Fritz Reiner's visit to Kansas City in 1922

I hope you've already figured out that I enjoy writing about legendary conductors and composers who have visited my hometown of Kansas City. By the 1920's, KC was a regular stop for many world renowned artists. Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski are two well known conductors who came through KC. Add to that list, Fritz Reiner.
Fritz Reiner emigrated to the United States in 1922 and started his career here as the Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. By November 3rd of that year, Maestro Reiner was here in Kansas City with the CSO performing at Convention Hall. Here is the short review I found in the November 18, 1922 edition of Musical America.
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WELCOME REINER IN KANSAS CITY

Kansas City, MO., Nov 11. 1922 - The Cincinnati Symphony gave two concerts in Convention Hall on Nov. 3, including an evening program under the leadership of Fritz Reiner, with Marjorie Squires, contralto, as soloist.

The new conductor of the organization was warmly applauded and impressed by his enthusiasm and intelligent guidance of the orchestra in Henry Hadley's "In Bohemia," Dukas' "Sorcerers Apprentice," the "Mastersingers" Prelude and Goldmark's "Russian Wedding" Symphony. Miss Squires was heard in arias from Tchaikovsky's "Jeanne d' Arc" and Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila." Mr. Reiner was the guest of honor at a reception given by the Women's Auxiliary of the Kansas City Conservatory after the concert.
J.A.S
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Fritz Reiner went on to have a great career, peaking with his appointment as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953. He made a series of legendary recordings for RCA Victor in Orchestra Hall that remain standards of recorded music to this day. Perhaps the greatest of these was his 1955 recording of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra....definitely a "must listen" experience.
Here is a short clip of Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony in 1954, performing Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major.

Liszt and The Stones Took a Different Path

Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release of their most famous hit, "Satisfaction". The Stones are in their 70's now, and still on tour, performing their hits. Many acts from the 60's and 70's are also still on the road, playing their hits half a century after they were first recorded. Mick and the Stones were just here in KC last month, and from all accounts they were amazing. They have cultivated young fans and their music seems certain to stand the test of time.
I have been reading a book called Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland by R. Allen Lott. I am always interested in learning about famous composers or performers who may have visited America. I was curious if Franz Liszt had ever ventured to America. He did not, but others who knew Liszt did, such as Sigismond Thalberg. Thalberg was a renowned piano virtuoso and composer. It was said that he was Liszt's only rival.
Liszt obviously did well for himself despite not touring in America. It was rumored that P.T. Barnum offered Liszt $500,000 to tour America in the 1850's. Others continued to try and lure him to visit America.
Here's a great excerpt from Alan Walker's biography of Liszt, Franz Liszt: The Final Years 1861-1886.
"In the summer of 1885 Liszt received a visit from an American concert agent, who offered him two million marks to come to America the following season. Liszt would share the concert platform with other performers and play only a single item at each concert. The offer amused Liszt, who wrote to the agent: "What, at the age of 74, am I supposed to do with two million marks? Do you expect me to play the Erlkonig three hundred times in America? You can't teach an old dog new tricks!". When a beautiful and amiable American lady told him on one occasion that he could make a "vast fortune" if he came to America, his gallant response was, "Madame, if it were you who required this fortune, I should most certainly come!".
The parallel between Mick Jagger and Franz Liszt hit me: Mick is 72, Liszt was 74 when he was made the offer. Satisfaction is 50 years old, and Mick is still singing it on the road in America. Erlkonig is a poem by Goethe that Franz Schubert composed for voice and piano in 1815. Liszt transcribed it for piano in 1836...49 years before his offer to tour America in 1885.
Here is Erlkonig for Piano:

I don't think Mick needs any more money. His net worth is over 300 million dollars. But he must still enjoy performing, which he still does remarkably well. And singing Satisfaction over and over and over does not seem to phase him. Give the people what they want...the hits. More power to him. Liszt apparently did not feel the need to stay on the road. One big difference of course is Mick flies in a luxury jet and has all the modern comforts of touring in 2015. Liszt faced a much different reality in 1885.

