Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; No. 1; Part 4

<v Steve Allen>And welcome back to the theater center of the Tarrant County Convention Center <v Steve Allen>in Fort Worth, Texas, for the second half of this final's program <v Steve Allen>from the 1985 Van Cliburn competition. <v Steve Allen>If you're just joining us, I'm Steve Allen, with me as critic and commentator Paul Hume. <v Steve Allen>On this first night of finals, we're listening to the first 2 of our 6 finalists. <v Steve Allen>They are Emma Tahmizian from Bulgaria and Barry Douglas of <v Steve Allen>the United Kingdom. The other 4 finalists are Philippe Bianconi <v Steve Allen>from France, José Fighali from Brazil, Károly <v Steve Allen>Mocsári from Hungary, and Hans-Christian Wille from West Germany. <v Steve Allen>We'll be hearing from all of them over the next 2 nights. <v Steve Allen>And with each performance, we get a step closer to that crucial decision, <v Steve Allen>which will respond to the question, who among these 6 will be the gold <v Steve Allen>medalist? That decision, of course, rests with a distinguished jury of <v Steve Allen>11, who are seated at the front of the balcony here at the theater. <v Steve Allen>They bring to their task a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds.

<v Paul Hume>Once again, Steve, let me run down the names of the jurors here. <v Paul Hume>They are Turkish pianist Idil Biret, American pianist Jorge Bolet, <v Paul Hume>Bulgarian pianist and teacher Anton Dikov, American pianist Malcolm Frager, <v Paul Hume>a big prize winner himself, having won both the Queen Elizabeth and the Leventritt <v Paul Hume>awards, the only American pianist ever to have won both of those, Hungarian <v Paul Hume>conductor also now coming from the USA, he's been in this country since 1968, <v Paul Hume>conductor and pianist Arpad Joó, Chinese pianist and teacher Li <v Paul Hume>Ming-Qiang, Japanese pianist Minoru Nojima, <v Paul Hume>French pianist Cécile Ousset, American critic Harold Schonberg, whom I've <v Paul Hume>heard, played Joplin on the piano, Swiss American pianist and teacher Soulima <v Paul Hume>Stravinsky, the son of the world-famous, and I should think by now we could say immortal <v Paul Hume>composer Igor Stravinsky, and finally, the German author, critic, and administrator <v Paul Hume>of Wolfgang Stresemann. Among the jury is chaired by John Giordano, music director <v Paul Hume>and conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony and the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, both of

<v Paul Hume>which we are hearing this evening. <v Steve Allen>Yes. What is going through their minds now as they uh as they listen <v Steve Allen>and reflect on what they have just heard. <v Steve Allen>What qualities, Paul, do they most look for in young pianists? <v Steve Allen>Let's take a moment now to- to meet some of these jurors. <v Steve Allen>Steve Proffitt reports. <v Steve Proffitt>Although they come from many countries and have different cultural backgrounds, the Van <v Steve Proffitt>Cliburn jurors are all people who have developed intensely personal opinions <v Steve Proffitt>about music and how it should be played. <v Steve Proffitt>Take, for example, pianist, Jorge Bolet. <v Jorge Bolet>Let the qualities that I look for are somebody that has <v Jorge Bolet>imagination, that has flair, that dares to take a chance, <v Jorge Bolet>that plays something that may be in the middle of a phrase, just <v Jorge Bolet>takes your breath away. <v Steve Proffitt>Bolet served as a Van Cliburn juror during the first competition in 1962, <v Steve Proffitt>and he's back again this year. <v Jorge Bolet>All these kids have absolutely beautiful pianistic computerized

<v Jorge Bolet>mechanisms. <v Jorge Bolet>You know, they can play the hell out of the piano. <v Jorge Bolet>So we have to look for other qualities other than <v Jorge Bolet>the purely mechanical ones. <v Jorge Bolet>That is certainly what I'm looking for. <v Steve Proffitt>The qualities Bolet and the other jurors are after are subjective and ephemeral, <v Steve Proffitt>but in aggregate they add up to someone who has the makings of a star. <v Steve Proffitt>Cécile Ousett was a prize winner in the first Van Cliburn and has returned to Fort <v Steve Proffitt>Worth this year as a juror. <v Cécile Ousett/Interpreter>[Ousett speaking French] First you expect him as a good pianist to have <v Cécile Ousett/Interpreter>a large repertoire and then to be able to perform at all the concerts that go along <v Cécile Ousett/Interpreter>with winning the prize. Not only should he be technically perfect, but he should <v Cécile Ousett/Interpreter>also be able to play the music from his heart. <v Cécile Ousett/Interpreter>That is first and foremost. <v Steve Proffitt>Like Bolet and Ousett, most of the jurors are concerned that too many <v Steve Proffitt>of the competitors in the past have played with technical brilliance at the expense

