On May 3rd, I plan to produce a special five hour (6 a.m. to 11 a.m.) program to celebrate my recent, and rather special, birthday. Someone suggested that I should celebrate by playing music I especially like, but frankly, that’s what I do every week. Instead, I decided to do the opposite: I shall play music I never think to program, music that falls into one of these categories:
- Most people feel it’s a good piece of music, but I don’t much like it.
- I think it’s a fine piece of music. That’s why I listened to it until I got tired of it.
Fortunately for all of you out there, I can make an excellent program out of such music. I’ve planned about twenty hours of material, far too much, so it’s hard to predict what I will actually play. But you can expect:
- Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto.
- Sibelius’s second symphony.
- Some Beethoven
And there may be some Chopin Polonaises, Telemann, Handel, and a little Johann Strauss, Jr. Stay tuned!