The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Master pianist and teacher Frank Glazer dies just shy of 100. He performed several times in Madison at Farley’s House of Pianos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Sad news comes to The Ear via his good friends Renee and Tim Farley, who own and operate Farley’s House of Pianos, on Madison’s far west side.
It concerns the death this past week of the Wisconsin-born and Maine-based American concert pianist and piano teacher Frank Glazer (below), who taught as an artist-in-residence for decades at Bates College. He continued performing in public right up until the end.
You may recall that the Farley store not only sells pianos but also features a distinguished piano recital series, which has featured Glazer.
Here are links to three stories and reviews that appeared on this blog about the legendary Frank Glazer playing in Madison:
The new season of piano recital at Farley’s — the Salon Piano Series — kicks off next weekend at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon with Russian pianist Ilya Yakushev (below), who is also in town to solo in two piano concertos – in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach and in G Minor by Felix Mendelssohn – with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra next Friday night at 8.
For more information about Yakushev’s recital of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Sergei Prokofiev at Farley’s, visit:
http://salonpianoseries.org/concerts.html
But more about that recital that in another posting.
Here is what the Farleys (below is Tim Farley in his store’s workshop) write about a loss:
“We have sad news to report to you. Pianist Frank Glazer died on Tuesday, Jan. 13, after a brief illness.
“He was scheduled to play at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 19, 2015 for his 100th birthday.
“He also had concerts planned around this time in Maine, Boston, Paynesville, Winston-Salem and one in Janesville that was co-sponsored by Farley’s House of Pianos.
“Frank told Tim that he understood that there were other pianists playing concerts at around age 100 but none of them played the difficult literature – like Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata and “Diabelli” Variations — that he played. (See the impressive list of a recent concert tour below.)
2012-2013 Season
A retrospective of piano repertoire in eight concerts performed by Frank Glazer during the course of his 32 years as Artist-in-Residence at Bates College (1980 – 2012).
Friday, September 14, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.
- Handel, Chaconne in G major
Mozart, Adagio in B minor, K. 540
Beethoven, Sonata in C minor, Op. 13
Debussy, Suite Bergamasque
Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61
Chopin, Ballade in G minor, Op. 23
Encore: Chopin, Mazurka, Op. 17, No. 4
Friday, October 12, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.
- Schoenberg, Six Short Pieces, Op. 19
Schubert, Sonata in A Major, D. 959
Brahms, Fantaisies, Op. 116
Chopin, Berceuse, Op. 57
Chopin, Impromptu in G-Flat major, Op. 51
Chopin, Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49
Encore: Chopin, Nocturne, Op. 27 No. 2
Friday, November 9, 2012 at 7:30 PM
III. Bach, Toccata in D major, BWV 912
Mozart, Rondo in A minor, K. 511
Beethoven, Sonata in C minor, Op. 111
Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales
Chopin, Nocturne in B major, Op. 9 No. 3
Chopin, Etude in A-flat major, Op. 10, No. 10
Chopin, Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante in E♭ major, Op. 22
Encore: Ravel, Pavane
Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 3 p.m.
- Franck, Prélude, Chorale and Fugue
Weber, Sonata in A-flat major, Op. 39
Gershwin, Preludes for piano
Barber, Excursions for the piano
Copland, Piano Variations (1930)
Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book II
Encore: Weber Rondo brillant (La Gaitié), Op. 62
Sunday, January 13, 2012 at 3:00 PM
- Mendelssohn, Songs Without Words:
Book V, Op. 62, No. 1
Book VI, Op. 67, No. 2
Mendelssohn, Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14
Schumann, Sonata in G minor, Op. 22
Liszt, Consolation No. III in D-flat major
Liszt, Concert Etude in D-flat major
Chopin, Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
Encore: Mendelssohn, Song Without Words: “Spring Song”
Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 3 p.m.
- Berg Sonata, Op. 1
Beethoven, Eroica Variations, Op. 35
Brahms, Andante & Variations, Op. 18 (String Sextet)
Brahms, Scherzo in E-flat minor, Op. 4
Liszt, Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
Liszt, Franziscus-Legende No. 1 (St. Francis Preaching to the Birds)
Verdi-Liszt, Rigoletto: Paraphrase
Encore: Schubert-Liszt, Soirées de Vienne, No. 6
Friday, March 8, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
VII. Haydn, Variations in F minor, Hob. XVII:6 (Sonata – Un Piccolo Divertimento)
Schubert, Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960
Brahms, Three Intermezzi, Op. 117
Schumann, Fantasy in C major, Op. 17
Encore: Schumann “Träumerei”
Friday, April 5, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
VIII. Beethoven, 33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120
Beethoven, Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106
“Tim called Frank late one evening and asked if he had called too late. Frank told Tim that he was usually up every night until midnight playing the piano.
“Tim asked him how much playing he did every day. He said that he usually played six hours, but on the days he went to his yoga class, he only played four hours. He said this was how he was able to keep a concert schedule like the 2012-2013 season, which featured big and technically difficult works.
“Frank was so enthused about preparing the concerts for his 100th birthday that he already projecting what he might play for his 101st birthday!
“We feel so fortunate to have been able to get to know this remarkable person and to hear him play.
“There will be a memorial gathering announced at a later date.
“Best regards,
“Renee and Tim Farley”
Editor’s Note: Below is a YouTube video of Glazer playing the “Trois Gymnopedies” of the eccentric French composer Erik Satie. They possess the right contemplative and slightly sorrowful mood for memorial thoughts about the end of a great life and great career. And if you click on Show More on the YouTube site, you can read the impressive biography of Glazer, who was born in Wisconsin and who studied with Artur Schnabel and Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin, Germany.
Tags: Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Artur Schnabel, B-Flat Major, Bach, Barber, Bates College, Beethoven, Berlin, Brahms, C minor, Chopin, Classical music, Copland, Debussy, Diabelli Variations, Farley's House of Pianos, Franck, Germany, Gershwin, Hammerklavier sonata, Haydn, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Music, Piano, Prokofiev, Ravel, recital, Satie, Schnabel, Schoenberg, Schubert, Schumann, Trois Gymnopedies, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Verdi, Weber, YouTube
Classical music: Pianist Frank Glazer, 98, will perform Haydn, Beethoven, Liszt and Barber when he returns to Farley’s House of Pianos this Sunday afternoon.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon, Farley’s House of Pianos will play host to a phenomenon.
That phenomenon is a critically acclaimed concert pianist who goes by the name of Frank Glazer.
Glazer is 98 and, after spending almost 60 years as a professional performer, he is still touring and still performing ambitiously big, even exhausting, programs. (Glazer discusses his past in YouTube video at the bottom.)
Consider the works Glazer will play in Madison this Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Farley’s, located at 6522 Seybold Road, on the city’s far west side near West Towne, where he will no doubt perform on one of Farley’s wonderfully restored and historic Steinway concert grands (below).
The first half features two well-matched and complementary works: the dramatic Sonata in E Minor by Franz Josef Haydn coupled with the songful late Sonata in E Major, Op. 109, that uses both theme-and-variations and a fugue, by Ludwig van Beethoven plus Beethoven’s rarely heard Fantasy in G Major, Op. 77. There it is, the counterpoint teacher Haydn and his more famous student Beethoven.
Then come the “Excursions” of the American composer Samuel Barber (below top) and two pieces (the beautiful “Petrarch Sonnet No. 104” and the “St. Francis Legend No. 1” by Franz Liszt (below middle), including Liszt’s concert paraphrase on Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto” that The Ear is guessing is programmed to pay tribute to the bicentennial this October of the birth of Verdi (below bottom).
Furthermore, by all accounts listening to Glazer does not require the listener to make but small allowances for his age.
True, Arthur Rubinstein concertized until 92 or 93, when he was almost completely blind. And Mieczyslaw Horszowski (below), the teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music of Murray Perahia and many other notable pianists, performed on his 99th birthday. (He died in 1993, just a month shy of his 101st birthday and gave his last piano lesson a week before his death.)
But they are all rare exceptions. For the most part it seems that by the 80s, performing careers have generally pretty much ended.
Good genes no doubt play a role in Glazer’s late life success. And so does exercise. Glazer (below) reportedly does yoga and practices the piano for several hours every day and usually stays active until 11 p.m. or so.
At 65, at a time when most professional people think of retiring, Glazer agreed to start his career as a mentor for piano students at Bates College in Maine, where he still lives.
If you Google “Frank Glazer” you will find a lot of things to read, almost all of them written with a sense of wonder and admiration or such a first-rate, devoted and long-lived professional musician.
On Sunday, there will be a pre-concert lecture at 4 p.m. by Tim Farley and a reception afterwards.
Tickets are $25, $30 at the door, and can be bought in advance or reserved at Farley’s and Orange Tree Imports on Monroe Street. For more information, call (608) 271-2626.
Here is a link to information at Farley’s website:
http://farleyspianos.com/concerts.html
And here are links to two good background stories, including one I did when he played in Madison in 2011, that has an interview with Glazer.
http://www.sunjournal.com/node/824679
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd2L5RdkCQs
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