[Magdalen] 60 Years Ago Today

[Scott Knitter]

At Michigan State, our piano faculty was headed by the excellent Ralph
Votapek, who won the first Van Cliburn competition.

His level of performance was of course noticeably far above anyone else
among the faculty and the best students. At his standing-room-only free
recitals, he'd stride briskly across the stage, bow with a slight smile,
and no sooner had his rear end landed on the bench than he would launch
into a breathtaking performance from memory. This was not someone needing
to achieve a master's recital or prove himself; it was someone living in
the music in a way none of us could fully imagine. And he had no need to
act superior about it...he was just doing what he does.

I don't think I ever heard stories of temperamental behavior in his studio.
What one heard from his studio was constant music. He just seemed like this
furnace of music, constantly generating it. (I'm sure he spoke sometimes,
and I'm told he's a great guy, but I prefer to think of him as just always
playing the piano).

http://www.ralphvotapek.com/selections.html

The first selection, the Ginastera, was typical of something he'd start a
recital with.

On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 6:39 AM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> In the midst of the Cold War <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War>,
> American pianist *Van Cliburn <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Cliburn>*
> won
> the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Tchaikovsky_Competition> in
> Moscow.
>
> ​I got to see him perform once with the Philadelphia Orchestra at a summer
> concert. I think lost count of how many ​encores he did.
> --
>
> Christopher Hart
>
> List Mail Address: cervus51 at gmail.com
> Personal Mail: cervus at veritasliberat.net
> Twitter: @cervus51
>



-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA