' e · 99.1 CBC. radiQ)NE 4.r cac.radi9.1 SATURDAY, MARCH 12/05-8 P.M, New World Fusion auto rickshaw Trichy Sankaran, mrdangam George Koller, acoustic bass autonckshaw is stei;ped in the traditions of North and South Indian classical music, mixed with contemporary jazz and funk. They are joined by multi-instrumentalist George Koller and mrdangam maestro Tricky Sankaran 1n the Onstage event. Single tickets: 5 TUESDAY, MARCH 15/05 - 8 P.M. A Night at the Old Opera House Kiosque a musique Mary Lou Fallis. soprano Peter Tiefenbach, piano . Kiosque a musique team up with Canada's own Primadonna, Mary Lou Fallis, and accompanist Peter Tiefenbach in everything from popular overtures and operatic transcriptions to "newly discovered" Canadian comic operas. Single Tickets: . TUESDAY, MARCH 29/05 - 8 P.M. Six-String Serenade Daniel Bolshoy, guitar Julie Nesrallah, soprano Borealis String Quartet The young Canadian guitarist Daniel Bolshoy, featured in solo and chamber settings, will be reunited with mezzosoprano Julie Nesrallah in the Nesrallah-Bolshoy duo. Joining them will be the Borealis String Quartet for an evening of six-string serenades. Single Tickets: . BOX OFFICE: 416-205-5555 Mon··Fri., 11-6 and 2 hrs prior to performance Fax: 416-205-5551 Geo. 11 , D ,-9-11111 & Co. Limited www.cbc.ca/gould CONSERVATORS & PURVEYORS OF Fine & Rare Violins 201 Church St.. Toronto. ON. M5B JY7 Tel: 416-363-0093 •Fax: 416-363-0053 Ernai I: ghcl@idirect.com www.georgeheinl.com Canada's foremost violin experts. Prout.I of our herit:igc. Ex
walks confidently on stage. I on the other hand lurk at the back of the hall in agony lest the treble start to drift under the heat of the lights and the stress of Bartok. It can and it will! 1 often think that the piano is nothing more than a large musical thermometer/hygrometer combination sent by a cruel deity to try my soul. They are perverse beasts: 1 have seen them dropped off a dol ly and remain in acceptable tune. 1 have seen a piano laugh off the fact that much or its veneer is still hanging from a narrow doorframe .... but change the temperature or humidity by more than a point or two, and there is hell to pay. There is no more subtle form of torture than t?eing a tuner silting in a concert hall watching an artist grimace as your tuning sinks slowly in the west. My first experience of this was 20 years ago. The piano was a wretched small grand that lurked unloved in the ddwnstairs bar at the Hummingbird Centre. For reasons probably known only to the budget chief it was being used to accompany the finalists of the Canadian Opera Company's young talent search on a live-to-air national broadcast. l was called in at the last moment to tune. l was rather pleased. 1 was a very green young tuner and there 1 was with my first association with the big names ''... COC ... CBC .... Stuart Hamilton at the keyboard'". On the way to Front Street 1 ran into a friend and I rather boasted a bit ("Me and Joan Sutherland used to take baths together .... ., that son of thing). Arriving, 1 found a piano more suited to a dive in Parkdale than to the National Network, and, fool that 1 was. I raised it a full semitone and prayed to Saint Cecilia. That evening 1 sat at home listening to the live broadcast. And as my tuning vanished as the snows of spring, l got to taste humiliation on a truly national scale. Moreover, the next day my friend called saying "Well, you were so puffed up about that gig that I taped that concert for you." . There are times tuner anonymity isn't such a bad thing. (Ernst Kochsiek. by the way, a German technician with a legendary status among performers ... Alfred Brendel thinks he's god .... says the piano in order to be stable needs one tuning for every "cent" flat that it is raised. Since a semitone consists of fifty "'cents", had the COC taken that to heart I'd just be finishing that gig now!) But back to Bauer and his tuner. The Mason and Hamlin Piano Company supplied Mr. Bauer with Mr. Bacon, whom Bauer called Pop. "We always travelled together and became close friends. I am sure I was closer to the heart of Pop Bacon than anyone or anything else except his pianos which were like children to him." Mr. Bacon also looked after Mr. Bauer, and, trust me. if my experience is correct. pianos aren't the only things that can be like children. Being British, Bauer had a bent for sarcastic humour that, by Bauer's own account. drove poor Pop to distraction. ''He felt personally responsible for my comfort and health. He also liked to advise me occasionally as to my relations with other people and he was greatly concerned by my habit of making the occasional satiric remarks 'You ought to be careful, Mr. Bauer,' he used to growl at me amiably but apprehensible. 'These people don't understand sarcasm and they don't like it. You can't tell whal may happen. Supposing some big husky chap were to haul off and land you one, where would you be? You aren't in any kind of physical training and I'm sure I don't know' ... and so his voice would trail off rather miserably." The sarcastic mouth of Harold Bauer came to the fore in an unnamed western US mining town which from his description could have been Dodge City in its prime: rough, gun toting and ready for a concert which the audience approached in the manner of an entertainment billed "Girls !Girls! Girls!", wit latecomers banging down seats and calling to the ushers for peanuts. CONTINUES NEXT PAGE MARCH 1 - ArRIL 7 2005
