Pianist Say to provide eclectic bill at Piano and Friends recital opener

Pianist/composer Fazil Say

This Sunday, Fazil Say premieres one of his compositions and improvises on others suggested by the audience. The classical pianist's season-opening Piano and Friends recital has been sold as something ``unusual.''

Say, who'll perform a $2,000 sonata commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, agrees.

``In the 19th century, pianists (such as Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt) played their own works,'' he said. ``In the 20th century, they just play interpretations.''

The great 19th-century pianist-composers also improvised, if only to establish their supremacy as virtuosos in the public's eyes. Beethoven, for instance, reportedly smoked Clementi in a famous improvisation contest.

By hearing a pianist perform his own compositions, Say said, ``The audience can understand your musicianship deeper and better.''

Unfortunately, the classical piano business changed in the 20th century. In general, composers have either conducted and composed or just composed. And performers have just performed.

Where pianists once performed their own works to promote themselves, they now train to win competitions, because winning competitions launches careers. The competition rat race doesn't leave much time for anything else, much less composing or improvising, its closest cousin.

Say, however, is an exception. Now 28, he began studying piano and composition at 5. His teachers also encouraged him to improvise daily on the repertory he was learning as an aid in uncovering the music's ideas and emotions. That kind of thing is virtually unknown today.

``Classically trained musicians are primarily put before the printed page and taught to play it,'' e-mailed Pip Eastop, a former London Sinfionetta horn player who now tries to ``facilitate'' more improvisation training at the Royal Academy of Music in England. ``It is the printed page which is referred to as the `music,' not that which emanates from the musical imagination of the student. Thus, the natural aptitude for spontaneous musical creation is, usually, `taught out.' ''

Ironically, when you look past pianists, the idea of a composer performing his own work is gaining greater currency, particularly among crossover artists. For example, double bass player Edgar Meyer and fiddler Mark O'Connor have transferred the expectations of the bluegrass world (improvising and performing one's own compositions) to the classical world.

Ron Matthews, a composition professor at Eastern College in Pennsylvania, believes the composer-performer is making a comeback.

``Economics is a key factor,'' he wrote in a recent e-mail message. ``Agents, venues, diminished popular interest in and exposure to `serious' music and cost of professional musicians are key elements.''

In addition, instrumentalists who don't enjoy a repertory as large as the piano's frequently bolster their playlists by writing their own compositions. Many percussionists, saxophonists and brass players want something to play besides transcriptions.

In other Piano and Friends news, several measures have been taken to increase the recitals' disappointing attendance.

Performers are generally young and unknown; many core Friends of Chamber Music patrons have seemed unwilling to risk their time and money on them.

So the sponsoring organization will begin to ``slip in some names that have a little more recognition,'' said Jean-Paul Bierny, the Friends' president.

These include Say, who performed here two years ago, as well as pianists Bernadine Blaha and Kevin Fitzgerald, who have performed in the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival.

To make Piano and Friends recitals more convenient for core patrons, start times have been moved from 2 to 3 p.m.

In addition, efforts to attract a different audience, particularly students from high school and the University of Arizona, have been intensified. A master class will precede each Piano and Friends concert. On Saturday, University of Arizona piano students will perform for Say, with the idea that they'll want to hear him perform the following day.

Other Piano and Friends performances include violinist Yayoi Toda and pianist Rohan De Silva Jan. 24, and cellist Sophie Shao and pianist Pei-Yao Wang March 21.