<v Steve Proffitt>of personal expression. Music critic Harold Schonberg says that in the past <v Steve Proffitt>decade, an international style has developed so that often young pianists <v Steve Proffitt>from Europe, America, and the Eastern Bloc countries approach a particular piece <v Steve Proffitt>in the same way. <v Harold Schonberg>I don't think that's good. I've been complaining about it for years. <v Harold Schonberg>I want pianists to come up who are individual; on the other hand, I don't want them crazy <v Harold Schonberg>like some pianists who have come up. But I do want to recognize the particular both <v Harold Schonberg>technical, tonal, and intellectual qualities of an artist the way I would recognize <v Harold Schonberg>immediately, a Joseph Hofmann, or Lhévinne, or Rachmaninoff. <v Harold Schonberg>I name many of the great pianists of the past: Schnabel, Paderweski. <v Harold Schonberg>They all have their own profile. It's hard to find profile today. <v Harold Schonberg>They are all terribly little- literal and terribly musical and terribly conscientious <v Harold Schonberg>and alas, often terribly dull. <v Steve Proffitt>If there is one thing that the jurors agree on, it's that their job is extremely <v Steve Proffitt>difficult. Day after day of listening to performance after performance, jury

<v Steve Proffitt>chairman John Giordano says the long days can lead to some fairly testy scenes <v Steve Proffitt>in the jury room. <v John Giordano>First of all, we try to make every the atmosphere as pleasant as possible. <v John Giordano>It's an enormously tedious 2 weeks for them and the stress <v John Giordano>is immeasurable on the juror. <v John Giordano>There's very little time to sleep. <v John Giordano>It's long hours. And the most difficult thing for an artist to do is listen that <v John Giordano>analytically. Sometimes in jury situations, I have to be rather firm. <v John Giordano>There have been many occasions when I've had to ask- tell a juror who was I felt was <v John Giordano>getting out of hand and championing a cause of a particular <v John Giordano>competitor that um he'll- he would have to turn over the floor to someone else. <v John Giordano>I just think the best thing I try to do is try to be as calm as possible and try to <v John Giordano>realize that they are artists and they all have a very personal feeling in <v John Giordano>music. And that's uh it's interesting. <v Steve Proffitt>The jurors all claim that it's relatively easy to distinguish between the good and <v Steve Proffitt>excellent performers and much more difficult to call out the superb players from

<v Steve Proffitt>the excellent ones. Then there is, of course, the problem of simply keeping track of <v Steve Proffitt>the hundreds of performances they must witness and remember. <v Steve Proffitt>Here's Jorge Bolet. <v Jorge Bolet>Perhaps some of us have a very, very poor memory for everything <v Jorge Bolet>except music. At least in my case, I know that I can recall <v Jorge Bolet>a performance very well. <v Jorge Bolet>I might forget the face, but what they did in playing <v Jorge Bolet>that particular piece, I can recall very readily. <v Steve Proffitt>Pianist Malcolm Frager may have the most philosophical definition of what a <v Steve Proffitt>Cliburn winner should be. The bearded soft-spoken Frager sees the winner <v Steve Proffitt>as someone who embodies all the best qualities of humanity. <v Malcolm Frager>The most important quality [piano plays in background] one needs to cultivate, if <v Malcolm Frager>one is going to participate in event, in an event such as this, <v Malcolm Frager>is the deep desire not to go <v Malcolm Frager>out and impress anybody or to get something from the audience,

<v Malcolm Frager>but just to go out on the stage and be yourself. <v Malcolm Frager>Play, and I mean that in the fullest sense of the word 'play,' <v Malcolm Frager>and share what you have seen and felt. <v Malcolm Frager>I know that's a tall order. <v Malcolm Frager>It's not an easy thing to put into practice, but I know it's possible <v Malcolm Frager>and I'm quite hopeful that some of the contestants <v Malcolm Frager>will reach that goal to a certain degree. <v Steve Allen>That report, produced by Steve Proffitt, and it does give us a good deal of additional <v Steve Allen>insight into the difficulties the jurors face. <v Steve Allen>The 2 pianists under consideration by the jury tonight are, as we've told you, <v Steve Allen>Emma Tahmizian from Bulgaria and Barry Douglas from the United Kingdom.

