Charles Rosen: Pianist Extraordinaire

Piano recitals don't rank very high in my book. I played piano for several years and ultimately dreaded the recitals. I didn't understand why we had to showcase our skills when we were just learning. It was an embarrassing, nerve racking experience that led to my decision to stop playing piano. Lame, I know.

However Charles Rosen changed my view of a "piano recital." The first half of the show was a beautiful combination of peaceful music primarily by Chopin. I enjoyed all the pieces but the first one seemed to stand out the most. I'm not sure if it was because it was the first one I heard and I was simply surprised by his skill but throughout the first half, all I kept thinking about was the first Beethoven piece.

While the concert was approximately two hours, it went by faster than I thought. I really enjoyed switching perspectives to see Rosen's fingers play the piano. The determination and precision in each slow and quick movement kept my attention throughout his final pieces. My hands tired from clapping so I couldn't imagine the exhaustion he felt.

Lastly, he memorized all pieces as there was no sheet music in front of him. He is obviously an experienced pianist and his showcase of talent throughout the performance covered a variety of pieces that surprisingly entertained me with no problem. I worried that the music would lull me to sleep but I was jolted awake by focusing on him as he played.

Pianos are one instrument that always throw me off because I can't possibly grasp how so much sound and quality comes from just one instrument. Charles Rosen was like a one man band or more fittingly a pianist extraordinaire.

Piano, gamelan and the Matrix

Last night, watching Charles Rosen perform solo piano works by Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms, I thought about how strange this must seem, and probably boring, to someone unfamiliar with classical music. The piano is pretty much the only instrument on which people play long, solo recitals, a tradition begun by the 19th-century virtuoso Franz Liszt ("le récital, c'est moi"). It doesn't have the sonic variety of the orchestra, or even the capability of changing the sound once a note starts: you press a key and make a sound, and it decays. You can play soft or loud (which explains the instrument's original name, "piano-forte"), and you can make notes sustain by pressing the damper pedal. That's it. Yet with this limited palette, composers have written volumes and volumes of music in every style imaginable. And discerning listeners recognize the "voice" of different composers and pianists just in the way they write for the piano, or play it. In the monochromatic timbre, or sound-color, of the piano, super-signals lie embedded, like the messages of Morse code emerging from undifferentiated dots and dashes. It's not by accident that piano keys are black and white.

These thoughts last night led me to Bali, where I visited last summer to play gamelan music. The gamelan is a metal percussion orchestra, tuned differently than western instruments: instead of 12 pitches, there are only seven, or even sometimes four or five. To uninitiated listeners the music may all sound the same (very fast and loud). But Balinese listeners follow the intricacies of the music, and hear wondrous variety in each piece, commenting on daring compositional gambits, unexpected flourishes, and so on. This kind of not-understanding, or snobbery, can happen in almost any kind of music or art—your parents don't understand the music you listen to. But something about the monochromaticism of the piano, or the limited pitches of the gamelan, seem to put this issue into relief: hearing the super-signal becomes even more important when the surface of the sound is relatively undifferentiated.

It makes me think of the scene in The Matrix where Neo and another character are looking at the green computer symbols cascading down the videoscreens before them. Neo (the uninitiated) sees only symbols; but the adept sees "a blond here, a redhead there." He sees past the surface, directly into the super-signal. This kind of seeing, or hearing, lies behind all kinds of human activity—it's pattern recognition. Perhaps the reason piano music appeals to so many of us is because it strenuously exercises our powers of high-level pattern recognition.

I was not able to make the Rosen performance last night, but I did see the Illini Union Board's presentation of West Side Story over the weekend, so I shall write about that.

I remember seeing West Side Story when I was much younger, perhaps 10 or 11, and liking it very much, so I was very excited to see this most recent performance. The scheduling of the event targeted all the moms here for mother's weekend, and the crowd certainly showed it. I was surrounded on all sides by parents. There was even a person behind me who I overheard saying that this was their third time seeing the performance (their son played Action). I too was seeing someone I knew in the performance. A friend from my floor played Officer Krupke. From high school, I was used to seeing a bunch of people I knew on stage. But seeing just one person I knew, and the fact that the production was definitely larger than a typical high school's, his presence seemed like a much bigger deal. 

