I made an important discovery yesterday with the aid of the internet and that indispensable tool that I always discourage my students from using, Wikipedia.
Basically, it turns out that I am a big loser.
Last Christmas, my mother gave me a CD of Joel Wizanski playing Brahms. Joel Wizanski was my piano teacher at the Peabody Prep in Baltimore when I was in high school. When I learned some years ago that he now teaches at the Yale School of Music and that his performances have been reviewed in the New York Times, the LA Times, and the Washington Post (though not always favorably), I felt like a big idiot for providing what must have been torture sessions for him hoping against hope that I would finally get my act together and actually take piano seriously. He had a lot to give, and I only took him up on very little. So I was a big loser.
But I already knew that much going into yesterday. I had already felt pangs of shame for not seizing more fully what in retrospect was a fabulous opportunity.
Yesterday's internet stalking has proved me to be an even bigger loser than I even realized, however. It turns out that Joel Wizanski was taught by Leon Fleisher, who was taught by Artur Schnabel, who was taught by Theodor Leschitizky, who was taught by Carl Czerny, whose teachers were Beethoven and Antonio Salieri. So there you have it. My musical line of authority includes Beethoven and Salieri and yet I feel proud when I can sight-read a hymn.
Someone should engraven a big scarlet L on my forehead for shame.
2 comments:
Kathryn and I saw Leon Fleischer when he was here with the Stuttguart Chamber Orchestra recently. His career is pretty amazing--stopped playing for a while for health reasons, but he is now back touring.
You aren't that big of a loser. My piano teacher had a daughter who paid an awful lot of attention to my lessons, and it finally gave me the creeps. I am not sure my piano teacher descended from the greats like yours did, but I imagine our current ability is probably similar, unless you are being humble.
I did compose a song when I was 14. I even wrote the notes down on a staff, but I got two bars in and gave up. That sums up my creative endeavors pretty well.
I can't say I have any creepy daughter stories. I will say that I was disappointed when I found out that Beethoven had a famous kiss that he passed down to his most worthy students, who then passed it on to their most worthy students, and so forth. So the Beethoven kiss is still out there somewhere, and I am no proud recipient. But maybe my own teacher never had it in the first place. Then again, if Joel had tried to give me a kiss, Beethovenesque or otherwise, that indeed would have been creepy.
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