music School, where he did chamber music, African drumming, and learned to dance.

He also attended a scholarship-based summer music camp at Manhattan School of Music, where he learned from Joanne Polk, and other MSM faculty.

At eight, he was accepted into the Juilliard Music Advancement Program (MAP), an outreach program for under privileged students. "It was an inspiration to be at Juilliard" he said "and every Saturday when I was there, I would listen to concerts of the Pre-College students, kids only a few years older than me, who were already playing full-length recitals." It became his goal to transition from the MAP into the Pre-College division. His teacher, Ms. Nam, dedicated many extra hours to him, often giving him two and three hour lessons. On his second try, at age ten, he was accepted into the Juilliard Pre-College. He studied at the Pre-College for another eight years, so spent a total of ten years at Juilliard. "I basically grew up there" he said. "Juilliard shaped me."

At the age of 12, Clayton was accepted into the highly selective Morningside Music Bridge Music Festival, renowned for its world-class faculty members, full scholarship offerings, and successful alumni like Yuja Wang and many others who now work in major orchestras. The month-long camp was incredibly intensive, packed with classes and competitions, but also filled with fun activities that helped participants bond with each other. He returned to the Festival three more times later on.

Clayton also went to the Boys' Club in Harlem, where he was introduced to jazz. It was jarring at first, as he came from a classical music background, but he liked, and absorbed this, too.

At fourteen he was able to go to the Lang Lang International Music Camp, which was "huge" to him, as Lang Lang was one of his inspirations. "He made it seem fun to play the piano!" Lang Lang took the students to Munich to do masterclasses with him. He also took them around the world to play at other important venues such as the United Nations General Assembly Hall and the Louis Vuitton Foundation Hall in Paris. Clayton got interested in community work from the Lang Lang Music Foundation, which established piano labs in public schools, at some of which Clayton has taught. "Giving back is important" he said.

For high school, he attended the Dalton School, which was "a great experience. The faculty was very supportive of me, musically."

He recently completed a special dual degree program at Harvard and New England Conservatory, receiving both a Harvard Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in Piano Performance from NEC.

"Why the degree in economics?" I asked.

He said he wanted a wider experience, and a more complete education to inform his music-making. Also, he noted, the economics degree was a "safety net" as a degree in music isn't always a guarantee of a good income (!!!!!) I inquired as to what he would have done with that degree, had he not later decided to fully commit to a career in music. Although such degrees can lead to careers in banking and venture capitalism, he said he would have preferred to go into the less lucrative field of governmental policy, where, for example, one could use economics and statistics to allocate large amounts of money to help the homeless.

Having now finished "school" he continues to study piano with his teacher, Wha Kyung Byun, in Boston.

Clayton only decided to fully dedicate himself to music after making the finals at the Cliburn Competition and winning an award. He said he had always wanted to participate in the Cliburn and preparing for it while doing classwork at Harvard "wasn't easy" (!!) For example, he had to learn a Mozart concerto, which he had never done before. He hoped to make a decent showing, and get out in the semi-final round. He was then "terrified" when he learned he had made the finals, as he had paid little attention to the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, not expecting he would need to play it. However, despite not having played it in several years, he "brought it back" in four days!

As he's now 24 years old, I mentioned that he still has time to do other competitions, He said, yes, he'd like to do that in Europe, and gain a reputation there, too.

Two other subjects we discussed were his interest in jazz, and more about what he gained from his studies at Harvard.

Concerning the former, Clayton said he studied jazz at Harvard with Vijay Iyer, and learned about "amazing" jazz musicians such as Hazel Scott, John Coltrane, Mary Lou Williams, and Nina Simone. (In fact, he recently won the Nina Simone Piano Competition.) He also has an interest in transcriptions, jazz and classical, and has written his own transcriptions of the music of the Cuban jazz pianist, Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

He told me his education at Harvard increased his cultural awareness of some of the music he plays. He was particularly interested in Mussorgsky's relationship with his friend, Viktor Hartmann, the artist on whose work "Pictures At an Exhibition" is based, how Mussorgsky created his "Russian sound" and in similarities between the coronation scene in the composer's "Boris Godunov" and in the "Great Gate of Kiev" (the final movement of "Pictures").