The performance itself was overall very well done and extremely entertaining. The orchestra sounded great and so did the performers, although sometimes it was apparent that certain characters mics were not turned up to the same volume level as others, but this could have been on purpose, I am not sure. The girl who played Maria had a beautiful and strong voice, but sometimes she would overpower the boy who played Anthony and nearly make him impossible to hear (there was specualtion that he got the role just because he was a senior anyway). The awesome array of songs were definitely a highlight of this (and I assume all other) productions. The  great songs had me singing to myself at random a full two days after, and I certainly was not alone. 

Rosen article

I apologize for not having a more direct link...not really sure how to do that but this should work:
http://the217.com/articles/view/pianist_charles_rosen_to_play_foellinger_great_hall

Click for an article from Buzz magazine about Charles Rosen for Wednesday's performance!

Mariza

The guitars immediately impressed me with their beautiful sound blended together. I couldn't believe they could move their fingers so fast. Then Mariza came in. She looked like a giant compared to the others sitting down, but absolutely gorgeous. I was constantly watching her steps and thought she'd trip on her long dress any moment, but she never even stumbled.

Her voice amazed me. I got shivers multiple times throughout the concert. I liked it when she danced to the beat or moved her arms around, she really got into the music which made me get into the music even more.

Each musician was amazing at their instrument. I liked hearing each solo throughout the concert, especially the drummer. He had so many different objects to use that I was excited to see what was next. They all felt their music, I love seeing people really into what they're doing.

I liked that Mariza talked to us, it became more personable. I also liked how she sang in english for one of her songs. I could tell she was really trying to connect us to her portugese music and it worked. I was surprised to hear how beautifully she sang in english, but I liked her usual way of singing more.

I've had her songs stuck in my head since I left the concert, I can't get them out.

Mariza

Mariza impressed me. I saw the YouTube videos on the blog but the experience in a live theater was different. Her powerful voice carried throughout the audience, with and without a microphone.

Her dress stood out immediately as she appeared to be a gigantically tall, skinny, model. She gracefully moved across the stage as if her feet floated above the ground

At first the lighting bothered me because I thought it was too dim. I wanted sharper contrasts between light and dark. I could see Mariza and appreciated the individual spotlights for the different musicians. But I wanted to see the detail of her necklace, dress and makeup. We were seated higher in the theater so I'm not sure if a darker illusion fell over my eyes but by the end I was pleased with variety of lighting and greater emphasis on the spotlight.

As for her singing...it was powerful. It was in Portuguese but as she mentioned everyone in the audience was united by the music. I didn't really mind that I didn't know the exact translation. I was able to look around at the musicians or her stage presence. I think she made a very personal, stage presence and a high comfort level between audience and performer. There was not a fourth wall in my mind. She broke that by teaching us new words, asking for us to clap and shout out where we were from. I think she truly cared about her performance and wasn't like an American pop star who goes on concert tour and doesn't always seem to be the happiest camper.

Lastly, I'm glad she sang one song in English because it just proved to me the capabilities of her voice. It still sounded excellent when she wasn't singing her native language...which further impressed me!

birds

Looking through the work of Audubon I was immediately filled with remembrance of a taxidermy museum, then realizing that that is exactly what he did. Don't get me wrong, his drawings and paintings were very beautiful and precise, but they gave off a sort of creepy dead feeling to me. Some of it was too still, too real to be true. I was very impressed with the expressions he captured on each of the birds faces, that seemed like something that would be very difficult and I thought he conveyed each bird's expression very well.

The photographs is the next room also impressed me. I liked searching for each bird in each picture. It made you notice more in the picture that you usually wouldn't have if you didn't have to search for a specific object. I liked seeing the surrounding of the bird and how they fit into it perfectly. My favorite was the picture with a girl infront of the bird. It made me feel like the bird was watching the girl, waiting for something exciting to happen, where in reality people are usually watching the birds and waiting for something exciting to happen.

I felt a little awkward in the beginning of Manson's workshop, feeling young and not knowing what to expect. I enjoyed getting to know each person by how they acted and what they said while introducing themselves. Throughout the workshop Manson constantly made me feel comfortable in my surroundings, making me feel the earth beneath me, listening to everything from my heartbeat to the buses outside. She made me actually feel and think about what was going on at that exact moment through my body and mind.

I also wanted to join the dancers outside in the rain, and if I wasn't wearing a dress I probably would have. I was jealous of their freedom. They did whatever they felt at that exact moment, falling to the ground, against trees, in the rocks, mud, and onto eachother. Sometimes they reminded me of young children, without a care in the world. I wanted to feel what they felt. Manson's workshop was bizzare and I've never experienced anything like it but I think it gave me many new things to think about.