| To Silvia Kind I owe my introduction to the harpsichord and its lore. I played the flute, as she had in her youth in Switzerland. Her supply of hilarious stories and inspirational anecdotes seemed
inexhaustible. Her autobiographical notes, written for a festschrift commemorating Swiss composer Peter Mieg,
give some hints of her career, which included a long association with Paul Hindemith. On several of her recordings (Nonesuch and others), she announces the subtitles of each movement, a very helpful practice she swears was just a happy accident
in the studio. Her students are forever grateful for her enthusiastic encouragement as well as the tea and fortune cookies. |
An excellent appreciation of the great champion of early music, and of high standards in all of music,
has been posted on the internet. I have heard professionals deprecate her Pleyel harpsichords that she herded around the world "like a lion-tamer" from concert to concert; they were
built all wrong, had the wrong tone, etc. But the same complainers wondered aloud how she managed to coax such wonderful music out of them! It is no mystery to me: she had something to
say, and she taught herself painstakingly exactly how best to say it. Through her recordings and her writings that match them almost measure for measure, Wanda Landowska is still very much among us. |
Eva Heinitz had a reputation of being a very demanding teacher, and I knew that to be true! She taught us how to work, how to make practical music. Accompanists got their
licks in her chamber music classes, too. She would say, "Now, I'm not a pianist, but if I were, I would play it something like this" -- then she would sit down at the piano and deliver
the music with astonishing insight and subtlety of touch. I always relished that moment, when the true essence of the piece was suddenly revealed. Her devotion to teaching has led her to
a magnificent gesture, when she donated a prized cello to endow a
scholarship at Indiana University. |
