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My wife would like to attend, too. Thanx

Wife, no

Friend - 1

Thanx!!

Just my wife and I will be attending.

Can't wait!!!!!

ok, we're going to have a good crowd - about 40-50 people. Remember to get there around 6pm for wine and cheese so we can start the program at 7pm.

My wife and I were among the few lucky people who attended last night's get together. It is important that I start this post with a huge note of appreciation to Dr. and Mrs. Saxguy who were immensely charming and gracious. They opened their beautiful home to many people that they did not know, served fabulous wine, cheese and pastries and had acclaimed pianist Alan Wasserman perform for our listening pleasure. Alan was a tough act to follow on the piano, but even us of the hoi polloi were allowed to play on their magnificent Imperial.

Alan's performance was amazing. His program was 10 pieces separated by a small intermission. Understandably, he received a well-deserved standing ovation and played an encore, The Banjo, by LM Gottschalk.

Besides his technical proficiency, Alan is pleasant and engaging, which made for a very enjoyable performance. He spoke briefly about the personalities of the various composers and moderated an informal questions and answers session. I was pleased that he spent a few minutes with me explaining the complicated "8 over 6" tempo of the Fantasie-Impromptu - a composition that I only dream of playing ...

It was also great meeting some of the other PW members who showed up. Nice to associate a name with a face.

Here's a few pix:

Close up of the playbill that was handed out:



The Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand:



Alan, on far left, chatting with some guests in the kitchen:



Oldcars (me) on left and Saxguy (George, the host):



George and Doug (Devils4ever):



Rich Galassini, Oldcars, Alan Wasserman, Saxguy, Devils4ever, Passionatepianist, Steve:



Thanks again!
Joel

This must have been one fantastic event to attend!

Lucky you. ;-)

Thank you for sharing your visit and the pics.

Sounds like a good time was had. I hope that others chime in and tell us other details. It looks like the performance was taped, as well.

Hey, Saxguy...will this be a yearly event? How wonderful that you shared the recital with fellow piano enthusiasts.

LL

It was very nice meeting everybody last night - I was impressed with the level of knowledge and passion for classical piano you all possess. Thanks to George for opening up his home to everyone, it really could not have been any better, it was perfect. And of course Alan, so modest and humble, gave such a fantastic performance! A great reprtoire to begin with was made even better by the sheer skill, refinement, and experience of Alan's playing. I was really itching to hear some of the other members play - perhaps sometime this summer (or whenever) we could arrange for another gathering with this purpose in mind?

Big thanks once again to both George and Alan for superb hospitality and a wonderful piano recital! Hope to see you all again soon.

Cheers,
Ryan

George, I want to thank you and your wife again for your kind hospitality. Stephen sends his thanks as well. Your home is absolutely incredible, I was blown away by both your house and the piano! Also, thanks for allowing Stephen and I to play it - "It plays by itself, you barely have to do anything." It is my dream piano and I just could not resist.

Alan, congratulations on your wonderful performance and good luck in Weill in 2 weeks! It was nice to meet you as well as the other members of PW.

It was definitely a great time. Thanks to all who attended. Alan really appreciated everyone's support.

I have a recording of the night which sounds great - the only issue is that I don't have music editing software. If anyone has a good program, please let me know. I basically need to boost the gain of the recording slightly. I can email the .wav file or host it on a server. It's worth a listen.

Saxguy,

I downloaded AUDACITY to use with the ZOOM H4 recordings. I realize your recording might be way better than ZOOM, but the AUDACITY was pretty easy to learn EDITING program. Use the HELP. It only took me about an hour fooling around with it to learn. Making breaks. Editing out noise. Normalizing sound so it doesn't overload speakers. Enhancing. Etc

There were notes within the ZOOM THREADS ON PW but instead of plowing through pages of them, you might wait for others to respond with something specific or just download the free AUDACITY and go from there. Hey, if I even could learn/understand it, I am sure you will be able to understand it. It was kind of fun actually!

Once a little editing is done, you can save it as an MP3 file on your computer, which is compressed, and easy for others to hear/download. The wav files are usually too big. You can HOST it on BOX net as an MP3

LL

Wow,

What an evening. It was great to see friends and meet some new ones. Alan played beautifully, but I expected that. The surprise of the night was hearing Stephen and passionate pianist start trying out the piano and winding up giving us an inpromptu recital... after the recital!

