SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1985
-THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR-
3E
Pianist leaps eagerly into challenging programs
Pianist Michael Lewin will present a recital at noon Feb. 14 in
Christ Church Cathedral, in the last
of the Beethoven Foundation's Discovery Series of concerts.
By THOMAS GOLDTHWAITE
STAR STAFF WRITER
A telephone call to pianist Michael Lewin recently interrupted an
intensive practice session at his
Manhattan apartment. The caller
expected the sparks to fly at the
intrusion and instead was greeted
by a personable, laughing voice.
"I'm absolutely going crazy
now," the 28-year-old Lewin said.
"But 'good' crazy. Right now I'm
working very hard on some Brahms
works I've never played before. It's
for a recital in Chicago Feb. 6 on
the Myra Hess series before my
Indianapolis recital Feb. 14. The
works are the Four Pieces, Op. 119,
three Intermezzi and a Rhapsody."
But memorizing Brahms was not
all that was pressing him. At the
same time, he was preparing a
totally unfamiliar piece by Janacek
he was to play in three days' time.
"My agent contacted me a week
ago in Oklahoma where I was playing a recital," Lewin said. "A pianist
had fallen ill, and they needed a
substitute to play this Janacek
piece. It was for a concert at Sarah
Lawrence College by the Caecilian
Chamber Orchestra.
Michael Lewin
'They are a touring ensemble
out of New York. I'd never heard of
the Janacek piece before. They described it as a Capriccio for the left-
hand alone with wind instruments.
It's in four movements and lasts
about 20 minutes.
"It's not bad at all, I'm finding
out," said Lewin, who was scheduled to perform it last night at
Sarah Lawrence.
The challenge appealed to
Lewin's enthusiasm for a newly
blossoming career as an independent artist.
"I agreed to do it, despite the
work I knew I needed to prepare
these Brahms pieces," he laughed.
"It wasn't that it was a lot of
money. In fact, it wasn't that much.
It was that it was absurd to take on
anything more. So I did."
Pressure had not always been
an incentive for the New York-born
pianist, a 1983 recipient of a Beethoven Foundation Fellowship, who
once opposed his Juilliard teacher's
advice to enter competitions. Lewin
did not want to rush into what he
perceived as competition styled
playing where all the competitors
struggle to fit into the same measurements.
"I couldn't play in that way
successfully, I thought then," he
said. But in 1982 he was drawn to
the Tchaikovsky Competition in
Moscow. He missed out on the top
prize but gained celebrity status
with the local press and television.
The experience was a lasting
one.
"I was reviewed by the critics
during the competition. They are
very knowledgeable there and
sometimes disagree openly with the
judges, especially if they sense
partisanism among the Soviet
judges. And I was constantly interviewed on television all the time.
"The thing is, I had no idea what
the Tchaikovsky Competition was
to the people there. It's every four
years, and for the three years in
between it's all they talk about. If
you're a favorite, they remember
you. I'm told my TV interviews are
still aired there with all the other
pianists they liked."
Playing under the constant gaze
of the Moscow critics, who write
running daily commentaries
throughout the competition, Lewin
discovered a value in the event he
had not anticipated.
"That competition liberated me
as a pianist," said Lewin, who admits to a certain "private demon"
that occupies all performing artists.
He still finds it "terrifying" to go out
onstage and to perform a program
from memory.
But he gained some creative
convictions in Moscow and later
that year won top prize in the
University of Maryland International Piano Competition, prior to the
Beethoven Fellowship in Indianapolis.
He has acquired an agent and,
after notable concert debuts in New
York and Washington, D.C., where
he gained praise from the press, he
is finding engagements as a recital-
ist and a concerto artist.
Additionally, he has taken on
eight students in New York, and
when he arrives in Indianapolis he
has scheduled a master class at
Butler University at 3 p.m. Feb. 11.
The Brahms works he was busi
ly memorizing will appear on the
Indianapolis recital at Christ Church
Cathedral, the last of the Beethoven
Foundation's Discovery Series that
features its fellows.
"I've programmed them with
Chopin's F Minor Fantasy, Liszt's
Mephisto Waltz, and, because it will
be Valentine's Day, I'm playing
Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3."
