Here’s a souvenir from my days at WPRB 103.3 FM. Dan Zhu, a superb violinist, dropped by the studio for a chat, prior to his Princeton appearance as soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with West Windsor’s Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018.
If you’re interested in rewarding, off-the-beaten path, post-Romantic music, check out Dan’s recording of the Violin Concerto by Croatian composer Boris Papandopulo, on the CPO label. Here’s the first movement:
The night after our conversation, Dan was off to Shanghai to perform music by Bright Sheng (a figure now much in the news), under the composer’s direction. Dan’s recorded several of Sheng’s works for release on the Naxos label, including this one:
I mention all this as preamble to a link Dan was kind enough to forward of his performance of the rarely-heard Violin Sonata by Ottorino Respighi, which took place only a few weeks ago. The work was composed in 1917, making it contemporaneous with the composer’s much better-known “Fountains of Rome.” Respighi was about 38 years-old.
The recital was filmed in the Palazzo Tornabuoni’s Sala delle Muse in Florence, the site of the premiere of the world’s first opera, Jacopo Peri’s “Dafne,” in 1598. The pianist is Julien Quentin, performing on an instrument once owned by Maria Tipo! You can watch it here:
I helmed that morning air shift at WPRB from 2015 to 2018. For a time, I was on three stations at once (WPRB, WRTI, and WWFM), prompting one listener to describe me as “the hardest-working DJ in classical radio.” I don’t know if that’s true, but I sure didn’t sleep very much.
I just learned that the Brazilian pianist, Nelson Freire, died yesterday, too young at 77.
Freire suffered multiple fractures in his right arm from a street fall in 2019. He fell on his shoulder, when trying to protect his hands. The accident led to an intricate, four-hour surgery, believed to have been successful. However, not long after, the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited international travel and public performance.
I never saw Freire in concert, but his recordings are very special indeed. And there is much to savor on YouTube. His repertoire was broad, though he seemed most at home with the Romantics – Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and Chopin – from whose works he mined much poetry. He enjoyed a long artistic partnership and lifelong friendship with Martha Argerich, born in neighboring Argentina.
With his lack of concern for publicity and self-promotion, Freire must have made his handlers a little crazy. In interviews, he could be modest to a fault. He was always an artist who expressed himself most eloquently through his musicmaking. R.I.P.
Freire playing Chopin’s “Barcarolle” in recital in 2009
Sight-reading Liszt’s arrangement of Schumann’s “Widmung” (“Dedication”) for Argerich on a “dirty piano”
I remember reading an essay once, in which Schopenhauer complained of carriage drivers mindlessly cracking their whips in the air beneath his windows and disrupting his train of thought. Composer Haskell Small has a similar issue with leaf blowers, as reported a few years ago in The Washington Post.
I must be more intellectual than I realized, because abrupt or unnecessary noises make me want to put people underground.
I’m heading out for a walk now. If you happen to cruise by with your subwoofers pumping, you’d better watch out.
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