Man, it’s been a rough month for famous folks from my great home town of Buffalo, N.Y. First Tim Russert unexpectedly leaves us. Now this very morning we hear of the passing of Leonard Pennario. Time to fire up the deep-fryer in their honor and wrastle up a batch of suicide wings.
Pennario was Old School, and there ain’t no school like the Old School. A brilliant pianist, he was also a wonderful performer. He exuded the joy of music making, and for him it was obvious that playing for people was the most important aspect of making music. I love that his career careened between the music of Rachmaninoff and Rozsa, as well as just about everything inbetween (Bartok, Gershwin, Gottschalk, etc.). These days you’re lucky if the soloist you’ve engaged for next season has more than 5 concertos in their repertoire. Of course, some of that is our own fault – orchestras rarely ask for more than the same five concertos year in and year out. BORING! We have gotten so paranoid about scaring off our audiences that it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s like we’re afraid of making the concert experience too interesting because we might attract an audience.
Actually, a very good friend of mine, who also happens to be one of the best pianists on the circuit, readily admits that his concerto repertoire is utterly boring. There’s just not enough call for anything interesting, so he spends all his truly creative juices on the solo/chamber music repertoire. What does that say about the state of orchestral programming these days? (On a side note, I received an utterly irate letter from an ex-patron of the ESO this year absolutely berating me for daring to program something besides Overture/Concerto/Symphony. It seems that this formula has worked for thousands of years and who was I to do anything different? I should really have that letter framed.)
There’s something else about Pennario that catches my eye. It seems he was a master bridge player, and was part of a foursome with Don Adams (“Get Smart”), Les Brown, and Joan Benny (Jack’s daughter). Can you imagine a pianist today having a second career playing contract bridge? I can just hear the phone call from the New York Agent:
“Excuse me, but you sold your soul to us as a pianist and we plan on leeching every last penny out of you. Now put those silly cards down and get to work!”
Or maybe that’s just the cynical Sunday morning pre-tea grouch in me talking. Or maybe not.
None-the-less, I know what I’m having for lunch today. Suicide sauce courtesy of the Anchor Bar. The best, chunkiest blue cheese dressing I can find, and a cold one. In honor of our dearly departed Buffalonians.
GO BILLS!
Bill
Will be in Buffalo next Saturday for a few days (on my way to Syracuse), “winging” it is defintiely in my plans! I have never dared to try the suicide sauce although I remember an order being brought to a table next to us once (at the Anchor Bar), and my eyes were watering from just the smell!
Amen Mr. Eddins! It seems that the greatest challenge in developing an orchestra is programming. You get boxed into pieces that will sell, and get hammered by subscribers when you step outside the box. Which makes you wonder why people want to pay over and over to have the same experience. Do these people watch the same movies in a recurring 3 year cycle as well? My teacher at conservatory told us that our concerto repertoire total should match our age. And at the age of 65, he was still learning new ones. Cheers to the Old School and let’s hope that those attitudes come back into vogue very soon!
Yes indeed, Leonard Pennario was one of the active pianists, always loving the joy of performing. I was fortunate to be of the age enjoying the great pianists, and their dedication to new music was certainly visible. Rubenstein and Horowitz always premiered new works. I could never understand why orchestras would find it necessary to believe that there are only several core rep pieces that sell. Ever hear of “Symphonic Waltzes’ by Dana Suesse? The ‘Girl Gershwin’ in Paul Whiteman’s ‘Experiments’? What a neat pair to the ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, or Ravel ‘Concerto in G’. But nobody knows it. I bet Leonard Pennario did, and Oscar Levant.