TWELVE FINGFERS AND FOUR HANDS?

“TWELVE FINGFERS AND FOUR HANDS? No way, stranger!.”

                                                                                                   II

But the Zen Master born in Budapest, now living in FlorenceItaly, took Carnegie Hall by storm the other night. His quiet demeanor, communicated the passion  and energy of the sublime grandmasters of pianissimo grandeur… Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert, plus  three encores, an evocation ofenduring sound for eternity..

                                                                                                    III

Spanning the sublimity of his own identification, with these fourimmortals long withdrawn, Sir Amera’s Schiff brought them back to life, two nights ago at Carnegie Hall.

Isaac Stern would have exalted. Itzhak Pearlman Yo- Yo Ma,were at a loss for words, if you could belie  it. And JaschaHeifetz, a child prodigy… well the last time our eyes feasted on  the larger than life violinist, he was taunting the fates, rushing from a North Beverly Drive deli, in Beverly Hills, in a formidable strut, .to his master class across town, at USC’s conservatory.

                                                                                                 IV

Heifetz in his end run did not know  San Jose newspaper critic claimed the Zen Master came saw and conquered Silicon Valley with  his mastery at the keyboard. That piano playing of this nature, was beyond cyber space’s 21st century..

That Sir Andra’s Schiff did have four hands and twelve fingers, the notes into harmonies like the pebbles glistening under the streams of San Jose’s Silicon Valley.

                                                                                                  V

The knighted Buckingham Palace virtuoso at age 61, those twelve e fingers caressing the keyboard in such a way that the audience was enraptured, the pianist offered three encores, the audience caught up in his hypnotic spell, the four composers streaming their own sublimity, goring back to Haydn’s 1780 London “out of the park”... his dry wit and sense of humor seemingly gave a transparency that the London listeners accustomed as they were to a dignified sound, clapping for“encore encore”

                                                                                                   VI

The second sonata was Beethoven’s  E Major.

From his favored Viennese piano, the stream of harmonies in the key of E Major, the sonorities of Haydn’s Broadwood piano:subtly Viennese  knuckle breaker tempo from Beethoven’s  growing deafness.

It became the 18th Century, Beethoven taking asunder the drawing room façade. No twinkle toe  tactfulness here, the composer damning, charging into the society, hearing and seeing it for what it was. Ripping Emperor Bonaparte’s dedication from his Eroica third E flat Symphony, opus 50.

Sir Anora’s Schiff’s own crescendo into his Budapest roots and political “winter of discontent..”

                                                                                                  VII

The transformation into the ethereal cosmos, transfiguring the listeners and the pianist himself, was one with the alliance ….these immortal composers, over and through the majesty of Isaac Stern’s Carnegie Hall culture..

Gone were the other world disturbances in Oklahoma…a student fraternity. Cries of racism in Ferguson, Missouri.

That brainwashing was in  these Major and Minor keys of Mozart and Schubert. Their interpreter Sir  Amora’s. That popculture  was a subterfuge. A Piccadilly Square myth todissimilate the passage of time, from the cradle to the grave.

                                                                                          VIII

The longing for heroes was not forgotten by the radio audienceeither. That the Nostradamus search was no picnic for theSalzburg born Mozart, fleeing from  the Austrian court into those Viennese drawing rooms and their hypocritical stance. …..The haute monde and those drawing room pianos nee politics..

No wonder Joseph Haydn got out of himself...and enchanted the London audiences and down the road the Queen, knighting g SirAma’ras Stern.  

Young Lion Brodwood pianos.

Ah delirium!

                                                                                         IX

Schubert like Mozart died in his earl thirties. Yet his prodigious output of those dark depression like sonorities..

Nevertheless his perseverance…. a heavier tonal darkness that  Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart  scoring didn’t bring to the German canon.

The repertoire starting with Alessandro Scarlatti and JohanSebastian Bach.. No cell phone interruption for Sir Amera’s“Hash mark your electronic device, madam. “

                                                                                          X

The three encores spanned the classical period of Haydn and Beethoven into the romantic period of drama…. Mozart and Schubert….their creative pilgrimages assimilating   the distance of their setbacks au contraire, from Haydn and Beethoven’saccess to political and economic power.

The Zen master had come complete circle.  From those pebbles beneath those Northern California streams, running through San Jose’s Silicon Valley..

“TWELVE FINGERS AND FOUR HANDS” stranger.

March 12, 2015 Thee city that never sleeps.          

In those balmy born yesterdays

In those balmy born yesterdays, post World Waer2, the StudioCity Republic studio casting,  starred Gene Autry, Gabby Hayes , Andy Devine, Smiley Burnet, Rin tin tin.

The Ventura Boulevard and Laurel Canyon vibes included and a restaurant bearing the name of Gene Autry’s nemesis……. JulieStyne was writing *songs, while his partner Sammy Cahn, was calibrating the melody and rhythm in cadence with Gene Autry’sguitar…and the galloping hoof beats of “Champion “ .

*”How do you speak to an Angel?”                    

                                                                                              II                                                                                                                                

Who knew  the quest for stardom, could transcend Dickens’s “Great Expectations” that “Dutch”, a Warner Brothers actordown the road in Burbank, who played the  “ Gipper” in “KnuteRockne” would become Ronald Regan, the Governor ofCalifornia, and hence the springboard to the White House….not once, but twice as he and his strong minded wife Nancy, ”Our fates are tied with the alignment of the stars in the ceiling of our skies”  resurged and galvanized the discovery of the prophecy…

”Mister Wyman as first marriage culminated with his actress wife awarded an Oscar for her role in “Johnny Belinda”,  a tour de force for  her…a blind lady, pulling all the emotional strings.