Classics on TV - Edvard Grieg

Occasionally, classical music is used for TV commercials, TV shows, or movies. When I happen to hear a classical piece used in popular media, I will let you know.

Most recently, a commercial for Perrier water grabbed my attention. The music was immediately familiar....I could hum along with it. I knew it was "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). This is taken from Grieg's very famous work, Peer Gynt Suite, composed in 1875. Check out the commercial:

This spot was created by the firm Ogilvy & Mather in Paris, France. Lots of CGI, colors, and moving elements for sure. The creative team certainly could have scored new music for this spot, or picked something contemporary. But instead they went with a piece of music that is 140 years old. I think it works well.
It's also possible, though probably not very likely, that Grieg himself could have enjoyed a bottle of Perrier. He toured extensively during his life and traveled to France in 1903 to perform and make a recording of his piano music at a recording studio in Paris. Perrier was first bottled and sold in France in 1898. Maybe, just maybe, he tasted the same drink that 140 years later uses his music to advertise it.

Edvard Grieg

Is that Simon and Garfunkel, or Maurice Ravel?

In 1968, Simon and Garfunkel released their great album, "Bookends". One of my favorite songs on the album is "Old Friends". Like many of their songs, it uses some cool chords, has wonderful harmonies, and features a wonderful orchestral accompaniment. I'm sure I have listened to this song over 100 times....I like it that much. The main musical statement is based on a perfect fourth interval. "Old" is an A-flat and "Friends" is an E-flat, and the song opens with this theme stated instrumentally 3 times. Cool.
Like many of you, I also love the music of Maurice Ravel. One of the pieces that I only recently discovered was his second opera, "L'Enfante et les sortileges". This is an opera of one act that premiered in 1925. The section of the opera entitled "Il est bon, l'Enfant, il est sage" uses the same interval repeated three times, this time using a B-natural and F-sharp...a perfect fourth. The first time I heard it, I automatically started singing "Old Friends".
Coincidence? Probably. Forty-three years separate the two. Paul Simon (he wrote the music for Simon and Garfunkel) is one of the greatest songwriters of all time....in my opinion at least. Maybe he was familiar with Ravels' operas and "borrowed" this phrase while writing "Old Friends". I would love to ask him that.
Here are both of the works in question. Take a listen. First is "Old Friends".

Next up is Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortileges:

I think this is another great example of the popular and classical musical worlds crossing and blending.

Arthur Honegger in Kansas City; "a Twentieth century Bach" and "at least a better pianist than Ravel."

Kansas City was fortunate to have an active chapter of the Pro-Musica organization in the 1920's. Ravel, Bartok and Prokofiev all toured the US and made a stop to perform in Kansas City, thanks to this group. (hopefully you have read those entries of this blog). Another composer who also came to KC was Arthur Honegger (1892-1955). Honegger was as a member of Les Six, a group of composers comprised of Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre. He studied with both Vincent d'Indy and Charles-Marie Widor. On February 21, 1929, he gave a performance at the Hotel Baltimore. Here is the review from the Kansas City Times published the next day, February 22, 1929.


Arthur Honegger's Music Fascinates Pro Musica at a Concert in the Hotel Baltimore.

