Pianist to use only one hand for recital Saturday in Tulsa with Signature Symphony
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer on Sep 17, 2013, at 2:22 AM Updated on 9/17/13 at 5:40 PM
Lanners
The Arts
This is the first work of Grisham's to be adapted for the stage. Previews are set for September on Broadway, with the official opening in October for this production adapted by Rupert Holmes.
Music by two revolutionary artists of the early 20th century will make up the program of the Signature Symphony's first concert of the season, 8 p.m. Saturday at the VanTrease PACE, 10300 E. 81st St.
Correction
This story originally contained an incorrect event time. The story has been corrected.
Thomas Lanners first became acquainted with the music he will play Saturday night in Tulsa via a TV show.
"I remember as a kid watching this episode of 'M*A*S*H,' " said Lanners, a professor of piano at Oklahoma State University. "One of the casualties is a guy who was a concert pianist as a civilian and he loses the use of his right hand because of his wounds."
The classical music-loving Dr. Winchester, played by David Ogden Stiers, ultimately persuades the soldier to persevere because the "gift of music" isn't confined to a person's hands.
The episode concludes with the soldier playing the opening passage of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, which Lanners will perform as part of the Signature Symphony at Tulsa Community College's first classics concert of the season.
This will be Lanners' first time to perform with the orchestra, though he has done a number of solo recitals in Tulsa. His performances have been featured on such programs as NPR's "Performance Today," and he has released three albums that have earned high praise.
Saturday's concert is titled "The French Connection" and will also include performances of Ravel's "Bolero" as well as Igor Stravinsky's landmark ballet score "The Rite of Spring," which had its premiere in Paris in 1912.
Ravel's concerto was itself a product of war. He was commissioned to write the piece by Paul Wittgenstein, whose right arm was amputated as a result of wounds he suffered during World War I.
"Actually, there is quite a bit of repertoire for the left hand alone that already existed," Lanners said. "Composers would write them to demonstrate how technically astute they were, to be able to write music for what was often referred to as 'the weak hand' that still sounded as full and complex as something written for two hands.
"What was unique about Wittgenstein was that he had the financial means and the musical pedigree to commission works from some of the great composers of his time," he said. "Prokofiev, Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, Richard Stauss - they all wrote works for the left hand."
These works also allowed some performers, such as Leon Fleisher and Gary Graffman, to continue their concert careers when physical ailments made it difficult or impossible to use their right hands on the keyboard.
Lanners, much to his relief, suffers from no such maladies. Playing Ravel's concerto is simply a musical challenge, rather than a physical one.
"I suppose I could play with one hand tied behind my back," he said, laughing, "but I doubt I will. The thing about Ravel's concerto is that it is so well-written, and the music fits together so naturally, that I have to remind myself that I'm using only one hand to play it."
"Ravel wrote some of the most virtuosic music for the piano in the repertoire, so he's not shy about putting a lot of notes on the page," Lanners said. "But he also knew the best and most playable way to write a passage, and how the pianist can use the pedals to amplify the sound into the really thunderous roar when necessary."
‘THE FRENCH CONNECTION’
presented by the Signature Symphony,
with guest artist Thomas Lanners
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Van Trease PACE, 10300 E.
81st St.
Tickets: $25-$35. 918-595-7777,
tulsaworld.com/mytix
James D. Watts Jr. 918-581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Pianist to use only one hand for recital
The Arts
This is the first work of Grisham's to be adapted for the stage. Previews are set for September on Broadway, with the official opening in October for this production adapted by Rupert Holmes.
Music by two revolutionary artists of the early 20th century will make up the program of the Signature Symphony's first concert of the season, 8 p.m. Saturday at the VanTrease PACE, 10300 E. 81st St.
