The David Hyde Pierce Forum - My Music: David Hyde Pierce

« My Music: David Hyde Pierce »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
Dec 30, 2009, 2:34pm

[Home] [Help] [Search] [Login] [Register]

The David Hyde Pierce Forum :: SHOW PERSON :: Stop the Press :: My Music: David Hyde Pierce

Author

Topic: My Music: David Hyde Pierce (Read 128 times)

lemur
Administrator

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,019
Location: Brooklyn, NY

My Music: David Hyde Pierce
« Thread Started on Nov 3, 2009, 11:37pm »

"I like to think of myself as an amateur who means well" - the actor and Frasier star on his listening pleasures
Gramaphone magazine
May 2009

When I was eight, my parents started me on piano lessons. I hated it for the first year; they had to force me to take lessons. Then, at the end of the year, they suddenly had to beg me to stop playing.

I turned out to be a really good sight-reader. I would go to my piano teacher and say, “I just heard this great piece. What is it?” And it would be something completely beyond not only my talent but also my interpretative skills, like Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata. My teacher, God bless her, would say, “Oh, yes. I know what that is.” Then she’d get the music for me and I’d ruin it. But she let me forge my way through. My teacher was this wonderful old French woman whose mother had taught at the Paris Conservatoire. She told me that when she was a little girl, she would sit under the stairs and listen to Alfred Cortot play in their home.

My parents weren’t musicians. The whole piano lesson idea was just a generic, middle-class thing, like dance lessons. They had no idea that I would take it seriously. In fact, when I went to Yale University, I thought I was going to be a music major and then go on to be a concert pianist. The school politely explained to me, no, I didn’t have the goods for that. But Yale is also where I discovered that the theatre (which I had been doing mostly for fun) was what I had a real passion for.

I kept on playing for fun, though, and recently I started taking lessons again with a great teacher I found in LA. I’ve talked to people who were professional musicians at one time and have since moved on to other jobs. I ask them if they continue to play and they say, “No! I couldn’t bear it because I’m so far away from what I used to be.” I have the great luck that because my standards are so low, I don’t mind playing at all. I play all the time for my private enjoyment. I like to think of myself as an amateur who means well.

I fell in love with classical music through recordings before I even started piano lessons. My elementary school music teacher asked each of us to bring in something we liked to listen to. I grabbed (never having heard it) a recording of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony performing Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. I think I just had the idea that no one else would bring that in. The teacher said, “Well, we don’t have time to hear the whole thing. What’s your favorite part?” And I said, “Oh, um, anything.” She put the record on and I was absolutely mesmerised. I thought to myself, “Wow! This is really good.”

Later, for my 13th birthday, my parents gave me a recorded collection of basically everything Beethoven wrote. It was one of those enormous Vox sets and included the complete piano music played by Alfred Brendel. There was a similar box of the string quartets that I listened to maybe half a movement of and then put away. I found them dry and weird, and retained that image until I heard the Takács Quartet’s interpretations, both live and on CD. Now I get it. There was also William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony doing the nine Symphonies.

Having access to all this repertoire was really important as it cemented my love for Beethoven’s music – and also my love of Alfred Brendel’s playing. There’s a wonderful Emperor Concerto in that set where in the finale one of the woodwinds (I think it’s a clarinet) has the most horrifying note. To this day, whenever I hear that concerto, I miss it. If I’m at a concert, I can feel my heart pounding as it comes to that moment…and then the clarinet hits the right note and I think, “Oh, well. A missed opportunity.”

In addition to Alfred Brendel, there are other pianists whose recordings have come to mean a great deal to me over the years. I greatly admire Ingrid Fliter’s Chopin, Stephen Hough’s Rachmaninov concertos, Leif Ove Andnes’s Mozart concertos and Emanuel Ax’s Haydn sonatas. Satie’s music made me want to kill myself until I heard it played by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The music I couldn't live without ... Richard Goode’s Beethoven Sonatas. There’s something insightful and intensely creative about Goode’s playing. Neither extreme nor pedestrian, it makes me think: this is exactly what Beethoven meant.

« Last Edit: Nov 4, 2009, 1:09am by lemur »

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

WHERE I'M BLOGGING FROM
YEAH! NEW YORK

Louise
Total DHP fan

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Apr 2008
Gender: Female

Posts: 802

Re: My Music: David Hyde Pierce
« Reply #1 on Nov 4, 2009, 7:25am »

Excellent find! Lovely insight.

Somehow I suspect he's being self deprecating about his ability on the piano. Stephen Hough no less said on his blog he would like to play a duet. I'd love to hear him play Beethoven.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

lemur
Administrator

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,019
Location: Brooklyn, NY

Re: My Music: David Hyde Pierce
« Reply #2 on Nov 4, 2009, 2:02pm »

Nov 4, 2009, 7:25am, Louise wrote:

Yes, he might be being modest, or maybe it's just a geeky musician thing. I doubt I'd be able to hear the difference between him and Stephen Hough playing the same piece, but to David it's probably painfully obvious. Kind of like what he says about Satie: he developed an appreciation for it after hearing a particular interpretation. Whereas to my untrained ears, if I don't like a piece, I just don't, no matter who plays it.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

WHERE I'M BLOGGING FROM
YEAH! NEW YORK

Louise
Total DHP fan

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Apr 2008
Gender: Female

Posts: 802

Re: My Music: David Hyde Pierce
« Reply #3 on Nov 4, 2009, 3:41pm »

Nov 4, 2009, 2:02pm, lemur wrote:

Nov 4, 2009, 7:25am, Louise wrote:

Yes I think you're probably right. It is mostly a geeky musician thing. The difference will be painfully obvious to him that he's nowhere near Stephen Hough. I speak as a relative of a geeky musician who would laugh at me even trying to talk about this.;) They hear subtleties we non musicians can't begin to be aware of. Yet, David must be a pretty excellent amateur if Stephen Hough wants to play with him. Sadly for the reasons above David probably doesn't want that to happen. It would be marvellous if David would at least play more light stuff on piano in public. I'd pay to hear that.

Oh and I like David waiting for that horrible clarinet note.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

tihocan
Confirmed DHP fan

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Aug 2009
Gender: Female

Posts: 35

Re: My Music: David Hyde Pierce
« Reply #4 on Nov 4, 2009, 9:15pm »

Wonderful piece. Thanks for sharing!

I enjoyed this very much though. I wish I could play the piano. I've got an organ that I inherited when my aunt died. I've tried to teach myself, but I guess I'm not committed enough to stick with it. I just play for fun.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

rose
Devout DHP fan

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Jun 2008
Gender: Female

Posts: 491
Location: England

Re: My Music: David Hyde Pierce
« Reply #5 on Nov 5, 2009, 6:14am »

Oh,I absolutely love this article.I just like the way he talks about it-makes me smile.And I agree with muffin-I'd also pay to hear him play the piano!*sighs*

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Thanks to Stephy for making these!=)

Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free

This Board Hosted For FREE By ProBoards
Get Your Own Free Message Boards & Free Forums!