One of my daughters-in-law is ¾ Polish, which makes my adorable curly-headed 1-year-old granddaughter, Carlyn, 37.5% Polish. I think that’s pretty terrific since I’m more of just a “Heinz 57” myself ancestor-wise.
I have decided that I’m going to be the grandmother in charge of helping Carlyn explore music, so along with singing nursery rhymes and playing the piano with her (she sits on my lap and I play the melody holding her little index finger while playing the bass part myself), I thought she should be exposed to some of the great classical music from her own heritage. I wanted to find a recording of music by Chopin (the fine Polish composer) being played by a renowned Polish pianist for her. I looked for something recorded by Krystian Zimerman who has been featured on Friends’ series in the past, but couldn’t find something that would exactly work for listening to while she falls asleep at bedtime. But I did find a delightful CD of Artur Rubenstein playing Chopin Nocturnes.
Someday Carlyn’s going to be old enough that she and Grandma can enjoy the “What Makes It Great?” programs together, and then graduate to full concerts. And when we hear Chopin we can enjoy his Polish tie to Carlyn!
I have decided that I’m going to be the grandmother in charge of helping Carlyn explore music, so along with singing nursery rhymes and playing the piano with her (she sits on my lap and I play the melody holding her little index finger while playing the bass part myself), I thought she should be exposed to some of the great classical music from her own heritage. I wanted to find a recording of music by Chopin (the fine Polish composer) being played by a renowned Polish pianist for her. I looked for something recorded by Krystian Zimerman who has been featured on Friends’ series in the past, but couldn’t find something that would exactly work for listening to while she falls asleep at bedtime. But I did find a delightful CD of Artur Rubenstein playing Chopin Nocturnes.
Someday Carlyn’s going to be old enough that she and Grandma can enjoy the “What Makes It Great?” programs together, and then graduate to full concerts. And when we hear Chopin we can enjoy his Polish tie to Carlyn!
4 comments:
Rob Kapilow is great with kids, you’re right. Another person who does comparably well is Lincoln Center’s Bruce Adolphe. His webpage here will give you some sense of the differences between Bruce and Rob. If you get a chance, listen to Bruce’s ‘Piano Puzzlers’ series on NPR, either “live” or streaming on the web. I attended one of Bruce’s sessions earlier this year in Joplin MO on a Saturday morning with about 300 kids between 3 and 13 years old.
Bruce and Rob are both quick wits, something that’s essential if you’re gonna do programs for kids. A bunch of “3-and-up” kids is a tough, tough audience. And if you are not entirely genuine and not totally fun, they will sense that in milliseconds and annihilate you. As an adult who is not a parent or grandparent of a kid in the audience, I think it’s priceless to watch one of Rob’s or Bruce’s performances—as you would watch a tight-rope acrobat working high in the air. The uncertainties of the open-ended conversations they have with the kids—and the loose-cannon dynamic when they bring ‘volunteer’ kids out of the audience and up on-stage—these are positively death-defying.
I think many adult chamber music fans neglect to take advantage of these kid-oriented programs because they think they’re only for kids, which is too bad. Think of them instead as ‘magician acts’ or ‘improv theater’—performed by consummate musicians as virtuosic actors/magicians.
I would go to see Rob’s or Bruce’s improvisational magic shows any day. Funny as hell, totally unhinged—both of them.
Best,
DSM
By the way, I wrote a little about that 17-FEB-2008 program in Joplin on CMT blog here.
Have a look at Kapilow’s new book, which is delightful.
Adolphe has a number of books and CD’s that are excellent for kids, available from Amazon and on his
website. Great gift ideas for grandkids.
Best,
DSM
One more thing: The ‘Chopin for Children’ CD released on the BCI label (now Navarre) in 2001 by Peter Schmalfuss and Dubravka Tomšič might interest you and Carlyn. (If Arkiv is out-of-stock you can get it used off of Amazon.)
Also, Austrian pianist Ingrid Haebler’s ‘Story Of Chopin In Words And Music’ CD is kid-good, for an all-Chopin ‘immersion’ experience. I heard her as a kid, in 1959 or 1960, when she performed with the (then) Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Throughout her career (Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, etc.), Ingrid has been an advocate and performer of chamber music, as well as a brilliant soloist.
Carlyn is very lucky to have you as a grandma!
DSM
Yet one more thing while I’m here: There’s this new 2008-release Kristian Zimerman Chopin DVD of a 1987 recital recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. Not necessarily ‘lullaby’ material for infants, but, since you were looking for Zimerman’s Chopin stuff, I thought I’d provide the link.
DSM
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