I have a pic or two to add:

Here is a bad picture of Drumprodigy (blue shirt) getting up during intermission. He wasn't in the group shot as he had to leave and this is the only one that I have of him. Sorry it wasn't a little better Drumprodigy. By the way, I loved chatting with your father about music, pianos, The Vanguard, Manhattan, Italians, etc. - give him my regards!



This is Devils4ever and his beautiful wife, who is way too good for him.



Here is Stephen, a lurking friend of passionate pianist, He got the recital AFTER the recital started. I thought he would sit down and play a few scales, but he digs into Un Sospiro! The guy PLAYS!


George,

What can I say? It was a great evening and you and Melissa were wonderful hosts. It was good to see Alan again as well. He was quite gracious and articulate. I enjoyed his explanations and learned quite a bit from him. I hadn't seen him since he attended the Philadelphia Piano Festival a few years back.

I hope you do this again. I will be there if you'll have me.

All,

What can one say about last night but, "WOW!" It was truly incredible. My wife and I were truly blessed to be able to attend this event. To be able to hear this wonderful instrument played by a concert pianist in an intimate setting is a dream come true.

George, thanks so much for your gracious invitation.

Alan, your performance was amazing. Perfect execution filled with emotion. We all enjoyed hearing Alan talk about each piece or composer before he played.

It absolutely was a magical evening.

Of course, the piano was even more impressive. The sound from the back row was beyond description.

Another big plus was the piano discussions that occurred before and after the performance.

So, all I can say is, "Same time next year?"

PS Rich, you're right. I don't deserve my wonderful wife.

ok folks, here is my best effort at getting this thing up on the web. Some notes about each link:

PLEASE try to listen to the whole program, it really does allow you to meet and know Alan.

The first two links are the night pure and unadulterated. This is with Alan's commentary as it was recorded by the two mics placed in the piano. It's sometimes difficult to hear Alan speaking, but it's as pure as you can get.

First Half
http://www.mediafire.com/?3sqkizgyprn

Second Half
http://www.mediafire.com/?ciczups2knc

With the next two files I boosted the sections where Alan was talking about each piece. Warning - the volume will jump between selections.

First Half - Commentary Boosted
http://www.mediafire.com/?9d1c1dymmjv

Second Half - Commentary Boosted
http://www.mediafire.com/?abjfnhmt9mu

Finally, here is each piece as a seperate MP3 file. Again, I do strongly suggest that people listen to the first and second half as a complete file, as you can get the feel for the evening and the way Alan presents each piece.

Bach - Prelude and Fugue no. 11 F Major
http://www.box.net/shared/xui4daf56f

Rachmaninoff - Prelude op. 23 no. 5 G minor
http://www.box.net/shared/v5ssktc229

Schubert - Impromptu Op. 90 no. 2 Eb
http://www.box.net/shared/8xmiyurxzy

Granados - Lament or The Maiden and the Nightingale
http://www.box.net/shared/iubnh9ivqb

Beethoven - Sonata Op. 27 no. 2 C# minor (Moonlight)
http://www.mediafire.com/?at2br9pspyt

Debussy - Clair de Lune
http://www.box.net/shared/tbztmc8rgb

Chopin - Phantasie-Impromtu Op. 66
http://www.box.net/shared/k40gc16io1

Gottschalk - Souvenir de Porto Rico
http://www.box.net/shared/bftzsidmi4

Waller/Tatum - Ain't Misbehavin'
http://www.box.net/shared/j4dlsgtx76

Chopin - Polonaise in Ab Major
http://www.box.net/shared/kbhu0z9coq

Gottschalk - The Banjo
http://www.box.net/shared/fk4dd6sg9m

These recordings were done direct to a digital recorder with two Neumann mics (forgive me for forgetting which model). The only alteration to the recording was in amplifying the waveform. No EQ or effects are being used.

I hope everyone enjoys it.

Second Half
http://www.mediafire.com/?ciczups2knc

This link did not work for me ... I did DL the ones with commentary boosted ...

thanks for putting so much time and effort into this, just share with the rest of us.

les

I'm having a problem with getting the 2nd half and the Beethoven up on a server. The 2nd half with the commentary boosted works, though. I'll try to fix the others after work tonight.

I almost forgot. I'd like to thank Terry for making the PW nametags. It definitely made things a lot easier earlier in the night. By the end it was like a big happy family.

Hmmm...Did someone pull the pictures off the posts? They were there yesterday.

I still see them.

saxguy,

Sorry. It was only blocked from work. I can see them fine from home.

All files should now work. Thanks for being patient.