It is necessary to put a damper on one's enthusiasm after an application of Arthur Honegger, else one would disgrace oneself with the stock cliches of the profession-"great art," great artist," and so forth. At least it seemed so after the end of the concert given by Honegger, his wife, Andree Vaurabourg-Honegger, the pianist, and the contralto Mlle. Berty Jenny, for Pro Musica. The concert was last night in the Francis I room of the Hotel Baltimore.
The harmonic dodges of the moderns are common property. Anyone can apply minor seconds to the idea in his head, and thus produce a pierce sounding very much like late Bartok, Casella, or whatnot. They may cloak the fact that the second is the base of their harmony under a variety of disguises, but the fact endures.
Wherefore, when a man such as Honegger arrives with the technic of the modern absolutely at his command, and, in addition, with ideas for its use, the occasion is for rejoicing. It is precisely the case of Ravel over and over again, excepting that where Ravel's ideas tend toward the esoteric, Honegger's are lusty and full of what Americans sometimes call "kick." Each man is an intellect; each intellect is individual.
The program included the throe "Songs of the Siren," the "Chanson de Rosard" and four from miscellaneous sources (two being settings of Paul Fort). Mlle. Jenny sang so that every effect reached her audience, so that, in fact, the dullest might see that Honegger was not a great writer of songs. What imagery there was in the songs (excepting the three charming "Songs of the Siren") was too often mere imitation of nature or something else.
But the program included also a toccata and variations for piano written in 1916; the "Sept Pieces Breves," written three years later, and the suite for two pianos completed late last year. There one found the true Honegger, the climax of whose thought Kansas City is dented for want of an orchestra. It was proved that here, at last, is a man with the modern idiom perfectly controlled, who has important ideas and the intellectual balance to execute them. There was to be found amazingly intelligent counterpoint, unorthodox though it may be. The rhythmic element was emphatic, original, deftly maneuvered.
The young French-Swiss might very well be a Twentieth century Bach. His employment of both the old and new resources has in it that feeling of intelligent, irresistible progress toward a viable and worthy goal one finds in the older man. There is no spurious manipulation of threadbare themes, but the creation of new ones of gorgeous beauty. There is no sultry, overemotional feeling, but an earthy tang. It should be added that Honegger is the first modern of this writer's experience able to create a melody on that lofty character possessed by the chorale of the 2-piano suite and sustain its mood for so long without one instant's loss of nobility.
Mme. Honegger is a first rate pianist possessed of all technical requirements, afire with admiration of her husband's music, and so an ideal interpreter of it. Her husband is at least a better pianist than Ravel, and played nice accompaniments.

J. A. S.


Here is one of my favorite pieces by Honegger, his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Honegger loved trains. (so too did Dvorak). One of his famous quotes was: "I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses."

My favorite jazz pianist: Erik Satie

I love the piano. I can't play it, but I love both the classical and jazz piano repertoire, and they both form a large part of my music "listening" each week. Erik Satie (1866-1925) is a French composer who is probably best know for his Gymnopedies and Gnosseinnes.....incredible compositions for sure. Most people, even those who do not listen to classical music, have likely heard his works in film, TV or elsewhere. A few years I ago I stumbled onto his Tres Sarabandes. Composed in 1877, they instantly captured me and became my favorite of his works. Take a listen:

This music sounded more like Theolonius Monk to me than anyone else. The movement of the chords, the interesting, dissonant harmony, the varied rhythms,....it is wonderful and certainly FAR ahead of it's time. Satie was known as an eccentric during his lifetime, and he possessed a sharp wit. He was close friends of both Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. In fact, it was Ravel who helped propel Satie's music to widespread popularity, playing the second of Satie's Sarabandes at a recital himself in 1911. Ravel later said of Satie:

"Another significant influence, somewhat unique, and deriving at least partially from Chabrier, is that of Erik Satie, which has had appreciable effect upon Debussy, myself, and indeed most of the modern French composers. Satie was possessed of an extremely keen intelligence. His was the inventor's mind par excellence. He was a great experimenter . . . these experiments have been of inestimable value. Simply and ingeneously, Satie pointed the way, but as soon as another musician took to the trail he had indicated, Satie would immediately change his own orientation and without hesitation open up still another path to new fields of experimentation. He thus became the inspiration of countless progressive tendencies. . . . Debussy held him in the highest esteem" - April 27, 1928.

It seemed compelling to me that decades before "jazz" was invented, a Frenchman was creating what sounded like jazz to my ear. But I have never talked to anyone about this and it has remained a thought in my own head. But I constantly return to Satie's music, particularly the Sarabandes.
And then just a few days ago, I decided to Google "Monk and Satie" to see if anyone else heard what I heard. To my surprise, others had.