Being familiar with the text, and the chorale on which Myra Hess' transcription of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is based informed his performance of that work. He said he loves "connecting with the souls of the composers - getting from them, and hopefully giving something back."

He is very interested in "historical" pianists. "I mostly listen to dead pianists!" he admitted. Among many others, he is very taken by Horowitz's perspective on "Pictures" "though my interpretation is very different." He loves DeLarrocha and Moravec, and finds Rachmaninoff "amazing!" He listened to Schnabel's recording of the Mozart Concerto, K.467, when he was studying that work, and said he thinks of Rubinstein as "one of the greatest!"

Currently living in Boston, he is looking forward to his first year without academic course work, in which he can totally devote himself to music. His upcoming concerts include a recital at Merkin Hall on April 9th (with a new program) and a performance of the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago on July 17th.

Clayton Stephenson is a pianist who deserves your attention!

Donald Isler

07/09/2023

Interview with Min Joo Yi

Min Joo Yi came on stage demurely, almost shyly at the beginning of her recent recital at Klavierhaus, New York. (I watched it on the livestream.) But make no mistake: This young woman is a pianistic powerhouse, with a BIG sound and a BIG musical personality! These attributes were on full display as she offered a program with no easy works on it: El Albaicín from Albeniz's Iberia, Schumann's Carnaval, the Second Piano Sonata of Chopin, and Mikhail Pletnev's transcription of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. I was particularly impressed with her performance of El Albaicín, because (she later told me), it was the first time she had played it in concert. Yet, it was as rock solid and secure as everything else.

In a telephone interview yesterday she told me about her life and career and other interests.

Born in Korea, Min Joo came to this country at the age of four. She started piano lessons at age six. From ages eight till ten she studied at Indiana University with Dr. Karen Taylor, the head of the Indiana U. pedagogy program. She also had lessons with some of Dr. Taylor's graduate students, so she learned early on about different methods of teaching. Dr. Taylor always started the lesson with sight-reading, which could last for ten minutes to, occasionally, the whole hour. She would also talk about the history of the pieces on which they were working.

When Min Joo was ten her family moved to Bellevue, Washington. During sixth grade she studied with Peter Mack in Seattle, who taught her about stage presence and how to coordinate with a conductor in a concerto performance. "He pushed me out of my comfort zone, which was good for me" she said.

During grades seven through nine her teacher was Michi North, a former child prodigy, who encouraged her to develop her instincts, and trust herself.

For the rest of her high school years she studied with Dr. Duane Hulbert, after hearing him perform some Glazounov piano works (for which, she told me, he was nominated for a Grammy). She had never before heard such colorful playing, nor heard the piano sound so orchestral. Among other things, he encouraged her to study the organ, to learn about different sound possibilities. (And for some years now she has had a job playing organ at a church in Baltimore.)

After high school, although she had been accepted by three major music conservatories (Peabody, New England Conservatory and Juilliard), she went to Princeton University, which offered her the best financial deal. Her teacher there was Francine Kay, who gave her the inspiration to seek out new repertoire, and whose new CD of music by Kapralova Min Joo particularly likes.

But music wasn't the only thing she concentrated on at Princeton.

In high school she enjoyed biology. "Reading scientific articles made me see my music pieces differently. And I wanted to learn as much as I could about those things I enjoyed." So, in addition to a music performance certificate from Princeton, she also received a bachelor's degree (AB) in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. And, to quote from her website "her biology research has been published in the journals Frontiers in Microbiology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and has also been reviewed in PNAS 'Front Matter.'"

