Blog Moved!

Dear Followers:

Chad's blog has moved (after much work) and is now hosted on his website:

www.chadrbowles.com

Hope to see you there!

Mr. Mendelssohn

I must admit - I've never really gotten into Mendelssohn's music. I don't quite know why; it's not as though I don't enjoy it or am not moved by it. I just have never felt the urge to seriously learn or perform any of his piano music. When I think about it, this music has always had some sort of presence in my life - I remember as a child listening to Rachmaninoff's recording of the Spinning Song over and over again. I also remember hearing Horowitz's live recording of the Scherzo a capriccio for the first time when I was about ten. And Rudolf Serkin's recordings of the two Piano Concerti were a source of constant delight and interest when I was a teenager - I can still vividly hear every nuance of those recordings in my head.

Who knows why or how these things happen, but for some reason at about midnight last night, while brainstorming some program ideas, I found myself at the piano playing through a number of the Songs Without Words. These are groups of piano pieces, some tender, some passionate, all quite brief - and all quite lovely and fun to play. I found myself, for the better part of an hour, enjoying this music and wondering why I had purchased those three volumes of Mendelssohn's complete piano music all those years ago - and almost never opened them.

2009 is Mr. Mendelssohn's 200th birthday year. Who knows if I will be programming any of his music - but I was indeed very happy I took that hour to enjoy some of his most inspired work.

Here is a touching performance by Ignaz Friedman of two of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words - so that you may enjoy it as well.

A Late Arrival

The second concert in my recent Vermont trip turned out to be another memorable experience. I was scheduled to have a 6pm warm-up before the 7pm recital. After eating dinner at a local restaurant, I got in my car and entered the venue address into my trusty GPS device. About a half-hour later, I heard those beautiful, familiar words "Arriving at Destination...on left!". I turned my head, looking out into the cold and saw a small blue house sitting on the bank of a snow-covered river. Obviously, my trusty GPS device was not being so...trusty. I continued down the road a bit, hoping it was just ahead. Nothing. I re-entered the address, this time searching for the venue and started off again. Right back at the blue house. I pulled off the road, pulled the even TRUSTIER folder which contains all of my papers pertaining to the tour out of my bag and called the presenter. Turns out I had driven BY the place several times and had not even known it. I was given directions over the phone, and arrived exactly ten minutes before I was to go on stage. I grabbed my garment bag and scrambled inside. I was met at the door and taken in to the piano where I played a few notes and went to change. By some strange miracle, the concert only started about five minutes late, but it's what happened next that was so wonderful.

I suddenly realized (about halfway through the first piece) that I was playing on an old Duo-Art grand piano. For those who don't know, this is the type of instrument countless pianists used to make now famous (or infamous, depending on your opinion) piano roll recordings. Names like Friedman, Busoni, Paderewski, Horowitz...the list goes on. I settled in and enjoyed a type of piano I had never even SEEN before, let alone performed on.

Here's a recording of a Duo-Art roll made by Ferruccio Busoni of a Liszt Etude:




And here are a couple of shots of the piano I took after the recital: