Concerto in F Major for Piano and Orchestra

A relatively innocuous title for an amazing piece, played with full body energy by the infamous Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini fame with The Oregon Symphony last night. Watching him, you literally could feel the music from each area of the orchestra not to mention from his keyboard. He literally shot off the bench when he started each new measure. I was going to ask him if he'd ever fallen off the bench but I thought it was just too juvenile of a question to ask a world renowned performer. Regardless, his performance was phenomenal. He was wiping the sweat off his face and head every time he had a measure or two of rest.

It was one of those times when you wished the composer could have been there to see and hear this rendition of this amazing orchestration. I would have loved to watch George Gershwin's face while he watched Thomas perform. Of course, that would have been tough to accomplish since he's been dead for 71 years (he died at age 38 of a malignant brain tumor).

Thomas received an easy 10 minute standing ovation before the intermission began. Portland loves him to put it mildly. I would really love to have a video of that performance. If you've ever heard of Victor Borge, he used to do crazy stuff like fall all over the piano, twirl around on the bench or fall completely off the bench and he never finished any of his pieces (I hated that part since I wanted to hear the rest of the songs). Anyway, Thomas reminds me of Victor and his antics except that he's completely serious about his music while thoroughly enjoying himself.

Watching and listening to him reinforced the fact that I will probably be stuck in my Great Composers intermediate solos piano book for the rest of my life.

At some point I need to purchase "Clair de Lune" since that piece is my ultimate goal and I need to know just how many eons it's going to take me to actually play it.

Nighty-night.