Do you think world class concert pianists have groupies, or at least could if they wanted to?

Meh. Probably the same as suicide bombers - 72 virgins.

Maybe that's the way to get a teenager to practice 10 hours a day, the promise of 72 virgins......

Gotta do it before Horowitzian gets here ....

WHAT AN AWESOME THREAD.

I will gladly be a guinea pig for any research needed in this area. Please forward all groupies to Mattardo and make sure they are bathed.

I'll be a groupie for Murray Perahia!

Would such a group be called the pariahs?

replace "rock & roll" with "classical music" in the lyrics...

Liszt certainly did.

Didn't Paderewski also?

Actually, if I had a ton of money and didn't go to school or didn't have to work, I could see myself following a couple or three pianists around the globe. And don't ask me who.

Helene Grimaud...Valentina Lisitsa...and Lang Lang? =p

I think Rubinstein might have, he seems to be one who would enjoy them.

If Leif Ove Andsnes ever required someone to dust his piano, arrange his music, cook him delicious food, sort his mail, wash his clothes... well then I would move to Norway.

I think Andsnes the greatest pianist of his generation and I would do anything to make his life easier. He should never have to worry about anything except practising.

Perahia's Pariahs? That's great!!

I'm a guy, but he's hardly a "hunk." Kind of a little fellow, but he can certainly play.

If you believe his autobiography, he seems to have been on a "Wilt Chamberlain" pace starting at a relatively tender age. I don't know if he ever settled down.

Certainly by age 85 or so.

Gottschalk had his share of groupies, and even got chased out of town a few times because of it.
http://thompsonian.info/gottschalk-article-loyola-magazine.pdf

In an unrelated but sort of related topic

Back in the 18th and 17th century, Castratos (males who could sing as a Soprano and above) were very popular. They were able to do this through castration at a young age, which would slow down or eliminate the possibility of a maturation in voice.

Of course, the other side effect was male infertility, which was viewed as desirable from females at that time since contraceptives were not available. There are legends (and just that) of profound sexual 'careers' of the Castrati, but they are purported to be exaggerated. After all, Castratos served mainly to the Vatican and any idea of immoral sexual activity may have been viewed in a negative light.

... which probably served more as an incentive than a deterrent.

"A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him." --- Mae West

So much for Perahaia's eligibility for piano groupies (if he wanted them).

I have seen these people in person, sitting down in the front row, laden with bouquets of roses, leaping to their feet for the standing ovation at a Garrick Ohlsson performance. I have heard them screaming out on recordings of live performances of Horowitz and Argerich.

Rachmaninoff (a happily married man) had ladies who would bombard him with letters, volumes of their poetry, and bouquets of white lilacs (in season or out) at every single performance--- even an ebony conductor's baton with his initials worked into a figure of white lilacs. And of course, there was Liszt; the ladies acted like crazy people; you would have thought it was a Beatles concert from the screaming, fainting, and carrying on.

Oh they exist, all right.

Really???


Chopin had his share

“all the grande dames of Paris considered it their duty to faint in his room”.

This on his deathbed.

Yes, Tchaikovsky wrote the Nutcracker Suite in their honor.

Wince . . . .

I will say this--in Junior High I played Fur Elise for my girlfriend Mary Lee, and she started unbuttoning her blouse--but then I realized she had spilled strawberry jam on it and was trying to put cold water on it.

With my luck, I would get to Paradise and realize I had misunderstood the promise--and be rewarded with 72 Virginians!

(And yes, I realize that's not original.)


Russ

Ha!
Maybe you'll get lucky after all and they'll be 72 virginals: at least those you can play over and over, unlike the 72 virgins, who quickly lose their special status. Or you could get 72 virginals played by 72 virgins, sample helpfully provided below:


Throw in some Rameau and it's pure Paradise indeed!

I remember watching Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale" on PBS years ago. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, and he did the scene in which the heroine has a soliloquy about virginity as a voice-over as she plays a virginal. I thought it was a brilliant visual pun.

I'm OT, I know. Sorry. It's just something I always thought was cool.

I don't need 72 of these. One will do!




Then I'll take one of these:



and I'll top it off with one of these:





Oh, maybe one of these too:






That'll keep my modern piano company!


Hmmmm. I would need a new house.

But if I had all of that, I might have some music groupies hanging around.

Mattardo: If you can make 72 of them "...quickly lose their special status...", I want to know what you eat for breakfast, Son!

Russ

Well, if Paradise or Heaven is life existing for eternity, "quickly" could mean 2000 or 3 billion years from that viewpoint, right? Heck, I don't think I even want to go down this philosophical road - because I guess "quickly" could never be a term used in relation to "eternity". My brain...