For anyone who is in the NYC area, I highly recommend the International Keyboard Institute at Mannes beginning Sunday July 15. I've gone for the last two years and they have a terrific variety of recitals, master classes, lectures and a piano competition. You can get all the program details at www.mannes.edu. Did any go last year and,if so,what were your favorite events? I thought the concert by Fialkowska was fantastic!

Dear pianoloverus,

Thanks very much for that info. I just went to the site and am going to try to go to the Master Class with Ruth Laredo on Wednesday.

BTW, are you a New Yorker too?

I went to Ruth Laredo's master class today and it was wonderful. The four students played Mozart, De Falla, Liszt, Schuman and Scriabin. All played very well and Ms. Laredo's critiques were informative and very enjoyable to listen to. The Scriabin etudes were especially exciting and beautiful.

Some instructional highlights for me were when she talked about phrasing in the Mozart and going for the "natural" sound of music. It is better to disregard the phrase marks in the printed music (which could be the editor's) and go with how you would sing the phrase--this is what she meant by natural; "slow and quiet does not equal expressive" (direct quote); boil it down to it's essence (my observation); when she was trying to have the student create a sense of direction in playing consecutive chords it took many attempts and still the 2nd chord didn't seem to progress onwards no matter how hard the student seemed to be trying and I realized that the problem was maybe she wasn't really hearing the *1st* chord. This is a problem that has arisen in my studies frequently in attempting to create a sense of musical direction. Before you can go anywhere you have to hear where you are now.

So it was grand. And just $10--best bargain in the City right now I'd say. The schedule at the International Keyboard Institute & Festival is very impressive with master classes, lectures and concerts all this week and next. I'm going to try to get to Ms. Laredo's concert on Sunday and also try to get to Gyorgy Sandor's master class next Wednesday.

Pianoloverus, I must again thank you for bringing this festival to my attention.

Dear Bernard|

Glad you enjoyed the Laredo master class.If you go to any of the master classes that are not in the main auditorium, they are free!
So far I've seen Carbone, Dokovska, Mayer, Shehori, and Lateiner. All were excellent and very different from eachother. The only disappointment for me so far was the Katsaris recital. I have never been to a recital in the last 25 years where the pianist seemed so obsessed with bringing out inner voices and making huge changes every time a phrase was repeated a second time.

Pianoloverus

I also went to hear Ms. Laredo's concert on Friday evening and it was great. What a big program she played. It was a thrill to go shake her hand afterwards.

The master class held by Vladimir Shakin was fabulous. Boy, would I love to study with him --he's so philosophical (and smart! In introducing him, the Mr. Rose pointed out that though Mr. Shakin is Russian, he decided to read Shakespeare's entire works in English--because he wanted to read them in their original language.) One question he asked a student who had just played 2 of Brahm's op. 118 Intermezzi was "What is more important, beauty or truth?" (She had played them very beautifully). I almost fell off my chair that he was able to get so straight to the point he wanted with that one question. With Brahms, he said, beauty was not enough--one has to seek the truth in the music and express it. Wow.

I am wondering if pianoloverus or anyone else was at last nights recital and if so what were your impressions.

I was there and it was a big program. The pianists were Rosenbaum, Shakin, Shehori, Carbone, Kovalsky, and Mayer.

I must say my favorite was Carbone who played DeFalla's "Fantasia Baetica". IMHO he was the most musical of those on the program. Shakin and Shehori were fine, but a bit technical... I would have preferred a little more musical feeling. Kovalsky who played Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is to be commended for committing the whole piece to memory. He is a very strong player and gets a big sound when he wants it. He was my next favorite player on the program. Steven Mayer is also very proficient but his pieces were all "show" pieces including List/Horowitz "Rokoczy March". I'm afraid these sort of pieces usually leave me wanting for music. Rosenbaum's playing was not to my liking. He played Mozart's "Adagio in B Minor" and "Rondo in D Major" and played them both as museum pieces... Mozart, who is so full of joy and beauty! They were covered with a full .5" of dust the way he played them. So many beautiful phrases just passed right by without any shaping. That I didn't like.

I also attended the marathon recital. I thought Rosenbaum's Mozart was absolutely fantastic with incredible beautiful phrasing, tone, and interpretation. I disliked all the Tchaikoksky Op. 51 pieces Shakin played (I'm talking about the music, not his performance).I thought Kovalsky's Pictures were exciting and very interesting because of all the little textual changes he made but I was already getting tired because the concert was so long, around 2.75 hours! I especially liked Mayer's performance which I had heard him rehearse in between pupils at his master class. In that master class he worked with a pupil on Beethoven's Op. 109 and believe me, even though he chose (very appropriately IMHO) to play encore-like pieces at the end of this concert, the master class showed him to be an incredibly sensitive, articulate, and musically brilliant pianist.