Raw Fish
Felix put together a phenomenally good string quartet with my friends Jennifer Frautschi and Nurit Pacht, whom I knew from USC days in '93-'94. Nurit had been very close with my ex-girlfriend Kim Fick and we'd hung out together a lot in LA.
Our amusing quartet rehearsals and the hangings out were in stark contrast to my experience in France with an all male group of annoying French people. Now I was working with superior musicians with a far better attitude, —and much easier on the eye—. This was quartet playing at its best, both for the public and for the players. One good thing was that everyone wanted to keep rehearsal to a minimum.
We started with a couple of Shostakovich quartets and then moved on to George Crumb's "Black Angels." Rehearsals went quickly and efficiently. Talented, extremely well trained musicians.
We flew to California for Felix's festival Muzik3 and moved into Felix's family estate, having breakfast at the kitchen bar each morning. Felix's mum fed us all, and also various other musicians. Alfred Brendel was at the dinner table one night drumming his fingers on the table. Andras Schiff another night—Felix and I still refer to him as the piano tuner because when we came into the hall of 'the other house' as they called the separate building, there was a guy twiddling away on the baby grand. I asked Felix who it was and he replied:
"Dunno, think it's probably the piano tuner."
Of course we found out later at the dinner table that it was András Schiff, one of the most famous pianists in the world.
There was a beautiful swimming pool & spa right outside the dining room. Nurit wouldn't get in the spa or drink champagne because she had a secret pregnancy underway.
We had to scramble to get all of the crystal glasses tuned, as required for George Crumb's Black Angels. It was a complicated affair, which we would undertake again in Taiwan and finally in New York City at the George Crumb Festival in October.
October: George Crumb (72 y/o) sat in the hall as we did our final soundcheck. We were playing electric instruments provided by Yamaha, and we sat on large guitar amplifiers, using the electronic controls to change our sound as we had decided. George came up to the stage and expressed his concerns that he didn't intend it to be done this way. My colleagues began to make adjustments, everyone very uncertain.
After a couple of minutes I stood up and said:
"Mister Crumb, with all respect, this is only a sound check and it's too late to make major changes."
Someone had to say it, and I could see it was going to be me, being the most irreverent, disrespectful person in the room.
The atmosphere in the hall was electric. He was a Pulitzer Prize winning, Grammy Award carrying, world famous composer, and we had pushed the flight envelope well into the danger zone.
After a discussion between George Crumb and the festival director, Andy Russo, it was decided that they would make a 'Bernstein-Gould'-style disclaimer to inform the audience that we would perform the work in a way he did not intend.
Personally I liked the situation. It was thought provoking. Historic, in a way.
Perhaps we were in error, but the composer was acting like a pussy.
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| Sept 29 2002 : Black Angels, George Crumb Festival |
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Doctor Bucknell
Back to the month of May, my lecture recital had gone very well. The hard part was wrangling five busy professors for a date and time that worked for everyone. My topic was something along the lines of playing Bach with period instruments, modern instruments and combinations thereof. I played various dance movements to show the effects of different equipment. I also played parts of the fifth cello suite using scordatura and then normal tuning. It was entertaining and enlightening, by all accounts.
My fifth and final viola recital with Israel Gursky at the keyboard, had a weighty program including Enesco's Concert Piece, my old friend the Shostakovich Sonata and I threw in the Brahms songs at the end —to kind of signify the end of my study and the beginning of my new life with Rini. I remember my advisor, Prof Peter Winkler firmly sustaining his applause at the end. It meant a lot to me. He knew how had I'd worked to get my degree done in record time.
Graduation was a big deal for most students, but I couldn't make the main outdoor University ceremony with all the speeches. There was a more intimate 'crossing the stage' in the music department which I managed to attend, along with my Dad and my little sister, Helen who had both flown in for a visit.
It didn't go unnoticed that I was the only one who didn't rent the academic regalia, but they were only handing us fake certificates, so who were they to judge?
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| Doctor Bucknell |
The State University of New York at Potsdam advertised a vacancy that caught my attention. They wanted a visiting professor of viola. I sent them a tape and a resume, and heard back from them almost immediately by phone. The caller seemed to want to emphasize the distance from Manhattan (6-8 hrs by car depending on weather).
My first Potsdam house was a huge five bedroom. The family were moving away for a while to help the husband with his infidelity issue. The wife was a problem solver. The rent she was asking for was appropriate for four students sharing, but I told her what I would pay her and she accepted, being happy to have some order in her life - a professor paying the rent instead of problems from uni students.
The following year I would be happily renting their beautiful house on the lake. I did have to move a dozen assorted clown paintings and knick knacks to a back room so I wasn't murdered in my sleep every night.