NEWSLETTER
Posted by Bob Sherman, April, 2010
Once again, there are excting new developments and some glad tidings:
• The first-ever release of NR's November 21, 1947 Carnegie Hall Recital,
predicted in our previous newsletter, has materialized, the album notes including
an affectionate remembrance by Gary Graffman. On the program: a Handel Suite,
Sonatas of Mozart and Chopin, the world premiere (see below) of Samuel Barber's
Four Excursions, Six Scriabin Etudes and much more. You'll find a link to the 2-CD
set in the Recordings section.
• Gary Lemco, writing for Audiophile Audition, cites "the fascinating, entirely
catholic taste of this extraordinary pianist, who always sought out new scores
and novel modes of expression." He goes on to describe each work in detail,
from the "polished, infectious" Handel Suite to Scriabin's D# Minor Etude, which
"Reisenberg takes at blazed speed, the resulting fires surging like some
Dantesque vision. The audience explodes long before the last chord dies away."
You can read the entire review at
http://www.audaud.com/article?ArticleID=6780.
• "Time has not diminished these performances," wrote Dr. Phil Musie for the
Audio Video Club of Atlanta, "but rather enhanced them, as the artist's style of
playing was absolutely timeless. Chopin's Sonata #3 was previously found on
Bridge 9276 A/D and is included here again to give a complete picture of the
1947 recital. Since the earlier 4-CD Box contains 300 minutes of the most exalted
Chopin playing you will ever hear in your life, only the most incurably malcontent
will want to complain." Dr. Phil goes on to note that "the digital remasterings (by
Seth Winner) are so good, the sound belies the 60 years + age of the sonic
originals."
To see the full review, go to http://www.mindspring.com/~chucksaudiohome/reviews.music.html, click on "music reviews" and search for Dr. Phil, February, 2010.
• Auditions were held this past January at the Mannes College of Music, and the
winner of the biennial N Recital Award was Vlada Vassilieva, a Mexican pianist of Russian descent, who studies in the graduate program at Mannes with Pavlina
Dokovska. Ms. Vassilieva will make her New York debut November 1 at Merkin
Hall. A happy sidebar: Morey Ritt, a member of the jury (along with pianist Ann
Schein, Mannes Dean Joel Lester and yours truly), was so impressed that she
invited the winning artist to play for her piano class at Queens College.
I am, meanwhile, deeply indebted to visitors to our website for sundry corrections,
additions and some altogether new information.
• Perhaps the most astonishing revelation came from George Murnu, who tells us that an acetate of Nadia Reisenberg's Carnegie Hall performance
(1/14/44) of the Franck Sonata with the legendary violinist Georges Enesco
exists in Romania.
"Obviously Enesco was well past his prime," George says, "yet it was a
wonderful partnership with Ms. Reisenberg."
As a witness on that occasion (I was the 12-year old page-turner), I can now
reveal that the always gracious Enesco, not needing music, but wanting to
ensure that nobody mistook the Sonata as a violin solo with accompaniment,
took the score on stage with him, but placed it on the stand upside down.
• Equally astonishing — and hitherto unknown to anybody, including NR herself,
apprently, since there was no mention in the program — is that her Carnegie
Hall performance of Samuel Barber's "Four Excursions" was actually the world
premiere of the complete set. This startling fact comes from Pierre Brévignon, a French writer currently
working on a biography of Barber. "Browsing the internet," he says, "I found the
Bridge CD featuring Nadia Reisenberg's Recital in 1947. This discovery is quite
surprising since the complete Excursions cycle (i.e. all four piano pieces) is
supposed to have been premiered one year later by Jeanne Behrend. That makes
Ms. Reisenberg the first pianist to perform the complete set after the premiere
of the first three pieces by Vladimir Horowitz." Merci bien, M. Brévignon.
• Timothy Kendall, in the course of expressing delight at having discovered
the website ("your mother's Rachmaninoff recordings was one of the joys
of my childhood,"he wrote; "I am so glad I can buy a copy on CD"), pointed
out that the listing of Tchaikovsky's "Five Piano Pieces" had an incorrect Opus;
it should be #3. Oh well, I never was any good at math.