About the combination of her musical and scientific interests in a campus setting she has written:

"I wasn't quite ready yet to commit to majoring in only music when I attended Princeton. In hindsight, I think Princeton actually gave me the valuable lesson of fostering an open-minded passion for learning and creativity, even through unexpected interdisciplinary means. This passion is often too easy to lose in an isolated practice room, especially in solo piano which does not have the same kinds of communities as other instruments do with regular orchestral and chamber activities. To combat this, almost as soon as I arrived on campus I co-founded the Princeton Pianists Ensemble with a colleague I had known since age 13 from precollege summer music festivals. PPE created that kind of community for pianists of all majors to prepare multi-hand, multi-piano pieces and arrangements for up to 5 pianos. We are very fortunate that Princeton has the resources to support this endeavor, from the practice facilities to the performance logistics of moving five grand pianos onto one stage! Most importantly, PPE helped me let go of the notion of 'switching' to piano, but rather that anything I learned in any field could shape and influence my musical ideas. It was really inspiring to see students from all engineering and humanities majors coming together to share their love and unique interpretations of music, which gave me many new perspectives as well."

Min Joo has particularly enjoyed her participation in a concert series in Baltimore called Community Concerts at Second. But she has given concerts and taken part in competitions all over. When asked how she chooses repertoire, she said it's often based on competition requirements.

She is currently working to finish up her doctorate at Peabody. Her teacher there is Dr. Yong-Hi Moon. About Dr. Moon she said "I am continuing to increase my appreciation for subtlety and nuances in interpretation, especially through what she likes to call 'faster future ears' (listening to the sounds that you are not playing, or have not yet played). It has greatly increased my mental visualization and imagination of how I want to sound and developing a unique artistic voice. Her greatest specialties include Schubert, Schumann, Albeniz, and Chopin, which is very evident in my Klavierhaus program."

The excellent sight-reading skills she developed when younger help her now as she has a graduate assistantship at Peabody with four years of full tuition for playing chamber music and accompanying singers. The first two years she worked mostly with string players and occasional wind players. More recently she works with singers. As language skills are important to singers and accompanists, her competence in French is very helpful.

Among the countries where Min Joo Yi has performed are France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. She feels that she absorbs something of the atmosphere when in the vicinity of the music she is playing. In Madrid she saw a religious procession, and developed, as a result, a better feel for some rhythms in the music she was playing. El Albaicín is about the area near the Alhambra. She said that she stood in front of the Alhambra once with other pianist friends from Peabody listening to this music on YouTube "which was fun!" It was a recording of De Larrocha, she added. (Well, one can't do better than that!).

She also said that Triana is based on an area near there, and that looking at the local architecture, how the narrow streets are laid out, and observing the hilly terrain helped her better understand the music.

The great pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, whom I was fortunate to hear quite a few times, firmly believed that one should never practice more than four hours per day. Otherwise, he said "it all becomes mechanical."

Well........ Min Joo Yi practices between five and ten hours per day. Yet, I cannot help thinking that if Rubinstein had heard her recital, with so much music that he loved, so magnificently played - he would have liked it!

Donald Isler

01/08/2023

A great concert I attended! Several months earlier, in July 1965, he played the same five sonatas at a recital in Germany. That concert has been released by KASP Records (www.kasprecords.com)

14/07/2023

Reed Tetzloff - IKIF
25th International Keyboard Institute and Festival
Merkin Hall, New York

July 13th, 2023

Berg: Piano Sonata Op. 1
Ives: Three-Page Sonata
Beethoven: Sonata in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"
Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5

Reed Tetzloff is an excellent young American pianist I have had the pleasure of hearing several times before. Last night he gave a very fine recital at Merkin Hall on the IKIF concert series.

One noticed already, from the beginning of the Berg Sonata which opened the recital, a beautiful shaping of phrases. This performance was big-boned and emotional, with well-focused climaxes, many moments of beauty, and an exquisite end.

The Ives Sonata was volatile, and very dissonant with huge dynamic contrasts. At one point there was a quasi-melody in the right hand, set against a left hand chordal pattern that seemed to move according to a different rhythmic pattern. There were also occasional hints of tonality.

What can one say that's new about Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata?! Is there a pianist alive who doesn't have the fingerings of its passagework imprinted in his/her memory?! And yet, it's always good to hear another brilliant interpretation of it.

