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This man writes piano concertos where you can't find the piano player.  Why would he do such a thing?

 Avner Dorman has done something that nobody has done before - or at least nobody we've ever heard of before: he has written a piano concerto with no pianist on stage to play it.  At least, not at first.  It would seem sort of odd if the Kansas City Symphony commissioned Avner Dorman to write a piano concerto and there was no pianist.


Apparently there is a piano player.  Somewhere, anyway.  As a matter of fact, we know there must be a pianist since the Kansas City Symphony has hired one.  His name is Alon Goldstein and the Symphony has pasted his name all over their brochures and their web site.  

So, now we have established that there is one - but we just won't actually be able to see him.  Not at the outset, anyway.  Presumably we will be let in on the secret of the lost pianist on November 20 - 22 when the Kansas City Symphony presents the world premier of Avner Dorman's Lost Souls.

David Peironnet of Friends of the Symphony talked with the composer to inquire exactly what is going on here:

DP:  Lost Souls begins without a pianist on stage.  Where is he?  Why?  How does he finally get on stage?  Or, is that a secret that we'll learn the night of the performance?

Avner Dorman:  Yes, it's a secret and yes, the audience will learn it the night of the performance.  There is a lot of conflict in the first movement - between the orchestra and the soloist (known as the "soul-oist" because the piece is known as Lost Souls), internally for the pianist, and the struggles of connecting the physical and not so physical realms.  A large portion of the conflict has to do with memory (which is an important theme for me). The soul-oist tries to perform pieces he performed in past lives - but he can't quite remember them as they used to be.  That's when the music takes strange turns and explores new routes.

I hope that not having the pianist on stage initially will arouse a new curiosity in the audience - its theater - not just music!

DP:  Each of the themes which the piano soul-oist performs represents a different ghost or "lost soul." Why are these lost souls seeking to get back before an audience?

Avner Dorman:  Inspiration for the piece came because I feel Alon Goldstein is, in some ways, a pianist who was born 100 years too late.  He just has this aura.  So instead of relating to the soloist only as a physical entity, the orchestra summons the "lost souls" of past pianists through him.

DP:  What do you hope that we, as your audience, will learn from these "lost souls?"

Avner Dorman: When I started writing the piece I didn't know why, but just as characters in a book tend to develop beyond the author's initial concepts (many authors say this), I've come to believe that these "souls" need to complete something -  perhaps perform for the very last time.  There is a message they want to convey.

DP:  Those of us who know Pictures at an Exhibition recall how the composer Mussorgsky opens with a dramatic theme which we all recognize. Then, that theme reappears each time we move from one "picture at an exhibition" to another.  How is this similar to Lost Souls?

Avner Dorman:  It's both different and it's similar.  I didn't think of it in that way when I wrote it.  My wife (a fellow Kansas Citian) came up with the analogy, because like Pictures at an Exhibition, Lost Souls begins with a motif that recurs almost every time a new scene, so to speak, begins. Unlike Pictures at an Exhibition, don't expect a big trumpet tune. Instead, the motif is a ghostly gesture in the high strings - perhaps the souls' whisper.

DP:  You wrote Lost Souls for Alon Goldstein, who will be our guest soloist.  How did you happen to get to know Alon Goldstein?  What is there about his playing that impressed you so much?

Avner Dorman:  We first met in New York City.  The irony of this is that we are both from Israel, but we met in New York.  I heard him play on the radio in Israel many years before we met and I remember thinking that his playing was energetic and involved, and yet, was very clean and predetermined, which might appear to be contradictory.  Alon is very pedantic.  He thinks through and prepares his interpretation very thoroughly.  Alon Goldstein is the type of performer who tries to figure out the purpose of every single note.  What is unique about Alon, is that when it's all put together it still works on an emotional level as well.  This is despite all of the intellectual preparation, he maintains his emotional connection with the music. That's a rare combination. It's something I like to do in my music, too.

