Lura Johnson, Pianist

This past Friday afternoon, I watched anxiously as three guys from D & E Piano Movers wrapped my baby in blankets, removed her legs and pedal lyre, and wheeled her on a dolly out my backdoor and down the driveway. I decided about a month ago to use my own personal instrument for the recording of my new CD with Peter Minkler, rather than using the piano that is on site in the hall at Morgan State University where we will record. Other instrumentalists (who get to play their own instruments as a matter of course, and would never dream of trying out an instrument for the first time just an hour before a concert) simply cannot appreciate how amazing it is for me to play my own instrument on this record! My piano, a 1917 Steinway B, is gloriously dark and rich. I named her Clara shortly after acquiring her, because of the Brahmsian quality of the sound (Clara being a reference to Brahms’ famous friendship/intense love relationship with pianist Clara Schumann). The instrument has all the darkness and depth needed for the Shostakovich Sonata, the muted subtle colorations for Britten’s Lachrymae, but also the brilliance and power for George Rochberg’s Sonata and glimmering ringing tones called for by Arvo Pärt. Having the piano moved is always a nailbiter, but D & E did a terrific job; every move they made was gentle and well calculated, and I was impressed with how well and how thoroughly they communicated as a team. When we arrived at the destination, I enjoyed a moment of pride as I first saw, and then heard, my Clara in a big concert hall for the first time. I feel incredibly lucky to have this piano (thanks Mom!), and I am thrilled that its sound will be forever preserved on this recording!

On another note, the piano was restored under the supervision of technician C. Dean Shank, of Rice University‘s Shepherd School of Music (I am a proud alum!), is cared for regularly by technician Caleb Tsai and will be cared for during the duration of the recording session by technician Peter Cohn. Antonino D’Urzo of Opusrite Audio Productions is the sound engineer and producer, and the disc will be released by Centaur Records in Summer 2010.

And if you want to come over for dinner, this week would be an excellent time, as I actually have a dining room now! Amazing how much bigger the room feels without a 7 foot behemoth of a piano in it…

On a recent trip to Utah to clean out my grandfather’s house, I ran into many old photos. Here is probably one of the earliest pictures that exist of me playing piano… This is summer 1982, age 8.

and to be fair, I should show this other picture from the same date. I had just barely begun cello lessons. That’s my older brother, Nils, on violin, and my parents.

Today Peter Minkler and I drove to a suburb of Philadelphia to visit with Gene Rochberg, widow of the great composer George Rochberg, whose piece we are recording this summer. Mrs. Rochberg is an absolutely delightful woman – proudly 89 and a half years old, she still wears high heels and acts at least 15 years younger than she is. Never afraid to speak her mind, and possessing a hilarious sense of humor, we passed several hours with her having lunch and playing George’s viola sonata for her. She spoke at length of her husband and his work, her devotion to him completely obvious.

Gene enjoyed our reading of the sonata very much. She said to us “My impression of you two is that you play this piece with real strength.” And also added that our performance of it meant a great deal to her and that she would carry it with her. She told many stories of famous performers and composers – Samuel Barber (whom she called “Sam”), “Oh, that Ormandy!” And “that violinist who always seems to be playing the Mendelssohn!” (Perlman) It was a treat to spend time with her and it was inspiring to hear her talk of so many people who left such a mark on the art world.

Here are some pictures from our visit.

And for anyone who’s wondering….. I intend to wear high heels and speak my mind when I’M 89 1/2! Stick around and find out!

Finally enjoying a quiet week, I’ve had a chance to reflect on this past season. I would have to say it was characterized by a huge amount of playing and also a huge amount of variety – an exhausting total of 79 concerts (and counting) – chamber music, new music, a concerto, TV broadcasts, Carnegie Hall and some very inspiring sessions with Leon Fleisher, and some exciting concerts with the Baltimore Symphony. I am grateful to be experiencing so many things musically and continuing to grow and learn! And also grateful for the continued support of my family and friends….. THANK YOU!

Well it was a bitter cold week in Quad Cities, Iowa this week! Christina and I found ourselves driving all over the metro area (hence the blog title), as well as out into several adjoining rural communities for the 14 outreach performances we did between Monday and Friday! It was a fairly exhausting schedule, but we really enjoyed the work, bringing pieces like Schwantner Black Anemones to schoolchildren in rural Illinois, performing on the Lenten Concert Series at the First United Methodist Church in Rock Island (my favorite piano of all the ones I met!), and even presenting an abbreviated version of our recital to employees and family members of the John Deere company in the John Deere auditiorium. We had lots of experiences that made us laugh, as we always do, and the journal that we take with us when we go on tour certainly received a lot of new entries. With one afternoon off we took a trip to the local mall and ended up both purchasing the same Tahari black and white wrap dress which we performed in, like Bobsey Twins, that night.  But interestingly enough, every group that thought they were getting a performance by an incredible flutist left the event fully aware that they had just encountered the work of a finely tuned ensemble. Jennings-Johnson Duo CDs literally flew off the shelves after each event! It was a great week and we are looking forward to our next tour!

Well it was another very exciting and productive trip to New York! This part of the workshop was shorter, only three days instead of five, and that feeling of compression was palpable. Highlights of this part of the workshop: a session with Jeremy Geffen, the artistic director of programming at Carnegie Hall. We were all asked to compose and submit our “dream program” for examination by Geffen, who was helpful in his responses and provided much food for thought on topics such as taking into account time of year, thematic connection between works, how much music was feasible on a given “theme,” whether a program provided enough variety, etc. Geffen happened to rave about my offering, which was a combined solo/chamber program that I have actually performed a version of in the past. My program was titled “Opus One- Something to Prove” and included a solo piano first half and a chamber second half:

After Geffen finished praising my program for having an engaging theme, being a full evening of music, and incorporating well-known works by well-known composers, lesser-known works by well-known composers, and lesser-known works by lesser-known composers (say that three times fast!), I asked him, “So what date are you prepared to offer me then?” Which brought lots of laughs.

