Saturday, November 19, 2005
Mac Frampton Concert
Every once in a while you are bowled over, usually when you least expect it. We went to the Mac Frampton concert at "little old Gold Canyon" Methodist Church. (Which by the way is a fully new, modern "auditorium" with excellent acoustics and which would make the average concert hall feel at home). Their piano is a "Petrof" ---a magnificent instrument which betters recently produced Steinways and Bosendorfers according to afficionados.
Mac was a Van Cliburn finalist (way back in the 60's), and Van Cliburn himself came out, listened a bit and reportedly told him that he should make his way in the popular arena, instead of as a classical performer. Heeding this advice, he's made his way the last 35 years doing his own arrangments.
The amazing fact, is that he does these "on the fly," which is to say, he not only improvises the music, he assembles the whole program on the spot! After 9/11, he said, he went in to the studio and sat down and played for 3 hours---no rehearsing, no planning---and the CD was done....
He played gospel (he started playing piano at age 3, and father, a preacher, inducted him into playing music for all the church services at a tender young age), show tunes, jazz (Rhapsody in Blue), rag, classical, whimsical, and made it all flow one into another as though it had been composed on paper.
The last number was the most impressive: he took a clipboard and wrote down requests from the audience, some twenty ranging from "America the Beautiful," to "Great Balls of Fire!" and from Fur Elise to Ave Maria, to "Chariots of Fire." This man doesn't just "play" these numbers, he transitions from one to another and back again, and includes them all, all obviously unrehearsed, to say nothing of their complex segues. The piano whispers, rattles and rolls, or thunders, and through it all, the theme Chariots of Fire comes back time and again. At the end, his fingers are a blur, the piano is roaring, and the audience is wildly on its feet. Truly amazing.
I think to myself: this man enlivens my life: listening to him creates a sense of awe and wonder, an appreciation for music renewed, and a real amazement that even the nether regions of greater Phoenix can put on an arts festival with little-heralded artists and light you up. Life is good. (check the above link for more information about Mac Frampton).
I've heard a lot of wonderful pianists, but never one quite like this.
Every once in a while you are bowled over, usually when you least expect it. We went to the Mac Frampton concert at "little old Gold Canyon" Methodist Church. (Which by the way is a fully new, modern "auditorium" with excellent acoustics and which would make the average concert hall feel at home). Their piano is a "Petrof" ---a magnificent instrument which betters recently produced Steinways and Bosendorfers according to afficionados.
Mac was a Van Cliburn finalist (way back in the 60's), and Van Cliburn himself came out, listened a bit and reportedly told him that he should make his way in the popular arena, instead of as a classical performer. Heeding this advice, he's made his way the last 35 years doing his own arrangments.
The amazing fact, is that he does these "on the fly," which is to say, he not only improvises the music, he assembles the whole program on the spot! After 9/11, he said, he went in to the studio and sat down and played for 3 hours---no rehearsing, no planning---and the CD was done....
He played gospel (he started playing piano at age 3, and father, a preacher, inducted him into playing music for all the church services at a tender young age), show tunes, jazz (Rhapsody in Blue), rag, classical, whimsical, and made it all flow one into another as though it had been composed on paper.
The last number was the most impressive: he took a clipboard and wrote down requests from the audience, some twenty ranging from "America the Beautiful," to "Great Balls of Fire!" and from Fur Elise to Ave Maria, to "Chariots of Fire." This man doesn't just "play" these numbers, he transitions from one to another and back again, and includes them all, all obviously unrehearsed, to say nothing of their complex segues. The piano whispers, rattles and rolls, or thunders, and through it all, the theme Chariots of Fire comes back time and again. At the end, his fingers are a blur, the piano is roaring, and the audience is wildly on its feet. Truly amazing.
I think to myself: this man enlivens my life: listening to him creates a sense of awe and wonder, an appreciation for music renewed, and a real amazement that even the nether regions of greater Phoenix can put on an arts festival with little-heralded artists and light you up. Life is good. (check the above link for more information about Mac Frampton).
I've heard a lot of wonderful pianists, but never one quite like this.
