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Jaw Dropping

October 28, 2006 at 7:26 AM

I knew already that we would also be performing Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto tomorrow. I didn't know who the pianist was, though. Whoever he is that's going to be playing with us must be competent, I thought, to be pulling that one off. I heard he was a Van Cliburn gold medalist.

That's all the thought I gave the subject until the first rehearsal with the pianist, who turned out to be not a man, but a blonde Russian girl about my age. She had the ability to spin gold from just a single note on the concert grand. Competent? Competent is hardly the word I would choose to describe her playing; I was having a difficult time keeping her from sweeping me off the stage as I tried to focus on the notes in front of me.

I know next to nothing about today's top pianists, but for some reason I felt that she looked familiar to me. It wasn't until I was describing her to one of my friends that I realised who she was. That girl! The one in the documentary I saw, Playing on the Edge, a couple of years ago--it's her!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am so honored to be sharing the same stage as none other than Olga Kern. And I must say, she breaks my heart with that Rachmaninoff.

How lucky you are to share the stage with great musicians like that!
Wow! She's coming to Syracuse sometime soon, and my dad (for the first time in my entire life) just bought a subscription to our symphony's concert series so WOOT! I will get to go hear her play! :D

Good for you...

You got to play with Olga Kern???????? JEALOUS!
Lucky!!

(P.S. Don't push her off the stage. ;))

It was a treat!
And the audience responded wonderfully.
Too bad we were so busy. It would have been fun to watch.
I always have prefered the 2nd of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos. Does that make me a cretin?
Actually, it was my favorite, too. Now that I've gotten to play both, I think it's a toss up, personally.