Piano and orchestra

Saint-Saens: Concerto No. 2; Franck: Symphonic Variations; Liszt: Concerto No. 1; Symphony of the Air; Alfred Wallenstein, conducting; Artur Rubinstein, piano

In the fall of 1987, Mr. C., conductor of the SDSU Civic Symphony, called me up to his office. “Erik, I’d like to feature you and D. on the February Symphony concert.” Um, okay. “You may choose any piano concerto you like, provided that we can play it.” No Rachmaninoff? “No Rachmaninoff.” How about Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor? “I think we can do that one.” Awesome. Thank you, Mr. C.

The thrill of volleying musical ideas back and forth with a symphony orchestra had my motor revving for weeks, both before, in anticipation of, and after, in reflection of, the event. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and couldn’t wait for it to happen again. Guess what. I’m still waiting.

Over the years, I have learned four and one third piano concertos. Though I have performed them all, only the Saint-Saens concerto has happened in front of an orchestra. The other performances featured a second pianist at a second piano filling in for the absent orchestra. I haven’t given up hope for another opportunity. In the mean time, I’m learning as many concertos as I can on the off-chance that God will have a pick-up orchestra up in heaven, with a Steinway up front (or God’s equivalent to a Steinway), waiting for someone to solo with them.

In 1980, Amy Irving and Richard Dreyfuss starred in a romantic feature film called “The Competition”. They portrayed contestants in a piano competition that, according to the tag line of the movie, “broke the cardinal rule of the competition … they fell in love.” It wasn’t a great film, it wasn’t a bad film. The romantic aspect of it was fairly ho-hum. But what do I know about anything like that? I’m a guy.

Two facets of the movie fascinated me. First of all, each actor that played a contender in the competition had to learn and perform portions of the piano concerto that their character played. For the soundtrack to the movie, though, professional concert pianists performed the pieces. Let me assure you, however: there are no easy piano concertos. And no easy piano concerto would get played in a competition anyway. I tip my hat to the actors, the director and his sound editing crew. It really looks like the actors are playing the concertos.

The second detail that intrigues me deals with the matching of the contestants in the movie with the nature of the concerto that they play. We can only assume that each contestant chooses their own concerto to play. I find that the choice that each contestant makes reveals a little bit of the nature of the contestant. Five contestants vie for first place in this movie.

This week, I intend to reveal to you which five piano concertos figured prominently in this film, what each concerto discloses about the contestants who play them and a personal memory that goes with each work.

Credits: To Mr. C., who, through the years, assumed almost every role there was to hold at the SDSU Music Department. You loved music and you loved excellence. A match made in heaven. Bravo.