Just add water

Tchaikovsky ~ Piano Concerto No. 1; Prokofiev ~ Piano Concerto No. 3; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conducting; Berliner Philharmoniker; Claudio Abbado; Martha Argerich, piano

Shortly after graduating from CCM, a friend of mine, W., who had graduated from SDSU a year or so earlier, called me at my parent’s farm when he knew that I was around. “Hey, Erik, let me know when you travel up my way. It would be nice to see you.” Well, I might be up in a few weeks. “Well, then, call me up around that time and I’ll give you directions on how to get here.” Perfect.

When I pulled up into the yard at a beautiful farm out on the northeast plains of South Dakota, W. came out of the house to meet me. “I might have tricked you. I hope you don’t think so. But if you do, I’m sorry.” How did you trick me? “This isn’t my house. This is my Grandma’s house.” So? “I want her to tell you about the house.” Okay. “And something else.” What? “I want you to play her piano for her.” Well. Okay. What do I get out of it? “Cake.” What kind of cake? “Who cares? It’s Grandma cake. What grandma has ever made bad cake?” True. Although, I suspect that this is happening because you want cake. “Busted.”

“My husband and I built this house out of a kit from Montgomery Wards,” W.’s Grandma said as she put a tray of cake down on a red checkerboard tablecloth. “A big truck brought all of the supplies, pre-fabbed, and we put it all together in about four days.” Four days? “Yup. Four days. We had the basement all dug and finished before the big truck came. The rest of it was just … following the directions.” Have you ever had any problems with it? “No. There’s maintenance, just like any home, but we’ve – I’ve never had to replace anything. And it’s been here for fifty-five years. Blizzards, hailstorms and heat.” Wow. That’s all I could say was wow. I had heard of these Montgomery Ward homes before but I’d never been in one. It was very handsome.

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major by Sergei Prokoffief is a knuckle-buster. It requires massive loads of performance technique on everyone’s part, but mostly the piano soloist. Mr. Prokoffief took ten years to write this piece, borrowing melodies and rhythmic schemes from other projects that he had sitting on the table. Despite the buffet-like compositional style, everything binds together brilliantly. Most musicologists consider this piece one of the most important compositions of the twentieth century.

When pianists play the Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Liszt concertos, they must bring part of themselves to bear in the music and match their musical integrity, as best they can, with the probity of the composer. With this Prokoffief concerto … not as much. Certainly, a pianist who has reached this level of performance will bring musicianship to the work place with them. But, with few exceptions, all Mr. Prokoffief requires of the pianist who plays his third concerto is … that they follow the directions.

This may sound silly, but ,with the Prokoffief Third Piano Concerto, essentially all of the music is already written into the music. The pianist needn’t invest much time on interpretation; just play the notes and trust the composer to take care of everything else. No further consideration necessary.

This piece is perfect for the last minute requirements of Heidi Schoonover, played by Amy Irving in the movie “The Competition”. When it’s time for Heidi to play her piano concerto, a Mozart concerto, one of the notes on the piano (the D above middle C, as I recall) hasn’t been voiced properly and it “sticks out” from the others; in other words, the D sounds louder. After only a few seconds of her entrance in the piece, she stops playing, breaks down, and runs off stage.

The conductor follows her off the stage and quickly says, “This is a problem that can be fixed. These things happen.” Heidi, like a true diva, declares, “I know longer feel like playing Mozart tonight. I want to play the Prokoffief Third.” After the harrowing experience of folding, freezing in front of an audience and a panel of judges, she blows them out of the water with something brilliant in which she doesn’t have to think.

I played the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Prokoffief when I was at CCM with a second piano playing the orchestral part. I even made it into the finals in the 1989 Concerto Competition at the Concervatory playing this piece. I didn’t win.

Credits: To Grandma’s everywhere, for their cake-baking abilities.