Other highlights included a session with noted theorist Carl Schachter, who brilliantly de constructed the slow movement of Beethoven’s Op. 7 Sonata and was throughly successful in illuminating how much theoretical knowledge of form and structure informs interpretation. Next Leah Fleisher, daughter of Leon Fleisher, gave us in introduction to the Pilates method, an exercise routine which includes Western strengthening with Eastern stretching. I have had contact with Pilates in the past; it was in fact what saved me from tendinitis as an undergraduate student. But it had been awhile since I had practiced any, and it was a great refresher. Leah (who also plays the harp, as does one of Fleisher’s other daughters, Deborah) is incredibly competent and knowledgeable, as well as an encouraging and motivating teacher.

The concert on Saturday night was for a sold out crowd. Each pianist had selected a piece which really was perfect for his/her temperament.  Everyone played beautifully, we had a lovely party afterwards, and we all took home a copy of the poster that had hung on W. 57th St., signed by all four pianists and of course Mr. Fleisher. What an experience! See more photos on the Gallery page… and now it’s back to Earth.

I was recently browsing a Bärenreiter edition of Schumann’s Album for the Young when I happened upon an appendix called Schumann’s Musical Rules for the Life and Home. This is a document I had no idea existed! It’s quite a long list (four pages in a word document!) of Robert’s suggestions, presumably intended for young people who are studying music, that cover the gamut

from quite funny…

• Play in strict time! The way many virtuosi play sounds like a drunkard trying to walk. Don’t take people like that as a model.
• Dragging behind and scampering are both bad mistakes.
• There are plenty of things to be learnt from singers, but don’t believe everything they say.

to wise and pragmatic…

• Learn the basic rules of harmony from the very start.
• Make the effort to play easy pieces cleanly and beautifully; that’s better than giving a second-rate performance of a difficult piece.
• You must always play on a well-tuned instrument.
• It’s not enough for your fingers to know your pieces; you must also be able to hum them away from the piano. Develop you imagination so that you can hear not just the melody of a composition, but can remember all the harmony that goes with it, too.
• Apply yourself to playing fugues by the masters, especially Johann Sebastian Bach. Let the “Well Tempered Clavier” be your daily bread. Then you are sure to become a proper musician.
• Amongst your comrades, seek out the ones who know more than you do.
• As a relief from your musical studies, read plenty of poetry. Often go out for a walk.
• Get to know about conducting early on, and often watch good conductors; even try to conduct the pieces yourself in your head. This will make many things clear.

to touching and downright profound…

• Always play as if a Great Master were listening to you.
• Don’t ever use your technique to show off. When playing a composition, try to create the effect the composer had in mind; that’s all you need to do. Anything else is distortion.
• The world is a big place. Be modest: there’s nothing that you’ve discovered or thought of that others haven’t already thought of or invented. And if you should happen to think of something new, regard it as a gift from above, to be shared with others.
• If Heaven has granted you a lively imagination, then you are bound to spend many hours on your own at the piano, almost in a trance, seeking the harmonies to express your inmost feelings. And perhaps, the more obscure and elusive the harmonies are, the more you will feel yourself begin mysteriously drawn into a magic circle, so to speak. These are the happiest hours of youth. But beware of too often indulging a talent that may lead you to waste your time and energy on illusions. The mastery of form, and the ability to shape your thoughts clearly, are things you can only gain through the actual writing down of music. So spend more time writing than dreaming.
• The laws of morality are also those of art.
• Perhaps it is only genius that really understands genius.
• There is never an end to learning.

What a wonderful example he sets for us, advising us to be thorough in our studies, open to other disciplines, and just good decent human beings. No wonder his music is so beautiful!

What a strange and wonderful experience it is to stumble upon a new challenge – one which is both in my area of expertise and at the same time quite outside of it. I am referring to my recent forays into orchestral piano playing. As a younger musician I had quite a lot of orchestral experience– but as a cellist! Recently I have been invited to join the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop on several modern works. I have just spent this past week with the orchestra playing a work by Aaron Jay Kernis called Newly Drawn Sky, and I have become very aware of how differently I play my instrument in this setting.

I have long been aware of how fundamentally… incompatible! the piano is from stringed instruments, the two biggest differences being the kind of attack and the presence (or absence, depending on one’s perspective) of the pedal. When playing chamber music for piano and strings, which I have done a lot of in my life, I take these factors into consideration as a matter of course. But I find it to be even more necessary in the orchestral setting. Take those two differences and multiply them by the amount of physical distance between me and the string section and they increase exponentially!

As a solo artist and chamber musician, I spend much energy trying to create as much lyricism as possible, as much sustain and legato as I can achieve (or create through illusion!) on a percussion instrument. Given this context, it is rather surprising to find myself in a situation in which I must embrace the percussive elements of my instrument as my first priority. Combine the generally percussive nature of orchestral piano writing with the need to cushion and delay attacks in order to achieve good ensemble with far away members of the string section and you have… a conundrum! But I’m always up for a good challenge – this week I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the learning process of finding good solutions. As Robert Schumann wisely says, “There is never an end to learning.” And so, on to the next project!