Let's Get Together

Here is another picture I took yesterday while wandering Delaware Park. I am nostalgic for the passing winter! Today could be the last time we hear that familiar radio voice chirping: "Eight degrees, feels like zero."

This is another picture that is subtly different because it shows the path. See, I can be subtle when I want.



You know how in offices and hotel rooms they like to give you two pictures that are alike but different? I could imagine these two pictures in that situation.

I am thinking a lot today about visual images because of my new friend Larry. You remember Larry. I mentioned him at the end of yesterday's post. Larry is the angel who has appeared and is posting all kinds of Pennario performances on You Tube.

One thing I love about music is how you will have two people coming from completely different directions, and then suddenly their paths cross. That is what happened with Larry and me.

Here I am obsessed with this mysterious forgotten concert pianist, Leonard Pennario.


And now along comes Larry. His fixation is with an almost equally obscure conductor and composer Rene Leibowitz.


Leibowitz was born in Warsaw but moved to Paris where he studied with Ravel. Later he became an expert on 12-tone music. He studied with Anton Webern, wrote a scholarly book on Arnold Schoenberg and taught Pierre Boulez.

So where did Pennario's path cross Leibowitz's path? Ah, that is the question.

Their paths crossed in a now-obscure recording they made together with the London Symphony Orchestra of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 and 2 in 1963. Larry posted this performance on You Tube. Larry is a man who loves music deeply and as he listened to the Liszt, he recognized Pennario's unique greatness. He went looking for other recordings Pennario made, and began posting them on You Tube. That is how I got in touch with him. And now we are a team.

Wow, that link. So cute! Hilarious, that Hayley Mills went on to join the Hare Krishnas. Somebody wrote that on You Tube. I am sure Hayley's dad, the great actor John Mills, rejoiced in that lifestyle choice.

Where was I?

Back to Larry and me and our arrangement. The way this is going to work is I am going help Larry with the visual end of things by getting him some great portraits of Pennario which, God knows there is no shortage of those.

Then Larry will take care of the music. He has an amazing collection. He has already posted Pennario playing the Chopin preludes and the Chopin scherzos and there are many other riches in store. And together we will take over the world. This is not the end, as Byron Brown...



... has put it.

This is just the beginning!