Great Evening

Oct 24, 2007

My trip to New York was capped off with one final public masterclass, this one open not just to auditors and friends but to the general public, and ticketed. The four pianists performed on two different nights, two of us on Monday and two on Tuesday. Attendance was nearly full on Monday night, unfortunately less full the next. On Monday night, Adam Golka started off the evening (it seems they programmed us in alphabetical order!) with the first movement of Opus 110. Renana Gutman tackled the first movement of Hammerklavier after the break, and the evening closed with questions from the audience, most of which were for Mr. Fleisher. Tuesday night, I was up first, opening the evening with Opus 109 the third movement, which is a variation set, followed by Yury Shadrin playing Les Adieux. It was another great night, during which Fleisher seemed particularly “on” (we all had an extra buzz of excitement). The Weill Institute hosted the audience and participants for a champagne reception to celebrate a successful and wonderful week, and we pianists had a chance to present flowers both to Mr. Fleisher in thanks for his wisdom, patience, and overall humanity and humility, and to the staff members at the Weill Institute, who are all young, vibrant, and incredibly accomplished people who made themselves completely available to us for questions of all kinds. All in all, it was an exhilarating and rewarding week, and I can’t wait to return in January for the conclusion of the workshop: a few more days of lessons and masterclasses and then a recital in Weill Hall on Saturday Jan 19 at 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there!