Anecdotes about Great Musicians

edited

by

Аlеksandar Gatalica

ANECDOTES about

GREAT MUSICIANS illustrated by

orac

mb Маrко Sо

Đ?necdotes about great musicians edited by

Aleksandar Gatalica illustrated by

Đœarko Somborac

Contents COMPOSERS

6 George Frideric Handel 8 François Couperin 9 Christoph Willibald Gluck 10 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 12 Ludwig van Beethoven 14 Gioacchino Rossini 16 Felix Mendelssohn 17 Frédéric Chopin 18 Johannes Brahms 20 Giuseppe Verdi 21 Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac 22 Gustav Mahler 23 Claude Debussy 24 Arnold Schoenberg 25 Maurice Ravel 26 Bela Bartok 27 Igor Stravinsky 28 Peter Konjović 30 Mihovil Logar 31 Leonard Bernstein

PIANISTS

34 Niccolo Paganini 36 Franz Liszt 38 Alexander Dreyschock 39 Vladimir De Pacman 40 Ignacy Jan Paderewski 41 Sergei Rachmaninoff 42 Leopold Godowski 43 Fritz Kreisler 44 Arthur Schnabel 46 Arthur Rubinstein 48 Jascha Heifetz 49 Andrea Preger 50 Isaac Stern 51 Joshua Bell

CONDUCTORS

54 Arturo Toscanini 55 Karl Böhm 56 Wilhelm Furtwängler 58 Herbert von Karajan 59 Oskar Danon

SINGERS

62 Enrico Caruso 64 Maria Callas 65 Luciano Pavarotti

CRITICS

68 Eduard Hanslick 69 George Bernard Shaw 70 Harold C. Schonberg

Introduction

W

riting anecdotes about great musicians was easy apparently. To be anecdotal one must be a purist on one hand, and on the other just a bit debauched. Only a combination of such extremes produces funny situations and musicians seem to be perfect for the fusion. There isn’t one musician who isn’t a purist: firstly, because of all arts music is the most similar to mathematics; and secondly, because playing instruments (with the exception of, according to musicians, waving the conductor baton) requires extreme precision and flawlessly skilled fingers.

However, if they only fostered their purist traits, musicians would surely be a boring lot. Therefore, they made sure to be excessive in every way: in jealousy, relinquishing to vices, in the matters of stage fright, in the broadmindedness that many of them radiated for years. Such concoction gave birth to many anecdotes and present book records only the funniest. Since the edition is aimed at young people, I stayed clear from the stories only professionals find amusing and instead included in this selection the exploits that show musicians as funny children who carried their extraordinary talent through life.

Belgrade, April 1. 2010 Đ?leksandar Gatalica

3

COMPOSERS

l

ande h h riedric f eorge G (1685–1759)



The best of Handel: • Water music (1717) • Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749)

The most influential composer of the Baroque, along with Bach, portrayed

to this day as a cheerful, slightly stocky and well rounded man. Handel has a spark in his eye clearly indicating, just as much as his works, what great fun music had been for him.

Great man, great appetite

Much like the meandering, extensive music he wrote,

Handel also had a gigantic appetite. They say that he once sat in an inn and ordered sixteen various courses, along with wine and beer. The landlord received the order, set the table and - waited. “But what are you waiting for?”, Handle impatiently asked. “For your company to arrive, Sir, people to eat all the food you’ve ordered.”

“Company?”, Handel was surprised, “The company is me.”

6

Great man, lean purse

F

or a while Handel had financial difficulties and was unable to offer his guests the opulent feasts. One evening he was sitting with friends at his place, when all of a sudden Handel stood up and proclaimed, “I must write a beautiful theme that just occurred to me! Please excuse me, I need to write it down immediately.� And he ran to his room.

His friends waited for a while, convinced that George Friedrich was absorbed in composing. But when they peeked in, they found him at the table, munching away at the pot roast on his own.

7

Franscois Couperin (1668–1733)



The best of Couperin: • Works for Harpsichord: First Book (1713) • Second Book (1717) • Third Book (1722) Fourth Book (1728) • Nations, sonata and four suites in styles of four nations (1726)

Even though in his lifetime he was known as “Couperin the Great “, so as

to be distinguished from his numerous family members, also musicians, Francois “le Grand” Couperin is today primarily known for compositions by other artists who exploited his style. The reason for this seems to be the “harpsichord”, the instrument he so masterfully played. When this humble keyboard instrument gave way to the acousticaly far more powerful piano, Couperin himself also faded away.

His eyesights seems to be off

Кing Louis XIV decreed royal salary for his composer Couperin, the famous harpsichord pianist, but also a royal tax contribution! The artist was therefore forced to economize. Angry with the Sun King, Couperin refused to give him anything more than what was officially required.

One day the King invited him over for a game of cards.

Fearing that he may lose more money, Couperin used the following excuse to be released from that and any similar invites in the future: “Your Majesty, I regret to inform you that I can’t distinguish the King from the Knave!”

