The 10 Cities-10 Steinways-10 Recitals Finale

The Linder Auditorium at Wits University was the setting on Sunday for the finale of the South African "10 Cities - 10 Steinways - 10 Recitals Tour" of Charl Du Plessis. And it was sublime!

He started the tour in Cape Town in February. Kimberley ... Potchefstroom ... Pretoria ... Roodeport ... Bloemfontein ... Kroonstad ... Port Elizabeth ... East London and finally ... October 12 in Johannesburg. The 10 pianos in the tour title were all Steinways as Charl is one of the world's esteemed Steinway Artists.






A Bach chaconne, a sonata by Rachmaninoff, a fantasy and a couple of waltzes by Chopin, and then, Gershwin. Three Preludes, Charl's own arrangement of The Man I Love, and finally the solo piano version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue arranged for the piano by George himself.

Coincidentally George Gershwin and Sergei Rachmaninoff are both Immortal Steinway Artists. Chopin preferred to play the French Pleyel. I do not know what kind of piano Bach preferred, but I am sure that if he and Chopin had still been alive and performing after the Steinway company was founded in Manhattan in 1853, it would have been a Steinway.

opening bow

Apparently one of the perks that comes along with being a Steinway Artist performing on a Steinway is that the manufacturer provides you with specially trained and certified experts who maintain and help preserve their pianos on your tour. Therefore, Charl traveled on this tour with a technician from Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos to every concert he played to service all of these precious instruments.

Charl introduces Ian Burgess-Simpson

Now I have heard Steinway Artists perform on Steinways before. Lang Lang, Diana Krall, and Billy Joel to name a few. Most of the time the technical stuff is done exclusively behind the curtain before the concert begins. On this tour however and with this Steinway Artist, it was part of the show.

While the piano had indeed been intricately serviced and tuned before the audience arrived on the day of the concert, Charl brought the technician, Ian Burgess-Simpson himself, out on stage after the first half of the program was finished and before the intermission began. He asked Ian to remove the keyboard again and place it on a table next to the piano.

questions and answers

He then invited the audience to come up on stage to examine the mechanism and ask the expert about the intricacies of the Steinway piano.

This was the first time Vince or I had ever seen a Steinway Artist include this as part of their program, although Vince has seen the inside of a Steinway many times before.









When he was an undergrad, Vince worked in the University's auditorium as a sound engineer and their inventory included a Steinway. Vince saw the auditorium's piano tuner take apart and reassemble their Steinway before every major recital.

Later as a graduate engineering student and a member of the Acoustical Engineering Society at Columbia University he took acoustical engineering courses with Cyril Harris who had redesigned the acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall as well as the other auditoriums of Lincoln Center. While at Columbia, Vince even had a special "behind the scenes" tour at Steinway & Sons in New York where he witnessed another Steinway disassembled and serviced for a concert performance that very night at Carnegie Hall.

reassembled and ready for the second half of the concert

But that didn't stop Vince from hopping up on stage with the rest of us to join in the conversation with Ian.

For an encore, Charl delighted the audience by playing Fats Waller's Carolina Shout to close out the evening. His virtuosity really is astounding. To go from Bach to Waller via Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Gershwin all in one night and all without missing a beat ...  Charl truly is an artist.

From Baroque to Boogie Woogie

Can you autograph a CD?

We were totally blown away during the early evening we spent at Glenshiel listening to the Charl du Plessis Trio with Charl du Plessis on piano, Werner Spies on bass and Hugo Radyn on drums. It was billed as an evening of "baroque swing" ... but it turned out to be so much more.

How about Bach's Brandenburg Concerto arranged for ABBA?
... Or his Air on a G String played South African style?
... The three Winter movements from Vivaldi's Four Seasons arranged for a jazz trio (the two Allergro movements) and for a pop group (the Largo movement)?
... Or our favorite, Scarlatti's Harpsichord Sonatas played with a boogie woogie beat?

 Here's a snippet ...

Who are these crazy dudes? Clearly, the leader of the Charl du Plessis Trio is Charl du Plessis. Charl was born in Pretoria where he still lives and teaches at the University of Pretoria when he is not traveling the world performing and recording.

Charl has the honor to be the first South African to be named a Steinway artist, a special relationship cultivated by Steinway & Sons with pianists from every genre. By being elevated to a Steinway artist, Charl joined the ranks of 1600 Steinway artists ranging from classical pianists such as Lang Lang to jazz stars like Diana Krall, pop icons like Billy Joel, and "immortals" including the legendary Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Arthur Rubinstein.

I couldn't help thinking as I listened to the trio perform that the person who would appreciate this concert even more than Vince and I would be our brother-in-law Mike Perryman. Mike, a gifted pianist in his own right, played  drums for many years with the Kansas City Jazz  Orchestra. So we had to buy all six CDs Charl sold in the lobby to send to Mike for Christmas. An early Merry Christmas to you Mike! You're gonna love it.

For their encore, the Charl du Plessis Trio played Billy Joel's "Piano Man" arranged as a classical jazz instrumental. Unforgettable.

Charl performed on a beautiful Kawai grand piano at Glenshiel, but if you want to hear the Steinway artist play on a Steinway, check out a concert on his exciting new 10 Chair Tour where he will perform 10 Solo Recitals on 10 Steinways in 10 Cities across South Africa. The Steinway comes with its own piano technician who apparently demonstrates his piano tuning in front of the audience before Charl takes the stage. The Joburg appearance will be on October 12 at Wits University's  Linder Auditorium. We'll be there.

JPO

Mozart and Tchaikovsky. 'Nuff said.