[Magdalen] 60 Years Ago Today

[Grace Cangialosi]

Yes, I’ve heard of him. Michigan’s claim to piano fame while I was there was Gyorgy Sandor, who was noted for his playing of Scriabin. He came my freshman year and took only the most talented students, appropriately enough.

> On Apr 14, 2018, at 1:15 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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