<v Steve Allen>We've already heard them play concertos by Mozart and Beethoven in the first half <v Steve Allen>of tonight's program. They'll return again shortly to play a second concerto each. <v Steve Allen>Emma Tahmizian to play the Prokofiev Third Concerto, and <v Steve Allen>Barry Douglas to play the Brahms First Concerto. <v Paul Hume>Steve, let me- let me remind our listeners that Emma Tahmizian, whom they will hear again <v Paul Hume>in a few minutes in the Prokofiev Third Concerto, is playing here at the age of 27. <v Paul Hume>I don't like to repeat a lady's age over and over, but that is a critical matter in the <v Paul Hume>development of any artist. And a musician matures in various stages. <v Paul Hume>Miss Tahmizian, in any case, being 27 has been playing the piano in public for 22 <v Paul Hume>years. We heard her in the Mozart Piano Concerto Number 24 in C Minor. <v Paul Hume>The- 1 of the testing pieces out of the entire Mozart repertoire, and soon we'll <v Paul Hume>hear in the Prokofiev Concerto Number 3, which is one of the big 20th century showpieces. <v Paul Hume>Earlier in the week, we had a chance to speak briefly with Emma Tahmizian.

<v Emma Tahmizian>[Tahmizian speaking French] <v Interpreter>She says they are not horses and it's not a marathon [laughs], but they do the very <v Interpreter>best they can. It's for the music. <v Interpreter>The music is the object, not the race. <v Emma Tahmizian>[Tahmizian speaking French] <v Interpreter>She says, she- there is no difference between what she does in concert and in <v Interpreter>competition. The only difference is the amount of time that the public requires. <v Emma Tahmizian>[Tahmizian speaking French]

<v Emma Tahmizian> <v Interpreter>The reason- we'll- to unravel all these rather complex ideas- <v Emma Tahmizian>[Tahmizian speaking French]. <v Interpreter>That with the people of different people coming together and playing together, <v Interpreter>there is a feeling of professional unity and harmony along in the expression <v Interpreter>of their music. That is un- that you find nowhere else. <v Interpreter>It's- I think kind of the <v Interpreter>[speaking French] the making of music in such close unity with <v Interpreter>other different people and achieving a harmonious whole. <v Emma Tahmizian>It's uh a feeling- it's incredible. <v Emma Tahmizian>It's unique.

<v Paul Hume>You've been listening to Emma Tahmizian from Bulgaria. <v Paul Hume>In her early rounds for the judges, among the works she played was the Chopin Étude in A <v Paul Hume>Minor Opus 25, number 11. <v Paul Hume>Why don't we take a moment now to hear the performance that the judges heard of that <v Paul Hume>Chopin Étude? [Emma Tahmizian plays Chopin Étude in A Minor Opus 25, number 11]. <v Steve Allen>You have just heard the Chopin Étude in A minor, from his Opus 25

<v Steve Allen>as it was played by Emma Tahmizian in 1 of the earlier preliminary rounds of this <v Steve Allen>year's Cliburn competition. <v Steve Allen>The other finalist we're hearing tonight, Barry Douglas, is 25 years old and comes to us <v Steve Allen>from Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as his home now in London. <v Steve Allen>This is his second Cliburn competition. <v Steve Allen>And as I said only a short time ago, he took part in the competition in 1981 <v Steve Allen>when he was awarded one of the special jury discretionary awards, the rightness of which, <v Steve Allen>of course, we are now hearing this evening. <v Steve Allen>Barry Douglas spoke with our reporter, Craig Allen, earlier in the week. <v Barry Douglas>Well, I think it's probably the most exciting, the most- uh <v Barry Douglas>most exciting competition, and it's the one where you get probably the most coverage- <v Barry Douglas>media, it's one of the best juries, one of the best <v Barry Douglas>places with a fantastic warm people. <v Barry Douglas>You can't ask for more, really. <v Barry Douglas>'Course there are more distractions in the kind of competition like this, because there's

