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Ageists vs Youthists

Over the Christmas holidays I leafed through a pile of old Limelight magazines rereading some excellent articles I only had time to skim before. One letter in the November 2012 edition caught my eye – Gilbert Whyte of Bowral took exception to an article by the pianist Sally Whitwell singing the praises of the “late bloomer” . Gilbert thought that late bloomer was synonymous with lack of talent – “late bloomers are late for a reason, they are behind the game or lack something that others do not, distinguishing them from true geniuses who overachieve beyond their years.” Gilbert goes on to complain that “no-one wants to see an up-and-coming 30-40 something soloist on stage when someone ten years younger could be giving a superior performance.” Ouch! Gilbert is obviously a raging ageist. To be fair, when it comes to the solo world, sitting up in front of an orchestra and jumping through technical hoops, Gilbert might be right. If you haven’t got the ability and temperament to manage that stressful situation in your 20s, it’s probably too late to start at 40. Being a soloist in a concerto is like being a sportsman, more suited to young nubile runners…

February 15, 2013
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Australian Piano Idol

As a pianist, piano competitions strike fear into my heart. I was on hand for a little of last year’s Sydney International Piano Competition and waiting backstage with the competitors felt like being a guard in Marie Antoinette’s cell in the Paris Conciergerie, watching the poor woman before she was wheeled off in a cart to the guillotine. We had been expecting at least one competitor to run screaming from the building, but no one did. Most waited patiently as the stage manager with his white gloved hands wheeled out the piano of their choice and even more weirdly, checked their stool height. We knew from an attached sheet whether a pianist was sitting at 27.5 cm, or 34.2cm above sea-level. I doubt the audience could tell the difference, but this pre-stooling meant that none of the competitors had the opportunity to twiddle their perch to the correct height, thereby getting used to the stage and the environment. I have no problem with the idea of music competitions (no-one is holding a gun to the head of the competitors so they go into it with their eyes open) but must a keyboard race be so formal and old-fashioned? In the…

February 15, 2013
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Unhappy Holidays

Some years ago a Hollywood film was released with the title Four Christmases. Except in Australia it had the release title of Four Holidays.  It was only when I saw the trailer in a cinema that I realised it had anything to do with Christmas. I’m not quite sure why it had a different title in this country, but my suspicion is that the distributors thought Four Christmases would offend non-Christians four times more than one simple Happy Holidays.  If this is the case why don’t we go the whole way, and remove any mention of Christ from Christmas in case He offend? The carol Twelve Days of Christmas would become The Twelve Days of Happy Holidays, O Christmas Tree would become O Happy Holiday Tree and Handel’s Messiah will eventually be known as the He’s Just A Naughty Boy Oratorio.  Let me just state that I am in no way a practising Christian (I am as secular as they come) but I stand up for the right of Christians to practice and celebrate their religion without embarrassment of offending others in our society who believe in something else, whether it be Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism or the Giant Black Bunny…

February 15, 2013