Mr. Tetzloff played the first movement at a fast, but not crazy fast tempo. Surprisingly, he did not do the repeat. He sometimes took a little bit of extra time for the second theme material, but did so judicially, not to excess. And the "drumroll" at the end of the development section, leading into the recapitulation, was very exciting!

Although the second movement is short, technically easy and, essentially, just an introduction to the last movement, I rarely hear it played this well. It was not too fast, as in many other performances, and had depth and sensitivity.

The theme of the last movement was played at a good, flowing tempo, and was not overpedaled, as one sometimes hears it. There were sections both lovely and powerful, and the brilliant coda was played terrifically fast!

Mr. Tetzloff had a broad, spacious approach to much of the Brahms Sonata. Occasionally one could imagine parts of it played slightly faster, but it was always effective, and it never dragged. The first movement was strong, and one could hear everything was well thought-out, and natural sounding. Indeed, one hears how well this pianist communicates the music! The second movement was lovely, played with gorgeous tone. The third movement was rambunctious, and the choral in the middle was soulful.

The Intermezzo, which is the fourth movement, started atmospherically, but became ominous after awhile. The fifth movement bounced along jauntily, and the coda was fast, indeed (very fast at the end!), and swept one along.

Reed Tetzloff played three encores. He said he would dedicate the first one to the memory of Andre Watts, whose death we only learned of earlier in the day. When he was 18, Tetzloff heard Watts played the "Emperor" Concerto, he told us, and was impressed by its heroism. The first encore was the Brahms Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2. It was spacious and loving.

Reviving a practice one rarely hears today, he next "preluded" (modulated) into D-Sharp Minor, which led directly into Scriabin's famous Etude in that key, his Op. 8, No. 12. It was excitingly played, but had a novel touch: instead of charging into the end, Mr. Tetzloff held back the tempo and then accelerated into it.

The final encore was the Earl Wild transcription of Gershwin's song "Embraceable You." Hurtling along with reams and reams of notes, it had incredible energy and irresistible charm!

Donald Isler

13/07/2023

Review I just wrote for the Classical Music Guide

Nicolas Namoradze - IKIF
25th International Keyboard Institute and Festival
Merkin Hall, New York

July 12th, 2023

Namoradze: Memories of Rachmaninoff's "Georgian Song"
Ligeti: Etude No. 11 - "En suspens"
Ligeti Etude No. 16 - "Pour Irina"
Bach: French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812
Rachmaninoff/Namoradze: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
iii. Adagio
Schubert: Sonata in B-Flat Major, D. 960

The 25th season of the International Keyboard Institute and Festival is in full swing with six evenings of recitals at Merkin Hall and a series of master classes at Klavierhaus. Last night, following recitals the previous several evenings by Jerome Rose, Martin Garcia Garcia and Jeffrey Swann, Nicolas Namoradze played a challenging and most intriguing program. He has a big technique, a huge dynamic range, and the ability to make a convincing case for works the listener hasn't encountered before. Indeed, the whole first half of the program was most effective!

It is, however, difficult to write well about music you haven't heard before, but I will try to do the best I can regarding the Namoradze and Ligeti works at the beginning of the program.

I could not find any Rachmaninoff in Mr. Namoradze's Memories of a Georgian Song but found it fascinating, nonetheless. It began incredibly softly with high treble octave leaps accompanied later by chords and chord clusters. Sometimes it was quite harsh, and alarming. Later on there were fragments of melody, and soft parallel chords. In the end, there was a return to the very soft high treble octave leaps with some accompanying notes teasing us as to whether it would end up in major or minor. (The end was so soft that, up in the balcony, I couldn't tell which!)

Interestingly, the shift to the Ligeti etudes seemed not such a big change in styles. The first etude was, indeed, full of suspense, with interesting modes, and moods. The second etude started very slowly, as if it was the motive of a fugue. Full of dissonances, it was also very expressive. Later it became faster, and it concluded with some brilliant
fingerwork.

Mr. Namoradze's playing of the Bach French Suite was warm, very clear, and 'conversational." Some highlights of it, for me, were his bringing out the voices of the Allemande, the majestic feel of the opening of the Sarabande, the charm, but also the depth of the Minuets, and the great clarity of the Gigue, as well as its triumphant conclusion in D Major.

