On another list I subscribe to, the list of the Association of Recorded
Sound Collections, we were touching on the subject of performers known
for reasons other than their excellence...Phalen Tassie, Wing, Florence
Foster Jenkins, etc.  I also have a large collection of recorded classical
bloopers...

At any rate the name of Richard Nanes came up in discussion.  In the
past, I always thought of him as a prime example of the power of promotion
and publicity.  While I have heard rumors that his music has been ghost
written by others...since I don't care much for it, I suppose I wouldn't
want my own name attached to it, but...to get to my point, he may be one
of the last composer pianists.

There has been a long tradition of composer pianists in the history of
music.  One need only to mention Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff,
Prokofiev, Medtner, Casella, Bartok, and even some relatively recent
Russians like Ovchinnikov (for me a pretty good conservative composer),
Khrennikov, et al.  But when I think about recent times very few names
come to mind.  In short, in recent memory, when was the last time there
was a major composer who performed his/her own concerto with an orchestra.
I think of Leon Kirchner doing his First Concerto with Mitropoulos back
in the 1950s, Easley Blackwood (in my mind one of the great composers)
doing his Piano Concerto in Cleveland with Louis Lane, but that was at
least 30 years ago.  Certainly there have been recent Russians like
Khrennikov, and Shostakovich, but has that breed died?  In short...and
I hate to say it, but is Nanes the last in the long line of
composer/pianists?

Karl