<v Barry Douglas>so many TV cameras and everything that's much more difficult. <v Barry Douglas>But you have to be firm and get by yourself and get yourself in <v Barry Douglas>the frame of mind. <v Craig Allen>You were in the 1981 Van Cliburn. <v Barry Douglas>Yeah. <v Craig Allen>Right. How are you approaching this one differently? <v Barry Douglas>I guess I'm- I haven't got into the swing of this competition as much <v Barry Douglas>as the last one. I've kept myself to myself more this time. <v Barry Douglas>I haven't indulged in the champagne parties or anything so much [laughs]. <v Barry Douglas>And I'm more concentrated. I'm a more mature. <v Barry Douglas>It all adds up to better performance. <v Barry Douglas>And it's not so much a competition now, but a series of concerts. <v Barry Douglas>And that's what's important. <v Paul Hume>That was the voice of Barry Douglas. <v Paul Hume>Earlier in the competition during the recital segment of the semifinal round, he played <v Paul Hume>a very impressive performance at Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." from that <v Paul Hume>performance, here is The Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells.

<v Speaker>[Barry Douglas plays The Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells] <v Paul Hume>That was that wonderful little Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells from Mussorgksy's

<v Paul Hume>"Pictures at an Exhibition" - <v Steve Allen>I love that. <v Paul Hume>And the pianist was Barry Douglas. Isn't that a brilliant piece? <v Paul Hume>And brilliantly played. <v Steve Allen>Roughly what year would that have been written? <v Paul Hume>I think around 1870, Steve. <v Paul Hume>But you're putting me on the spot and I think that's about it. <v Steve Allen>Close enough. <v Paul Hume>Within a year or 2. The pianist we'll be hearing, of course, from later on in tonight's <v Paul Hume>concert. <v Steve Allen>Well, intermission is drawing to a close here at the theater center of the Tarrant County <v Steve Allen>Convention Center. And in just a few moments, we'll be turning to the final <v Steve Allen>competition performances by each of the 2 young pianists we're hearing tonight. <v Steve Allen>Emma Tahmizian has chosen to play the Prokofiev Third Concerto and to <v Steve Allen>close the program, Barry Douglas will play the Brahms First Concerto. <v Steve Allen>Both performances will be, of course, with the Fort Worth Symphony under the direction of <v Steve Allen>Stanisław Skrowaczewski. <v Steve Allen>Now, imagine this: if you're a competitor, what you're about to play will leave <v Steve Allen>the last impression the jury has of you before going into their <v Steve Allen>deliberations. Paul, is there any particular strategy at work here now?

<v Steve Allen>Are the choices of these specific concertos revealing in any way, do you think? <v Paul Hume>Well, I think they're very revealing. They show us what the pianist feels his greatest <v Paul Hume>strengths will be. The Prokofiev is one of the 20th century showpieces, Prokofiev <v Paul Hume>himself being a brilliant pianist, a classmate of Rachmaninoff's, and they vied <v Paul Hume>for top prizes among pianists. <v Paul Hume>Prokofiev was a brilliant pianist who made some of his career outside of the <v Paul Hume>Soviet Union, a great part of it in this country. <v Paul Hume>And indeed, the first performance of this concerto was played in Chicago by the Chicago <v Paul Hume>Symphony Orchestra under Frederic Stock with Prokofiev as the soloist that, incidentally, <v Paul Hume>took place just few months before the U.S. <v Paul Hume>premiere, the world premiere of his now famous opera, "The Love for Three Oranges." <v Paul Hume>He was a touring pianist, but some of the time his music was accused of being too <v Paul Hume>percussive, too explosive. <v Paul Hume>And this concerto has some of those qualities, along with some very lyrical writing. <v Paul Hume>But pianists love it because it's a big showpiece and it gives them a chance to show how <v Paul Hume>brilliantly they can play.