8

k uc l G d l a ib l il W er Christoph (1714–1787)



The best of Gluck: • Opera “Orpheus and Eurydice” (1762) • Opera “Alceste” (1767) • Opera “Iphigenia at Aulis” (1774) • Ballet “Don Juan” (1771) • Opera “Echo and Narcissus” (1779, second version written in 1780)

A reformer in the genre of opera. One of those composers who were

true children of their age. He forged his style between Venice and Paris, always tuned to what his audience desired. In the end, he allegedly said: “All my life I have traveled and received applauses at the opera houses, and in the end all I have is hair full of lice and a pair of musty trucks, for all the time I’ve spent in the carriages.”

No amount of money can pay...

Once he was in Paris, Gluck attended a hit performance

in the Italian Theater. The famous castrato Kafareli sang, thrilling the audience. During the frenetic applause, someone asked Gluck, “Sir, what would you give to be able to sing like Kafareli?” “Not an ounce of what he gave”, Gluck replied with a smile.

* Castrati were singers who agreed to be castrated in order to achieve the high-pitch voices, much like female voices.

9

ozart

M madeus A gang f l o W (1756–1791)



Best of Mozart: • Serenade “Haffner” (1776) • Symphony “Haffner” (1782) • Piano Concerto No. 21 (1785) • “The Marriage of Figaro” (Opera, 1786) • “A Little Night Music” (1787) • Opera “The Magic Flute” (1791) • Requiem (1791)

А true wunderkind. In just 35 years he managed to compose 626 pieces

and enjoy a 30-year-long artistic career. Since the age of 6, Mozart was constantly on the road, practically living “as a visitor”. He performed by himself or with his sister Nanerle, as a pianist or a composer, bringing no meager income to his strict and hard father Leopold. When he grew up, Mozart remained a child, able to make money but even better at spending it. He left behind six children and a son composer, Franz Xavier, who fell far short of his father’s glory.

Singing bugs

A five-year old Mozart once hid behind the piano. His father

noticed him there, writing something down on the score paper.

He let him fill in a couple of sheets and then he took the paper away. “What are these bugs?”, his father asked. “Those bugs can sing,” replied little Wolfgang. Indeed, it was Mozart’s first work: Andante for Piano, written in 1761.

10

I can dо it upside down too

Мuzio Clementi, a well-known composer, and Wolfgang Amadeus

Mozart were the most famous music players of their time, masters on a new instrument, the “pianoforte”, today’s piano. Their musical face off therefore had been long overdue. When they finally came out for a musical duel, they were supposed to take turns playing their own and each other’s compositions. After several hours of exhausting musical playoff, the audience decided that the winner was Mozart, who replied by saying: “It was easy to beat Clementi while facing the keyboard, but I can beat him upside down too”.

What did he mean, upside down? Mozart quickly answered. He joined the two piano stools, and laid down on his back, his head towards the black and white keyboard. He reached for piano and then crossed his hands so that his thumbs were on the inside, as if he were sitting normally at the piano. In this position, he played the whole repertoire from the top like a piece of cake.

Ask a silly question...

A young man once approached Mozart with a question:

“Maestro, how do you compose a symphony?” “You’re still very young”, Mozart replied, “Why not start with ballads?” “Well, you yourself composed a symphony when you were much younger. You were only nine...”, the young man remarked. And Mozart replied: “Exactly. But I didn’t need to ask anyone about how to do it.”

11

ven

Ludwig van Beetho (1770–1827)



Best of Beethoven: • Piano Sonata No. 14, the “Moonlight Sonata” (1801) • Fifth Symphony “Fate” (1808) • Bargain “For Elise” (1810) • Piano Concerto No. 5, “The Emperor Concerto” (1811) • Symphony No.9 (1824)

Tousled hair. Fireworks in his works. Defiance in life. That was

Beethoven. The first musician to come up with a whole new style of creation, based on furious sequencing of disharmonious sounds. Having lost his hearing early on in life, he could not hear his contemporaries, and they seemed to have had a deaf ear for his “oversized music”.

Beethoven is said to have been the first “freelance artist”, not owing allegiance to any court. Once on the narrow bridge he was unable to pass around Prince Lichnowsky (who was his benefactor), and said: “Stand back, Your Excellency, and let me pass. Princes like you are many and there’s only one Beethoven.”

Calling card vs. calling card

When Beethoven’s brother, who suddenly got

reach by dealing in finances, sent him a business card that read “Johan van Beethoven, Real Estate Broker”, the composer replied with “Ludwig van Beethoven, Brain Agent”.

12

Indisposed shoes

Once Beethoven had not dropped in the pub for almost a month, and a colleague therefore inquired: “Were you indisposed to go out by any chance?” “Oh, I was eager to go out, but not so my shoes,” said Beethoven.

“I only have one pair, and the repair took a while, I had to wait for the right moment to pick them up. The shoemaker approved my credit only today!”

Animated Beethoven

Walt Disney was so pleased with his animated film “Fantasia”, using Beethoven’s “Pastoral Symphony”, that he exclaimed: “Gee, this will surely make Beethoven famous!”

Worse singer

When they asked Milica Ostojic,

alias ‘Mica Trofrtaljka’, the famous Serbian singer of light, obscene songs in the seventies of the 20th century, what she thought about the fact she sold more records than Beethoven, she readily responded, “I don’t know who that Beethoven is, but if he sells less records he must be a worse singer than me.”

13