This may be a minority opinion, but I have trouble falling in love with Rachmaninoff's orchestral works as with his piano works. So I was not optimistic when anticipating my reaction to Mr. Namoradze's transcription of the slow movement of the Second Symphony. But, to my great surprise, I found it wonderful, "translated" into the language of the piano! There was much lush, gorgeous music, and powerful passages reminiscent of the piano concerti. Later there was a huge climax on a C Major chord. The music then continued only after a long, dramatic pause, very quietly. Another later section had a beautiful mid-range melody, played by the left hand, accompanied by elegant figurations played by the right hand.

The second half of the program consisted of the great B-Flat Major Sonata of Schubert, one of the glories of the repertoire. It's a very big work, even more so when one plays the first movement repeat, as has become more common nowadays, and which Mr. Namorzade did. Schubert sits on the cusp of the time between the Classical and Romantic eras. For my mind, Mr. Namoradze's approach was too much into the latter, leaving out perhaps some of the good things of the former. One should never play like a metronome, of course, but too much adjustment of tempo (Ie. excessive rubato, or overly long pauses at rests) for the sake of "expressivity" (in the first movement, especially) can lessen the strength of the structure, the logic, and the already inherent expressivity in the music.

Nonetheless, there was much to admire in his interpretation, including the charm of the Scherzo of the third movement, the witty, somewhat pompous playing of the Trio, and a truly magical shift to C Major in the second.

For encores, Nicolas Namoradze played two works of Scriabin. They were wonderful! The first was his Etude, Op. 42, No. 4. It was sly, suggestive, and gorgeous!

The second encore was the Fourth Scriabin Sonata, a fearsomely difficult work. It ranged from unearthly, quasi psychedelic lightness, in the beginning, to a martial feeling and a colossal sound at the end. It was stunning!
.

Donald Isler

22/06/2023

Interview with Sandro Russo

A very musicianly as well as virtuosic live performance of the complete Liszt Transcendental Etudes easily convinced me that Sandro Russo is a terrific pianist. Indeed, he has many accomplishments to his name. Here are a few of them:

He has made many recordings, two of which, Rachmaninov - 'Solo Piano Works", and "Images et Mirages - Hommage a Debussy", released on the Steinway & Sons label, were chosen “Disc of the Month” by Italy’s Classic Voice magazine and were also featured in Gramophone's “Sounds of America.” He is very interested in the music of composer-pianists, and his programs have included works of Tausig, Godowsky, Sorabji, Cziffra, Earl Wild, Stephen Hough, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Lowell Liebermann and others. He is also an excellent organist (listen to his Gigout Toccata on YouTube!) who has performed all-Liszt mixed (piano and organ) programs, as well as an all-Vierne organ recital at the Princeton University Chapel.

A few days ago we had a long conversation in the course of which I learned a lot about his life and career.

He was born, and grew up in San Giovanni Gemini, a town at the foot of a mountain in Sicily. When he was four years old, he would listen to his older brother practice his lesson pieces on a keyboard, and realized he could play them, too, without lessons. He first had lessons when he was six, but his first teacher, though a good pianist, wasn't a very experienced teacher, and gave him technically oriented, but pedantic and boring pieces to play.

At eight he moved to a better teacher, who happened to be a priest. This teacher gave him guidance and motivation, assigned some "charming" pieces to play, and played duets with him. At the age of ten he started playing in some competitions. He enjoyed these because often the other students were older, and played more advanced repertoire, which he was happy to hear, and eager to learn.

When he was 13, Russo heard Ivo Pogorelich play an outdoor concert in Agrigento. It was an enormously difficult program and had a powerful effect on Russo. He felt very small in comparison with Pogorelich, but says the experience woke him up to realize that this is what he wanted to do professionally, even though it would mean a lot more practicing, and less free time with his friends.

