Janos Gereben wrote:

 [I loved that Barber quote.  Thanks.]

>As to the concert, it was headed by the one of the Bay Area's three
>pianist-conductors, Jeffrey Kahane.  He was brilliant in the Ravel,
>conducting from the piano, and playing a virtuoso solo that was effortless,
>consistently *musical* (instead of "pianistic"), and brought cheers from
>the audience and orchestra alike.

Thanks for writing about this jewel in our midst.  Fabulous musician.
I'll add for those who don't know, that he's the director of the Los Angeles
Chamber Music Players also (drawn from the L.A. Philharmonic, no?
Janos?)

I was first mesmerized by his playing of Schumann at age 17 when I
attended a benefit concert of a trio here, two faculty and young Kahane.
I'll not forget that playing.  Later that year he came to be the substitute
rehearsal pianist for our symphony chorus.  And then I lost track of him
until I saw someone by his name 17 years later, looking for a laptop in
Compuserve's forums.  Asked him if he was the same one who played the
benefit Schumann in the mid 70s and it was.  I've since heard solo playing
by him twice and watched him conduct a conservatory orchestra.  The man is
really music.  I heard later he'd won the Rubinstein competition during the
time he dropped from my site.

I'm sorry to have missed Lang Lang, the 17 yr old pianist who played the
Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto a couple of weeks ago, with Kahane and orchestra.
The newsgroup feedback was that it was really a fantastic concert.

Andrys in Berkeley
http://www.andrys.com/books.html
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