When I compose a piano concerto or a sonata, I don't write for piano but rather for a pianist.  I don't even write for a theoretical pianist who might come along at some future point.  I wrote Lost Souls for Alon Goldstein and had his work in mind all along.  The piano has so much written for it that I don't want to write just another piano concerto today.  Lost Souls was a concept that came from drawing from the pianist.  I was looking for something dramatic

DP: Some listeners are almost afraid of "new music."  In defense of these concertgoers, a lot of new music reflects the composer's mastery of technique rather than the ability to write music which audiences can comprehend.  Your Piano Concerto in A seems to me to be accessible to audiences.  What is your own assessment of new music and where do you see yourself as a composer of new compositions?

Avner Dorman:  For me, the biggest compliment is when someone says to me that they pushed the "replay" button after hearing a piece for the first time and by the time they get to the tenth hearing they're finding new things in the piece.  It doesn't really matter whether the listener likes the piece at first hearing. What is more important is that they want to hear the piece again, that it made them curious.

For me, the real mastery of technique is that it's transparent.  When a nonprofessional hears a great Bach piece they don't think "wow, what a mastery of technique."  It just touches them on a very deep level.  The audience knows the music is good despite their lack of knowledge of musical theory.  Of course, as a composer, I'm blown away by Bach's technique, and I study it again and again.

As for the difficulty of listening to a new piece, you just never know before a premiere.  Sometimes what a composer has to say is not easy to hear, but I think the audience should not discount a piece of music just because it's not pleasing at first hearing.  Sometimes what an artist has to say is not easy to hear.

DP:  Lost Souls will be presented for the first time ever in Kansas City. Is there something you hope will come from a Midwestern audience that might be different from people in New York or London or Salzburg?

Avner Dorman:  Pretty much the same. That's been my experience. I love the Midwest.  My wife is from Kansas City!  I don't see any reason why this should be any different.

DP:  Now, I'm listening to an excerpt from your Piano Sonata No. 2 which seems to me to have a virtuosic character, much like that of Brahms and composers of his generation. Were you seeking a sound which carried on that classical tradition or were you seeking to give the soloist an opportunity to reveal his "star-power?"  Or, both?  Or, something completely different?

Avner Dorman:  Star power goes there, but that movement was more about freedom of motion and imagination.  That movement was inspired by the pianism of Art Tatum who had plenty of both.

DP:  The first movement of your composition, Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! seems to have a mix of traditional Jewish music and jazz.  I can almost see a few members of the audience getting into the aisles to dance, at least if they had a few glasses of wine before the concert.  How does that compare with Lost Souls?

Avner Dorman:  It's hard to say before the piece has had some performances.  When writing a piece of this size there are so many challenges that I don't really think about how it compares to anything.  For example, when I wrote Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!  I wanted that piece to sound Israeli.  But I can tell you that even though it's a huge hit wherever it's played, people read different things into it.  In Israel, people feel it reflects something which is localized in many ways. But in New York or Bangkok or Munich, the associations might be different.  You hear Jazz in the piece (and I don't deny I love Jazz), but maybe it has to do also with the fact that you are from Kansas City.  In any case, I don't think it matters. If it's good, its good. That's what I really care about.

DP:  Did you consciously write it in such a way to make it more popular?

Avner Dorman:  If I only knew how to do that.  No one knows what makes a popular piece.  If you knew in advance, composing would be an easier job.  When you do something new, you never know.

There is something about a great piece of music - whether you love it or you don't - but you want to hear it again.  You may not even like the piece, but there is something about it that makes you want to hear again to find out about something that might reach out to you.  Whether you love it or not, that isn't important. If you want to hear it again, that's the important thing.  Too many pieces you hear and three minutes later, you don't care whether you ever hear them again.

Think about Beethoven. Beethoven didn't write in the style of his era. It's the other way around. His era was defined by Beethoven.

Will Kansas City like Lost Souls?  I have no idea.  I really hope they do.  I'm really excited and I firmly believe in it.  When the orchestra starts playing, that's when you start hearing the piece as it really is.  We'll know then.

INTERVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony
Stern Conducts Sibelious
with Alon Goldstein, piano
Friday, November 20 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 21, at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central, Kansas City, MO
Sunday, November 22 at 2 p.m.
Carlsen Center at JCCCC
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.

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