The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Here are some more stories — including two from The New York Times — about University of Wisconsin-Madison pianist Howard Karp, whose FREE and PUBLIC memorial will be this Sunday at 3 p.m.

By Jacob Stockinger

As you probably already know by now, tomorrow, Sunday, Aug. 31, will bring a FREE and PUBLIC memorial celebration of the life of Howard Karp (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) -– who died in June at 84 — on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in Mills Hall at 3 p.m.

It is scheduled to run about two hours and then have a free and public reception after it.

Parking in nearby Grainger Hall is also free.

The memorial will feature live music and recorded music. Works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann and Sergei Rachmaninoff will be featured.

Here is a link to a post a few days ago with more details:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/classical-music-here-are-the-final-program-and-details-about-the-free-memorial-on-this-sunday-at-3-p-m-in-mills-hall-for-university-of-wisconsin-madison-pianist-howard-karp/

But if you can go, and especially if you can’t, you might be interested in some other stories about Howard Karp, who was both a wonderful man and wondrous musician.

He was written up no less than twice by Anthony Tommasini (below), the celebrated senior classical music critic for The New York Times who is himself an accomplished pianist with degrees from Yale University and who studied piano with the late Donald Currier, the same terrific teacher with whom The Ear studied privately in high school. (Small world, no?)

Here is the first story published in 1998, about the differences in temperament more than talent between academic teaching pianists and professional touring pianists. It is full of insight and affection:

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/27/arts/critic-s-notebook-master-teachers-whose-artistry-glows-in-private.html?pagewanted=all

And here is a recently published review by Anthony Tommasini of the new 6-CD set of performances by Howard Karp that have been released by Albany Records. You will hear music from this set and from some CDs issued by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, at the memorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/arts/music/box-sets-highlight-leonard-shure-and-howard-karp.html?_r=0

Here is a story — a tribute, really — by the local critic Greg Hettmansberger (below), who writes the Classically Speaking blog for Madison Magazine:

http://www.madisonmagazine.com/Blogs/Classically-Speaking/August-2014/Howard-Karp-Memorial/

And here is a long and beautifully written personal essay done in 1994 by Jess Anderson, a fine amateur pianist and former longtime music critic for Isthmus:

http://www.madisonmusicreviews.org/doc/p_199401_karp.html

There may be more. If you know of them, please leave word – and a link, if possible – in the Comments section. This seems like the right time.