Fliter approaches piano with a bit of an attitude

Chicago Sun-Times – United States

Review of Ravinia Festival debut of Gilmore Prize-winning pianist Ingrid Fliter.   Her Chopin didn’t come until the very end of the program…

For a trio of encores, she trotted out a stormy little dance from countryman Alberto Ginastera, Chopin’s “Minute” Waltz and the Grande Valse Brillante in E Flat, Op. 18. Given she was a silver medalist in the elite 2000 Chopin competition in Warsaw, Poland, Fliter left the crowd craving a mazurka or two, or one of the other less traveled waltzes.

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Alec Baldwin on ‘30 Rock,’ classical music and getting out of acting

Los Angeles Times  – Los Angeles,CA,USA

Who knew what really moves the “30 Rock” actor on his way to pick up another Emmy Nomination??

Sitting in the room, Baldwin discovered the photographer’s computer. He played Chopin through iTunes. “A man turns 50 and he has a funeral for the skills that he never had,” he said. Baldwin just had that birthday in April. “He says goodbye. I’m never gonna be a cop, never gonna be a professional baseball player, never going to play the piano, a ballet dancer, the leading rusher in the NFL. All those things gone. But! There’s other things to do. The world is run by men in their 50s. So I’m trying to decide what to do when I quit this business.”

Politics, perhaps? “What would I run for?” he asked. He has a smart squint when he asks questions. Comptroller? He barked his loud laugh. “Yeah, I do have to find another career,” he said. “I don’t want to do this. . . . I don’t.”

IT’S NOT that he’s unhappy with “30 Rock” necessarily. Maybe he’s just feeling that 50-year-old’s itch to start something new. Then again, as he fusses over the computer, it could just be the uttering of a capricious thought.

He found the browser and went to ArkivMusic.com. “I love this. Isn’t this great? Couldn’t you just sit and do this all day? I’m looking for ‘Ultimate Chopin.’ What could be more worthy than that? Ah! The complete collection of Rachmaninoff. Complete recordings!” His face darkened and a little swearing ensued. “This is Dutoit with the Montreal! What is the problem? You lying . . . ! Ultimate collection. Well, we don’t see Ashkenazy.” This went on for a while then a phone rang. “Can’t you see I’m listening to Chopin?” he said, in a put-on accent. “I can’t be bothered with this. . . .”

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The music the BBC banned

Times Online – UK

Now it can be told: Entertaining story about the Beeb’s pop-music-censorship history reveals some unlikely heroes…and villians!

……One barbarian at the gates was Perry Como: I’m Always Chasing Rainbows was his rendition of Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu in C sharp minor. “This is a bad perversion of a Chopin melody and should be barred,” the BBC snarled, and, even in 1963, they stopped Ken Dodd’s cover version from being broadcast. The reason for this was the place on the committee of the conductor Sir Arthur Bliss. His wrath was incurred by such unlikely revolutionaries as Liberace and Mantovani, and the score of Kismet, borrowed from Borodin, which meant that MOR standards such as Stranger in Paradise and Baubles, Bangles and Beads were rarely heard.

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