Week 3-4: Playing Comfortable for someone!

You know, sometimes we can create tension by not understanding the piece being played... we do not realize we can COMPLETELY RELAX because the piece, actually, understands US! That's quite a new thing for me to realize... maybe it is for you, too? xx

To expand a bit, when I was playing the Scriabin for those on ZOOM - I realize that the music speaks MY language more than I speak its.. it's a symbiosis that wants only the utmost BEST for me!!! The music being played wants it ALL - there's really no such thing as a mistake. I remember reading something about how Horowitz viewed 'wrong notes' - he made them a part of the piece, redefining his own perception of mistakes by taking them as they come and allowing them to become a part of the music itself, instead of something to be ashamed of or avoided at all cost.

My Dad, my piano teacher Carola Grindea and Myra Hess.

This is a tale of many coincidences I’ll try to be brief!

My dad was a child during the Second World War. He was a Londoner and he remembered watching the Blitz from a hilltop in Eltham, right on the edge of London. Another strong memory he had from that time which he told me about frequently as I grew up, was going to piano recitals given by Myra Hess at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

I did not grow up in London but came here to study. My piano teacher was Carola Grindea. One day she started telling me about her early days in London and how she and her new husband Miron Grindea had left their home country of Romania right at the very start of World War II and came to London. One day they decided to go and visit the great pianist Myra Hess. I remember Carola saying that Myra Hess lived in Golders Green at the time and at that stage they didn’t have enough money for the bus fare so it was a very long walk for them. When they arrived they were welcomed in but the piano was covered in a cloth. When Carola asked why Myra Hess explained that she would not play again until the war was over as there were more important things to do. Carola was so disappointed and said that Myra Hess’s contribution should be playing for people which would help to keep up morale. So before too long Myra Hess was giving those recitals at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square that my Dad had been to. He could not have known he was in the same room as a women, Carola Grindea, who would be his daughter’s piano teacher some 40years later.

Quite a few years ago the BBC made a programme about Carola and Miron Grindea who were an important part of cultural life in London and beyond. In this programme was some grainy footage of Carola at one of these Myra Hess recitals (complete with actress, writer and comedienne Joyce Grenfell pouring tea!) I scoured the footage to see if I could see my 6/7 year old Dad and I don’t think he was there - at least I didn’t recognise him if he was.

He was in his 70s when I discovered this connection and he was intrigued by the idea that at one of these recitals he had probably crossed paths with Carola. These recitals had a profound effect upon him, whilst he never played an instrument he went to music appreciation classes all his life, right up to his 80s and the day he died he was enrolled in a class and would tell me about them weekly.

Quite a little story!