                                                                                                    III      

“Win one for the Gipper” echoed Pat O’Brien as “KnuteRockne” in the  Notre Dame locker room at half time.. . little did he know the dialogue and cheer leading at half time was a tonic, to  “Dutch” being a a spokesman for General Electric, would go on into politics and score more than touchdowns as he fought out the second half of his locker room heroics, with wife Nancy at his side .

Yet Phil Reagan, played out his role as a New York City singingcop , a far cry from those “pep talks” in the Notre Dame locker room.

“Win one for the Gipper!”

March 9, 2015. The City that never sleeps.

Needless to say the South Bronx middle school teacher bringing her CD player to class

Needless to say the South Bronx middle school teacher (Morris Evening High) on bringing her CD player to class, in no way could conceive  how the  Modest Mussorgsky’s “The pictures of exhibition at the Hero Gates of Kiev” could resonate across the St. Petersburg conservatory of Rimsky Korsakov,(a retired Nava Officer “Flight of the Bumble Bee”) and  from the Ukraine...Tchaikovsky’s benefactor, Madame von Meck, the two never meeting..

                                                                                        II

A student oblivious to the loop  playing out, raised his hand. “Is that Mozart?” 

“Can he come to class?” asked another admirer, a 13 year oldgirl ,her hair in a nee adolescent pony tail, as though she was in tune, with the melody flowing… the piano to the flute and clarinet.

The proliferation of notes to measures in the key of A minor,was tonic to Igor Stravinsky into his North Wetherly Drive  padin Beverly Hills .

The Canoga Park, California pet shop owner, subsequently  Bellair resident, whose parents were from  the Ukraine, migrating toBoston, Massachusetts, opening a barber shop, their son raised  as a toddler ”long life and prosper”  Star Trek’s, Leonard SimonNimoy, becoming  “Mr. Spock” the alien from outer space, TV’s “Star Trek”.  

                                                                                 III

Their son in search of his karma, migrated to Hollywood, where in his pedestrian role playing, he found his predestination….Smock role and in his selfless humanity and sense of humor in “Star Trek” and indirectly Modest Mussorgsky’s “The HeroGates of Kiev”.

                                                                                    IV

But the metamorphosing beyond the Gates, in the flimflam of the “Star Trek” was a cause célèbre to be..

An identity crisis per se.. In order to stay in character, our heromaintained a Monday to Saturday night 12 hours +per diem, ,“Spock” masking his hero’s soul, embracing an enchanting Mr.Spock.

A heavy psychic price to pay as the half man alien from outer space, those Vulcan ears tattooing his mutation… in his permutation…a fantasy beyond the harmonies his “Hero’s Gates of Kiev”, and Canoga Park’s pet shop, had to pay the piper..

Losing himself to find his himself.  

                                                                                       V

“Heavy heavy duty..”  Alcohol consumption during the weeklylong days of shooting,,… 90 or so hours a week. The nicotinesacrifices may have vanished in the lights of “outer space” But the stress brought on our Hero’s identity crisis.

To live long and prosper seems precious, the key words SEEMS requires no ambiguity. Speaking and thinking in the  environs,Spock became Nimroy. A heavy price to pay for the son of Ukrainian Max and  Dora…their Boston barber shop….

     

                                                                                        VI

A heavy price to pay for a semi alien persona, wouldn’t you say.“The man in the Iron Mask” starring Louis Hayward.

Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” woos the blind lady, selling posies,wedding Paulette Goddard in “real” time, neighbor.

A heavy price to pay for a persona. “Lights camera action. “I’m ready for my close up, Mr. De Mlle”.

                                                                                          VI

But tell that to Dimitri Shostakovich, Gustav Mahler (his widow living in North Beverly Hills), Rachmaninoff  in Santa Monica Canon, aforementioned Stravinsky on North Wetherrly Drive.  

Meanwhile in Boston, the maestro Serge Koussevitzky studiedthe Hero’s score… getting a cut and shave in Max and Dora’s barber shop…..

The arrangement by Maurice Ravel: the harmonies and colors fortissimo.  

Little did Tsar Alexander know the ‘Gates of Kiev’, the suite’s construction… ABAB  CADA , the  coda’s expectationsmusically chronicled by Mussorgsky’s suite, and arranged by Ravel.

                                                                                           IX

As the measures and phrases went heard… Arturo Toscanini,Stokowski, Leonard Slat kin (Hollywood High,” The Bowl”)Leonard Bernstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Andre Pre v in(MGM)… The Russian religious chants in a broad rondo movement at Mussorgsky’s “Heroes Gate” recurring far and wide in cyber space.

Could *Spoke arriving at the Pearly Gates ”Long life and  Prosper” anticipate the resounding melodies of ‘Pictures at theHeroes Gate of Kiev’. A suite in ten movements…..

Max and Dora Nimoy’s Ukrainian origin, Mar Chagall’sBerdychev roots, Grandma and Grandpa’s family of fivedaughters and two sons…(our aunts and uncle)

                                                                                          X

*“Life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had but not preserved…  except in memory.”

March 1, 2015. The City that never sleeps.