PBS, Brief but Spectacular: pianist Jeanne Stark on the golden age and Ray Charles

[betsuni]

After the segment, Judy Woodruff says, "I want to be her."

Stark: "I've been so lucky, where these great artists -- Gertler, who was a friend of Bartok. ... To learn from people like that. It takes you years to understand what they were saying. But once you get it, you get something precious. It's not interpret, it's understand, how music is made. How it is put together. ... I played Mozart sonatas, Beethoven sonatas, and I was never happy with my adagios. I did it with the metronome, I tried everything. And I came to the States, and by accident my friend took me to hear Ray Charles. And I thought: Now I know an adagio."

In the coming Age of Trump, I remind myself: people with enormous power and money cannot buy talent, intelligence, beauty, whit, love and they know it.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Outside of my wife and kids

there is nothing better in my life than classical music. It's as close to God as I get. I send clips of 40-minute Schubert sonatas to friends and I know they never listen, mostly because they don't have the patience. There are no lyrics, just notes. You have to listen with full attention and use your imagination. The music comes in, but not before your senses and emotions are open to it. The first step is understanding that all truly great music is written with the pain of life in mind as well as its beauty. Only then can you hear.

I think I have an idea of what Jeanne Stark is talking about re. Ray Charles. She was applying a technical solution to an emotional problem. She obviously saw from Ray that feeling was missing from her music, and by plumbing its depths you can find answers that shake everyone to their core, if they are so lucky to understand.

[betsuni]

2. The pain of life in mind as well as its beauty. Yes.

You're right about applying a technical solution to an emotional problem. When I first moved to Japan a long time ago I without fail knew that the orchestra on the radio was Japanese because technically it was fine but no emotion. Same with ballet, opera, sports, pop music, a lot of things. Now, no problem. Younger generations can be individuals with their own personalities, not be hammered into the same shape.