Acclaimed pianist to take Callaway Auditorium stage
September 22 , 2006
You ask the man what you think is a logical, but perhaps unusual, question: “So, do you have insurance on your hands?” The man pauses, then chuckles, then pauses again. His reluctant answer, “Yes … yes, I do have insurance on my hands,” is followed quickly by, “but I’m a very regular guy. I mean, you give me a hammer or give me an electric drill or something and I’ll work with it and not even worry about my hands.”
You feel uncomfortable because you’ve somehow made a very talented person defend himself when no defense was needed. You try to recover, you say, “I know that was an odd question, but I was curious. I’m certain if I had your gifts I’d have some sort of hand insurance myself.”
The man seems placated, and the interview moves forward.
The hands in question belong to acclaimed pianist Andreas Klein, who has used his nimble digits to tickle the proverbial ivories for the delight of audiences worldwide. On Tuesday, Sept. 26, Klein’s talents will be on display in LaGrange when he performs a free concert in Callaway Auditorium, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
A celebrated performer, German-born Klein has received accolades from an array of impressive sources. No less than this country’s newspaper of record, The New York Times, called him “a fascinating artist with all the indispensable qualities: temperament, taste, touch, tone, the four T’s of pianism.”
So just what makes a great pianist – innate talent or an unbreakable work ethic? Maybe both, according to Klein.
“Being talented and gifted by itself doesn’t promise that you are going to be successful as a performer,” he said. “You can have great talent, but if you don’t apply yourself, if you don’t work and you don’t have the right teacher to inspire you – all that talent is for nothing.
“I typically play every day unless I’m traveling and don’t have a piano. You know, Rubinstein, the very famous pianist, said, ‘If I don’t practice for a day, I notice. If I don’t practice for two days, my friends notice. And if I don’t practice for three days, the whole audience notices.’ And that’s very true.”
Klein, who this spring completed a 20-city tour with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, said that he believes music is a sophisticated form of communication.
“For me, music is telling a story, and every piece has a certain storyline,” he said. “Every good composition has contrasts of characters and contrasts of harmonies and melodies and rhythm, and to somehow chisel that out in your practice time and then to broadcast this to the audience in the performance – that is very exciting, that is very stimulating.”
A Juilliard-trained musician, Klein can frequently be heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” He also is in high demand as a recording engineer for symphonies, choirs, chamber ensembles, soloists and festivals.
He said his upcoming Callaway Auditorium concert will feature the B minor sonata by Chopin as well as the B minor sonata by Liszt, two works in the same key but totally opposite in character. The program will open with a Chopin ballade.
And, suddenly, unavoidably, the little devil on your shoulder gives your ear a quick poke with his toothpick-size trident and urges you to hazard one more question about the gifted and insured hands: “So, do you take any special precautions with them to avoid injury?”
“Well, I’m not out laying bricks or anything like that,” comes the reply.
Talented, and a sense of humor. Nice.
