buzzsmith wrote:On a slightly different note, Shooshie mentioned Vladimir Horowitz.
About 30 years ago, we had the absolute pleasure of him hearing him live in Jones Hall here in Houston.
It was an abnormally very cold sub-freezing February day in Houston that afternoon and everyone in the theater was still bundled up and a bit chilled as we waited for the artist to appear. (Solo piano-no orchestra.)
Vladmir strode onto stage shortly to much applause and began to play...magical!
After the first piece (more thunderous applause) he acknowledged us and walked off stage. The stage was empty for about 5-6 minutes and the crowd was silent at first, then soft murmuring. I was wondering if it was just his age or style.
Then, from stage left came two bulky khaki clad stage hands who approached the master's piano. They looked at it a bit, and then one gave it a gentle butt-nudge near the top right where it begins the gentle curve to the left side of the piano and then they left to some scattered applause and some amused laughter from the crowd.
Horowitz shortly reappeared to more applause and gentle laughing and sat down and finished his concert.
To this day, I still wonder if this was a kind of "ice breaker" at his direction or if the piano was not just perfectly aligned with the front line of the stage!
In any event, I had NEVER heard such tonalities from a piano...I was hearing brass, woodwinds, low strings, everything...from just 88 piano keys.
Amazing touch.
Gorgeous.
Probably the best concert that I ever attended.
I'm a fan of many great pianists, but to this day I have not heard one who can compare to Horowitz in one respect: the independence of his lines. Garrick Ohlsson comes close, and may be the heir apparent. But you have to marvel at someone who can get all those independent lines out of strings that are all part of the same instrument, indeed which are shared by different lines at different times. It's magical. Again: those strings all sound alike, and their sound all comes from the same source direction. You can't change the basic sound of any of them without changing all of them. Yet he could "mix" his lines on the spot, and you could always hear them as clearly as if they were coming from different instruments placed around the stage.
The reason I bring him up and dwell on this is sort of "if he can do it with a single, mono-timbral instrument, I should be able to do it with a ton of high-tech equipment, and software made especially for that purpose (of which less is usually more)." No excuses! It kind of frames the problem and puts it in perspective for me.
Buzzy, I missed that concert. Didn't find out about it until it was over. But I heard Rubinstein a few years earlier, playing two concertos in one concert, as well as "Happy Birthday," which he beautifully improvised for Miss Ima. (I think it was her 85th or 90th or something) But I'd have loved to hear Horowitz in recital. What great fortune it was that you got to hear him!
Lots of good answers here. Not sure I agree 100% with the professional/amateur definition, simply because the parameters aren't well-enough defined, but I agree that a pro "gets it done." And all the answers make sense. MLC... that was a framable answer. I mean, it's just perfect, and you could hang it on the wall.
I think my new year's resolution, if I actually do one, will be to set a completion date for every project I start, and stick to it. To me, nothing says "pro" more than envisioning the project in sound and knowing how long it will take you to do it. Then... doing it.
Shooshie
You are correct, there is a tad more to it.
