have a great respect for the members of the jazz community, both nationally and internationally, and cannot now imagine working outside it. In terms of "things you 're doing right now" other than the Senator, there 's a good piece on Port Hope in the September issue of WholeNote, so I won't ask you more about that, but J 'm wondering about your involvement in the RCM series, and how it fits your picture of what needs to happen in town. My involvement at the Conservatory is to programme a jazz series that runs from October2003 to April 2004 through the Royal Conservatory Community School. The booking, this inaugural year, is broad based covering several styles from the jazz spectrum, from straight ahead modern mainstream jazz to vocal cabaret, Latin influences and a marriage of jazz and classical music for our final concert. It would be my hope that this series would continue from year to year featuring the best of Canadian talent and that we could include in coming years master classes with the performing artists. Making jazz available in new venues is always positive - developing new audiences can only benefit the jazz profile in general. I am, also, very interested in developing an interest and excitement for jazz with the Conservatory students Coming back to the subject of the Top O' The Senator, you mention a grearer international component as a target for 2004. I'm wondering if this is because other clubs are providing more on the local front, or because you had to pull in your horns for a while, or because you see an upturn happening ... , or what? Yes, yes, and I hope so. We have certainly had to pull back on booking of American talent in the past few years. This was a result of the very strong American dollar and the fact that the loss of theatre in this area, (the closing of the Pantages theatre) had a serious economic impact on our organization. With the theatre back in full swing and the slightly recovering Canadian dollar I feel a little more secure. I think any upturn would certainly be precipitated by the fact that there is American talent being booked - from conversations I have had with customers throughout the past three or four years they have been missing the opportunity to experience some of their favourite musicians. ************ For More.Information Gall 416-872-4255 A r11~~?0 N www.royfhomson.com "i\t Dr. Alan Walker, Professor Emeritus of Music at McMaster University, and the author of a three-volume, prizewinning biography of Franz Liszt. I am presently working on a follow-up book called "In the Footsteps of Liszt: a Biographer's Journey", which tells the story of how the Liszt biography came to be written, and my travels through Budapest, Weimar, Rome, London, Washington, and other cities in search of Lisztiana. In the longer term, I am working on the further development of The Great Romantics Festival, an annual event I direct for the City of Hamilton, McMaster University, and The American Liszt Society. The festival is now in its ninth year. The website address is: www .artset.net/ greatromantics. html October 1 - November 7 2003
Follow-up What di rec/ions are you contemplating for the further development of the GR Festival? Liszt remains pivotal, I assume. Is it a question of significantly extending or varying the range of composers in the chain of influence? (Berlioz?!) Or matters relating to the size or organization of th~ event itself? Further developments for the GR Festival depend entirely on funding. I would certai~ly consider it an advance on the festivals of the first nine years if we could run it for an entire week, and not just for four days. I would also like to widen the repertoire, and perhaps mount a large-scale choral work such as Liszt's oratorio "Christus" ('never performed in Canada, as far as I can gather), or Verdi's Requiem. Berlioz is the only major composer of the Romantic Age who has not yet been represented. All the others, from mid period Beethoven to Mahler, Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss, make regular appearances. Your description of your.self as Prof Emeritus at McMaster and "author of a ... biography" gives an extraordinary career short shrift! You have talked elsewhere about how, when you started your work on Liszt in the I960s -a decade before coming to Mc Master - you "could not think of another case in music of such a great composer suffering such neglect". If anyone ,has made a difference to the truth of that statement, obviously you have. Does it feel, forty years later, that things have changed fn terms of performance and perception of his work? Or is this one of those per- . petual battles? Much has improved in Liszt scholarship over the past forty years. When I first entered the field, there was little interest in nineteenth century studies, especially at universities, and hardly any atall in Liszt. Now it has become a branch of heavy industry. If I made a difference, I am content. Closely connected to this advance in Liszt scholarship is an advance in Liszt performance. More performers than ever are turning to his music and finding things of interest in it. Having served on the Jury of the International Liszt Competition in Buda- ' pest a number of times, I am enormously impressed at the pianistic talent I hear, especially in Eastern Europe. · mSinfania ioronto . NURHAN ARMAN . MUSIC DIRECTOR Saturday, October 25, 8 pm - Glenn Gould Studio COREY CEROVSEK, Violinist Begin the season with brilliance! One of our greatest violinists plays romantic virtuoso gems and Rossini's musical humour and the sparkling elegance of Mendelssohn. Saturday, November 22, 8 pm - Glfnn Gould Studio THE KHACHATURIAN CENTENARY Mo vs es Pogossiari, Violinist Music by the master and friends - tributes to his populist passion, his soaring arcs of melody, and his genius as an instrumental colourist. Tchaikowsky Competition laureate Movses Pogossian makes his Canadian debut. Your upcoming book's title.suggests perhaps a bit of a turning away from Liszt to an examination of your interest ,in him. Or is there always more? Of course, there is always more. And there's the paradox. The brighter the light, the greater the area of surrounding darkness it illuminates. Having said that, my new book "In the Footsteps of Liszt: A Biographer's Joijrney" is different. It tells the story behind the story. This is not Liszt's story so much as my story. It arose out of a conviction that inside every biography is an autobiography trying to get out. I talk about people and places and important individuals who helped me in the pursuit of Lisztiana, and the many archives in which I have worked - in Budapest, Weimar, . Rome, Washington, London, and elsewhere - and the unknown documents I was privileged to uncover. In fact, there are a number of "Eureka" moments. I even devote a part of the book to formulating the principles of musical biography; that is to say, to expounding those things that must be done, as opposed to those things that simply cannot be done, .if the genre is to ~ucceed. December 7, 3 pm - Lawrenae Park Community Church A BAROQUE CHRISTMAS Jonathan Tortolano, Cellist Christmas ornaments in sound! A collection of favourites, musical decorations that glow w ith melody and twinkle with the energetic rhythm of the Baroque - and a great Carol Sing-along . In conclusion, I refer you to a we"Qsite address http:// library .lib.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/w .htm that will guide you to my personal archives at McMaster University. The extent of the correspondence, especially, may be of interest to you. October 1 - November 7 2003 CONTINUES ON PAGE TEN www.thewholenote.com 7-concert Main Series subscriptions including Christmas concert 0/125/90 from 4 16 -499-0403 Sing le con