<v Paul Hume>In its wave, if you think of 2 generations earlier than Prokofiev, <v Paul Hume>the Brahms also is a tremendously testing piece. <v Paul Hume>It tests, among other things, the sheer staying power, the strength of the pianist. <v Paul Hume>But also, he has to be a poet, Brahms, like Prokofiev, who is one of the excellent <v Paul Hume>pianists of his day. And this is one of his more- this is his more youthful concerto of <v Paul Hume>the 2 that he wrote, although he was into his 30s by the time he wrote this. <v Paul Hume>He played the world premiere of it himself. <v Paul Hume>It is a work with some storm in it. <v Paul Hume>It is in this storm, a key of D minor, which was as stormy for Brahms as it was for <v Paul Hume>Mozart, and the first movement builds and builds until the <v Paul Hume>climax of the cadenza. <v Paul Hume>I have heard sometimes from the great pianists in this work just about take <v Paul Hume>the instrument apart. It makes you wonder how well-built pianos have to be <v Paul Hume>to withstand the tremendous pressure that these composers wrote into the music, knowing, <v Paul Hume>of course, that the instruments would take care of it for them. <v Paul Hume>But it's a beautiful work. Brahms wrote only 2 piano concertos. <v Paul Hume>The second in B-flat, has 4 movements.

<v Paul Hume>But in this, he stays within the more classical view of the concerto, the slow, the fast, <v Paul Hume>slow, fast format and the slow movement is like one of those beautiful, long, sustained <v Paul Hume>Brahms songs. <v Paul Hume>There is a very famous case here, a very famous story about this <v Paul Hume>concerto, I think is worth our audiences being reminded about. <v Steve Allen>Yes. <v Paul Hume>Because the question sometimes, sometimes comes up, how closely do the conductor and the <v Paul Hume>soloist work in rapport? And here I must express my admiration for Mr. Skrowaczewski, <v Paul Hume>who has the incredible job these 3 nights of conducting for 6 <v Paul Hume>different pianists in 12 different concertos. <v Paul Hume>That's something no orchestra and no conductor ordinarily does in any normal situation, <v Paul Hume>but a competition isn't really quite a normal situation. <v Paul Hume>Well, there was a performance of this concerto and perhaps this will tell our audiences <v Paul Hume>something about it. 1 year by the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein conducting <v Paul Hume>the soloist was Glenn Gould from Canada. <v Paul Hume>And just before the performance, Bernstein turned to the audience and said, "Ladies and <v Paul Hume>gentlemen, I must tell you that after 3 days of rehearsals, the orchestra and the soloist

<v Paul Hume>and I have not been able to come to any common approach to this music." [both laugh] "We <v Paul Hume>will do our best to play it together." But they just <v Paul Hume>didn't agree on whether or not you took the first moment in a very stormy, aggressive, <v Paul Hume>dramatic, forceful manner, or if you let it be much more poetic, if <v Paul Hume>you took it very slowly, which Gould wanted to do, or if you moved it along as Bernstein <v Paul Hume>felt it should be moved. <v Paul Hume>These are questions, of course, about which a conductor and soloist usually find some <v Paul Hume>resolving answer. I don't expect that kind of controversy tonight, <v Paul Hume>but it is a tremendous challenge to any pianist. <v Paul Hume>And then now, as I've said, both of these concertos are. <v Steve Allen>I would think that in the unlikely event, there were any difference of opinion between <v Steve Allen>conductor and pianist, the conductor would have to defer to the pianist <v Steve Allen>in a- in a competition. <v Paul Hume>Mr. Skrowaczewski has been both very generous and very gracious about that very factor <v Paul Hume>here by saying that in this situation where there is just exactly I think they gave <v Paul Hume>each pianist 50 fa- no, 45 minutes to rehearse each concerto

<v Paul Hume>with the orchestra. Well, when you think that this Brahms concerto is going to take 47 <v Paul Hume>minutes just to play it, you can see they must agree ahead of time production soloist in <v Paul Hume>conversing about their general approach and what they will do. <v Paul Hume>The burden that puts on the conductor to keep the orchestra together and with <v Paul Hume>the soloist is an unusual one. <v Paul Hume>And as I say, I've admired Mr. Skrowaczewski this evening very greatly in that. <v Paul Hume>These 2 concertos both, of course, give us also a marvelous chance to wonder all over <v Paul Hume>again at the beauty with which totally different composers write for this instrument that <v Paul Hume>they love so much. <v Steve Allen>There really is no rational reason why <v Steve Allen>ethnic or nationalistic considerations should have any relevance <v Steve Allen>to the question of excellence of music. I personally wouldn't care if the 12 greatest <v Steve Allen>pianists in the world were all Eskimos. I would not be ego wounded in any way by <v Steve Allen>that. But I suppose some people want dear old <v Steve Allen>Bulgaria or dear old USA to come out on top.

