This week's practicing and You Tubing hearkened back to my student days in New York City. Lillian Lefkofsky Freundlich was my Rosina Lhevinne. She, like her Russian counterpart, was married to a high profile husband, Irwin Freundlich who doubled as her 4-hand piano partner. When Irwin passed away in his late 60s quite suddenly, as… Continue reading Husband and wife pianists I have known and their legacy
Tag: Philip Lorenz
Honoring my “neighborhood” piano teacher amidst melting degrees of separation
The Back Story: After having spent about 30 years in hometown New York City, I emigrated to the agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley, California, planting myself and family in Fresno. This seemed to be a God forsaken place with excruciating heat (though dry). With its relentless air pollution; bad water from contaminated wells, and high incidence… Continue reading Honoring my “neighborhood” piano teacher amidst melting degrees of separation
The Piano Repertoire: Does making fingering/hand adjustments constitute a “swindle?”
Seymour Bernstein, author of With Your Own Two Hands, remarked that "Chopin wrote out an outline for an intended method of teaching piano. And when he died he left it to Charles Alkan who never finished it. Wouldn't you think that Chopin would stress at the beginning that everything depends upon a deep emotional involvement… Continue reading The Piano Repertoire: Does making fingering/hand adjustments constitute a “swindle?”
