Piano Concert

Concert Review

On April 8th 2004 I attended the "Music for Piano" concert featuring Bette Coulson and Philip Seward at the Columbia College Concert Hall. The show was only about an hour. Mr. Seward and Mrs. Coulson played five pieces together and then each play on solo. This was my first piano concert, of any kind, that I have attended. This was something new for me.

The concert included seven different pieces. Claude Debussy composed three of them, La puerta del vino, Le Vent dans la Plaine, and Lisle Joyous L.106. Anton Dvoark composed the opening and closing songs, Slavic Dance Op.46 #1 and Salvonic Dance Op.46 #5. The piece by Samuel Barber was called Souvenirs and was played by both Seward and Coulson and their hands over lapped in it. One of the pieces was composed by Columbia's very own Philip Seward and preformed solely by his self.

Debussy's grave at Passy Cemetery

André Caplet with Claude Debussy

Debussy at the piano, in front of the composer Ern...

Although different people composed the pieces the concert was nicely and evenly put together like a sandwich. It started with a Dvorak piece, the bun, then went into Seward's the cheese, then into three Debussy's, which could represent three different types of meat in the sandwich. Then after that a Barber piece symbolizes the lettuce and then the concert ended with the "bun" another Dvorak piece.

The titles of the pieces fit each of them well. The title of a piece is a great clue to both the performer and audience what the composer was trying to portray. I read the program before the show started, so as to get better idea of what the songs might sound like just by their name. I was later surprised to hear that the composer did write what I expected in regards to the song title. Even pieces with more than one...