He continued to participate in competitions, and at 15 had once a month lessons in Trapani with Boris Petrushansky, a student of Neuhaus and Naumov. This experience was "life changing." From Petrushansky he learned what playing in the Romantic style meant. So strong was this teacher's influence, that Russo says he later reacted defensively when exposed to other styles of teaching and playing, though he ultimately learned from them, too.
I mentioned that one of the reasons I respect his playing so much is that he approaches Romantic music with a respect for the score, looking to express the music as fully and faithfully as possible, and just not as an opportunity to show off, as some pianists do.
"The Romantic style" he said "is not just about freedom, or rubato, or self-indulgence. One should be respectful of the structure and cohesion of the music, and especially in the case of Chopin, one should remember that he revered Bach and Mozart."

After taking the eighth year conservatory exam, he studied with Antonio Sottile, a wonderful pianist who, he said, had amazing musical instincts. He also continued to play in competitions and attended some master classes in Sicily with Gyorgy Sandor. Although Sandor was known for technique, because of the book "On Piano Playing" he had written, he never discussed technique in the few lessons Russo had with him. Indeed, Russo says he hardly ever discussed technique with any of his teachers, as he usually figured out his own solutions to technical challenges.

He later spent a month in Ireland attending masterclasses, and there encountered a teacher with a totally different style of pedagogy, which he gradually learned to appreciate. Frank Heneghan's approach was completely analytical and intellectual. To Heneghan, spontaneity was "something one only achieved as a result of an intellectual absorption of the piece, and a complete understanding of its structure." He was very refined musically, said Russo, but a "maniac" about details.

Sandro Russo came to America in 2000 and was fascinated by New York, and the musical scene here. He sensed a more open environment, and said it was easier to go to masterclasses and ask prominent musicians to hear you play than in Italy. After attending a masterclass given by Miyoko Lotto at NYU, he studied briefly with her. She entered him in a competition for the Bergen Philharmonic, which he won, playing the Tchaikovsky First Concerto, though he later played the Liszt Second in the concert that was the prize.

Due to the imminent expiration of the tourist visa held when he first came to the States, he had to quickly be enrolled in a school in order to stay here, so he attended Brooklyn College, where he got his Master's degree. He worked there with Jeffrey Biegel, and received a full-tuition scholarship from the Adele Marcus Foundation, named for Biegel's teacher.

Another teacher who was a big influence on him was Seymour Bernstein. He said that he and Bernstein shared a fascination for the great Romantic "Golden Age" pianists, and that Bernstein was able to infuse in him a love for the classical masters - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Bernstein is very individual, he said, and he also learned a great deal about how to teach from him.

Interestingly, after some successes here Sandro Russo was invited to perform in places in Italy where he hadn't previously been invited, such as on the main concert series of the Politeama Theater in Palermo, and other venues which engage emerging young artists.

Regarding teaching, he said he enjoys teaching both private lessons and masterclasses, and thinks of teaching as a way to offer something of his own musicianship, as well as an opportunity to "look into himself." Also, "being a teacher is sometimes like being a mechanic!"

He has performed and given masterclasses for more than ten years at the Chetham's Summer School and Festival in Manchester, England. The late Nelita True also taught there a few times. As he loved her way of teaching, he was particularly honored to be invited by her to perform on a series at Eastman named after her late husband, Fernando Laires, whose playing Russo greatly admires.

Russo is not a big fan of contemporary music but enjoys playing music which he finds to be a continuation of the great pianistic traditions of the past. In particular, he loves the music of Lowell Liebermann and said "This is how Liszt may have written were he alive today." He described Liebermann's music as "heavenly to play on the piano, and pianistically perfect."

Concerning the organ, he said this is a passion which developed later. He enjoys the works of the great French masters - Franck, Marcel Dupre, and Vierne - and said he sees their organ music as being written in a symphonic style. Also, he senses that he finds Bach's "true nature" in his organ works more than in his other keyboard works at the piano adding that Bach should be played in a creative manner on the organ, and not drily.

The end of our talk took a surprising turn when I asked if there was anything else very important to him which he wanted to mention? He said "Yes! A sense of humor is very important! I always look for it in the music and in life, and regret it if I miss it!"

Donald Isler