Old pianists never die; they just fade away.

November 8, 1:37 PMPhiladelphia Piano ExaminerLeonard Bogat

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             Lukas Foss at the piano (public domain)

We have lost two giants of the piano this year. 

Alicia de Larrocha, Spanish Catalan pianist, considered by many to have been the greatest woman pianist of the 20th Century and the greatest Spanish pianist in history, passed away on September 25 at the age of 86. 

Lukas Foss, American composer, conductor and pianist, left us on February 1, also aged 86.  Both had achieved the highest level of recognition in their respective fields of endeavor.  Both will be sorely missed.

Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009) was a small woman, less than five feet tall with small hands, but she had a huge heart, a phenomenal technique, and a wondrous sense of what was musically right.  While most revered for her playing of the great Spanish composers, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla, her performances of Mozart, Beethoven and the Romantics were very highly rated.  Her repertoire included concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Khatchaturian.  There was nothing she could not play brilliantly and beautifully.

Here she plays "La Campanella" by Franz Liszt , an example of her scintillating technique and musicality.

Lukas Foss, born in Germany in 1922, was a prolific composer.  He was a fine conductor.  And he was an excellent pianist.  His output consists of works in every musical genre among which are numerous works for solo piano, chamber music with piano, and several concertos for piano and orchestra including a Concerto for the Left Hand.  Foss was one of the relatively few composers of the heavily academic mid-century who never allowed himslef to lose sight of the fact that his goal was making music while exploring and developing the new forms of aleatoric music, twelve-tone technique and serialism. 

The following is an example of one of the Studies in Improvisation by Lukas Foss, written in his neoclassical style. It is not one of his great or important works, but it has humor and is not a bad way to get one's feet wet.  This is a 1961 performance by The Improvisation Chamber Ensemble a group founded by Lukas Foss in Los Angeles in the 1950's

"Studies in Improvisation: Circus Piece"
Lukas Foss - Piano
Richard Dufallo - Clarinet
Charles Delancey - Percussion
Howard Colf - Cello
David Duke - French Horn