"There was always a playful quality of Monk's music, in a way reminiscent of Erik Satie, but deeply rooted in the blues." - Richard M Rollo-Straight No Chaser, 2008.

Or;

"Unlike the tritone (b5) in the blues scale, which, flanked by both a perfect 4th and a perfect 5th (F-Gb-G) produces a sensuous "blue note" sound, the augmented 4th, which actually replaces the normal perfect 4th, has a very bright clean, surprisingly contemporary sound. In Jazz it became very popular around the Bebop era (50+ years after Satie's experimentations) and famously used by the (also rather eccentric) Jazz pianist and composer Theolonius Monk." - Michael Furstner from his website Jazclass.aust.com.

And; 

"Erik Satie, the talented French composer to whom just about everyone ends up applying the adjective 'bizarre, ' was in many ways the Frank Zappa of his time. Or the Theolonius Monk of his time. Or the Mark Twain of his time (although strictly speaking, Mark Twain was, I suppose, of his time)." - Michael Arnowitt, pianist, in "Big Fish," July,1990.

I have some friends who are jazz musicians and we sometimes play the game, "name your top 5 jazz pianists, or top 5 jazz trumpet players"  etc.....Here are my top 5 jazz pianists; 5) Dave Brubeck 4) Art Tatum 3) McCoy Tyner 2) Theolonius Monk 1) Bill Evans. Monk is a close second though. If you asked 10 pianists to play a C major chord, Monk's would sound different than any of them. Much like Satie, he heard music a different way than anyone else. But as it turns out, Satie was also a jazz pianist, so I will put him at the top of my list now (sorry Bill, Theolonius, McCoy, Art, and Dave).

Here is a video of Monk playing "Ruby, My Dear". See if you can detect similarities to the Sarabandes of Satie.

I hope you enjoyed both of these samples. Even the artwork for these albums is strikingly similar too! Both men have goatees and reflective eye wear! 

Thank you Charles Barnett, Organist.

"I cannot find words words to thank you as I wish, but if there was an organ here I could tell you." - Anton Bruckner


We all have moments in life that change things. Forever. One such moment for me occurred on July 4, 1977. We attended the First United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas at the time. I was 12 years old. The church organist was a man named Charles Barnett. In addition to his regular duties, he occasionally gave recitals. After church that day, my parents took me to hear him play. It changed my life forever.
I don't know much about organs, but the one at our church was big....at least it seemed big to me. And it was LOUD. And it made so many different sounds. And Charles not only used his hands to play it, he used his feet! Both of them. The quote from Anton Bruckner, a great organist himself, made sense to me. The organ is capable of great expression.
His recital that afternoon featured 3 pieces that stand tall in the organ repertoire: Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Widor's Toccata from his Fifth Organ Symphony in F, and Variations on America by Charles Ives...perfect for the 4th of July.
Since that afternoon long ago, I have been a huge fan of the organ. A few years later, in March of 1990,  I traveled to Paris with my family and heard the great organ at Notre Dame, as well as a recital given by Vincent Genvrin at Chapelle Des Catechismes de Sainte-Clotilde. (here is that program, which includes the Widor).

Here are links to the 3 pieces above that Charles played at his recital in 1977.


Charles Ives: Variations on America

Charles Marie-Widor: Toccata from the Fifth Organ Symphony in F

J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Charles Barnett passed away in 2012. He was also a composer and arranger of music. Here's a great story. On my mother's birthday one year, he wrote a special arrangement of "Happy Birthday" for her and played it in church during the service. He did it in such a way that almost no one had any idea that they were hearing "Happy Birthday". But if you were listening closely, delicately interwoven in an otherwise beautiful sacred organ work, bits and pieces of "Happy Birthday" were dancing beneath the surface. It was perfect.
Thank you Charles Barnett.