<v Steve Allen>Am I correct in feeling that there aren't as many Americans in the competition at this <v Steve Allen>time as there have been in the past? <v Paul Hume>Well, this happens. You've put your finger on a very interesting point out of these 7 <v Paul Hume>Cliburn competitions, this being the seventh, this is only the second time that there <v Paul Hume>have been no U.S. entrants in the final rounds at all. <v Paul Hume>The 2 who were in the semifinals, interestingly enough, both came from training in <v Paul Hume>Boston, not from, say, New York or Philadelphia or <v Paul Hume>other centers for training young musicians. <v Paul Hume>But neither of them made it to the final rounds, and so we do not have <v Paul Hume>a final round pianist from the U.S. <v Paul Hume>and we do not have one from the USSR. <v Paul Hume>That, of course, is a more decidedly political matter. <v Paul Hume>This being one of the times when the Soviet Union has not said to its young pianists, you <v Paul Hume>will go to the United States and play in Fort Worth as they do, you'll go to Paris or <v Paul Hume>you'll go to London or wherever. They tell them where they will go and what they will <v Paul Hume>play and who will go. <v Paul Hume>And this year they said no one will go. <v Steve Allen>I see.

<v Steve Allen>In certain, to refer to the idea of sports analogies again, in certain <v Steve Allen>sports, it is possible to say with absolute certainty that one practitioner <v Steve Allen>or another is the best simply because he has lifted the heaviest weights and I'm sorry, I <v Steve Allen>think we'll get back to that point later because more important things <v Steve Allen>are about to take place here. The house lights have dimmed in the theater center and <v Steve Allen>we're awaiting the appearance on stage of uh Emma Tahmizian. <v Paul Hume>Again, they are going to tune to the piano, as they usually do. <v Paul Hume>I didn't see them change pianos, which I thought they might have done because some <v Paul Hume>pianists would be very happy with a very different instrument for Brahms or Prokofiev <v Paul Hume>than they used in Mozart or Beethoven. <v Paul Hume>But on the other hand, there are some pianos that will take very well almost anything in <v Paul Hume>the repertoire. And I think this is the piano we've been hearing so far this evening. <v Steve Allen>As even casual pianists are aware, some instruments are relatively <v Steve Allen>easy to play fast on. <v Paul Hume>Yes.

<v Steve Allen>The keys have the lightness of accordion keys almost, whereas other instruments, the keys <v Steve Allen>have to be pressed down quite firmly or relatively firmly. <v Paul Hume>Well, I was fascinated once when the great Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha, said if <v Paul Hume>she could have her way, she would like to change pianos right in the middle of a concert. <v Paul Hume>Have 1 piano for Mozart at the beginning, another for Brahms or Schumann in the middle, <v Paul Hume>and a different piano for 20th-century music, perhaps Spanish music or whatever, for the <v Paul Hume>third piano. But of course, you can't do that in the ordinary concert. <v Paul Hume>It's quite true. <v Steve Allen>I see. Well, Emma Tahmizian is about to step on <v Steve Allen>stage. We have every confidence. [applause] <v Steve Allen>Yes. There she is. And we will hear the uh piano concerto number 3, in C, Opus <v Steve Allen>26 by Prokofiev, as we've told you. <v Steve Allen>Stanisław Skrowaczewski conducts the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. <v Steve Allen>This time, again, the uh [laughs] it is necessary to make the adjustment of the <v Steve Allen>piano seat. Mr. Douglas apparently wanted it either higher or lower and

<v Steve Allen>Miss Tahmizian is going in the opposite direction. <v Steve Allen>Probably she wishes to be higher, I would think. <v Paul Hume>That's a fascinating business, Steve. Glenn Gould used to sit on a bench that got lower <v Paul Hume>and lower and lower by the year until he had to reach up for the keys. <v Paul Hume>But that's the way he played beautifully. <v Steve Allen>?inaudible? sat on 2 telephone books. <v Paul Hume>And Paderewski sat in a tall wooden chair with a back to it. <v Paul Hume>And I saw another pianist recently Bella- ?inaudible? <v Paul Hume>doing the same thing. <v Steve Allen>Fascinating. <v Speaker>[Emma Tahmizian and orchestra play Prokofiev's Third Concerto]