• I was proud and pleased to get a note from Louis Pine, historian of Joseph
Schillinger's life and work, praising what he dubbed "your loving tribute to your
mother and aunt on the Nadia Reisenberg / Clara Rockmore website." On the
other hand, I was thoroughly abashed by Lou's reminder that I had omitted two
outstanding artists from the NR student list: Mel Powell, then a brilliant jazz pianist
and arranger for Benny Goodman, later the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer; and
Teddy Wilson, the elegant keyboardist in many of Goodman's groups. Mother was
always astonished at Teddy's incredible dexterity and feathery touch at the
piano, and considered it a major triumph when she finally got him to dig deep
into the keys for Beethoven.
• On the Clara front, a touching e-mail arrived from Cathe Jones. "I just watched
Steve Martin's film (Theremin - An Electronic Odyssey), and was so touched by CR's
skills — she was an opera star with her hands, the Cecilia Bartoli of the instrument.
My husband is Mike Jones, the jazz virtuoso, and he was just as blown away..."
• Mention of CR and probably an audio excerpt will be part of theremin segment
on Public Television's popular "History Detectives" series. A broadcast date has
not been set yet, but the new season begins in June.
• Who needs music? Phyllis Magidson, Curator of Costumes and Textiles, will
include CR's red silk jersey concert gown, and possibly some interview videos,
within "Notorious and Notable: Fashionable Women of the Twentieth Century."
The exhibition, opening September 13 at the Museum of the City of New York,
will feature "representative garments and fine jewelry of New York City
luminaries."
• Several visitors to our site took note of CR's 99th birthday on March 9, perhaps
the most poignant message arriving from former NR student Elena Klionsky:
"Today I thought of Clara and said a prayer for her. I remember she loved
everything in red, so I always made sure to bring her red flowers. She is not
forgotten, she is missed..." In a later e-mail, Elena added a warm note about
NR. "I was on a jury at a piano competition with Fedora Horowitz. She is a
Romanian pianist who met Nadia in Israel, and when she moved to the U.S.,
Nadia helped her a great deal to settle down and was teaching her for a long
time. When I told her that I studied with Nadia, she just looked at me and
hugged me. So, once more this showed me that Nadia was loved so much,
and lives on in her students all over the world."
As we look toward the CR centennial in 2011, a number of intriguing possibilities
are being explored. Prime among them, another Bridge CD, this one documenting
CR and NR's live studio appearance on my "Listening Room" program over WQXR
Radio. In addition to several favorites from the sisters' previously recorded
repertoire, are their never-before released live performances of music by Bach and
Glinka as a trio with the superb violinist Erick Friedman.
• As noted in my previous newsletter, David McGill, principal bassoonist of the
Chicago Symphony, is working on a combined CR biography and performance
analysis. In the process of his researches, he uncovered some fascinating
documents from Clara's pre-theremin days as a violinist. Among them is a
notation on her 1922 examination sheet for admission to the Juilliard School
(then the Institute of Musical Arts) from director Frank Damrosch, calling her
"very talented, very promising." The following year, Clara's primary teacher at
Juilliard, the renowned Franz Kneisel, noted her "excellent musical talent and
mental qualities," while his 1924 report calls her work "excellent in every respect;
application excellent, programs perfect."
• Sergey Teterin, a media artist and curator of the Cyland Art Center in St.
Petersburg, is working on a Russian translation of Clara's theremin instruction
booklet, and hopes to develop a Russian edition of what he calls "the brilliant
video documentary, 'Clara Rockmore - World's Greatest Theremin Virtuosa'."
(This film originally aired on Public Television's "Camera Three" series, then
was restored by Robert Moog; it's available through the Moog Foundation.)
• A final reminder that tax-exempt donations to the Nadia Reisenberg / Clara
Rockmore Foundation are always welcome, and will help fund such other hoped-for
events as a CR centennial exhibition at the University of Maryland, and the CD
release of more NR performances, perhaps the Brahms Viola Sonatas with Paul
Doktor and chamber music with members of the Juilliard String Quartet.
• If you want to suggest corrections or additions to the information here, know
of any other NR students I may have overlooked, or just want to share your
thoughts and ideas, I eagerly await your e-mail comments at rsher762@aol.com.