if music be the food of love, let Pandolfi play it!

What a treat from USC Sumter today! Along with an impressive crowd of USC students, faculty and staff, plus lots of us civilians, pianist Thomas Pandolfi put on a master class of virtuosity in the Nettles Auditorium. Billed as a lecture-recital, the concert was more recital than lecture because of time comstraints; however, Pandolfi's brief remarks about each of the four pieces were enlightening, interesting and even amusing.
When he sat down to play Franz Liszt's "Apres Une Lecture du Dante," I expected some of the younger audience members -- particularly the students who were there for extra credit -- to lose attention. Instead, most sat up straighter and seemed intent on listening to Pandolfi's interpretation of Liszt's fantasia, which he wrote after reading Dante's Inferno.
Pandolfi explained that Liszt wrote at the top of his composition, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
"Of course, there are two interpretations possible," he said. "It refers to Hell, but it also might be a warning to any pianist trying to play. It's extremely difficult."
You'd never have suspected just how difficult the piece is, because Pandolfi's technical ability and his sensibility were both spot on in the diabolically technical work.
As I, a non-pianist, was applauding his wonderful performance and sitting there marveling at how anyone could play two such different and difficult parts at the same time -- one with each hand -- Pandolfi announced he'd play a Scriabin nocturne for one hand. Then he made the piece sound as if he were using both.
Three Chopin etudes led nicely into Pandolfi's performance of the solo version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
He said his task was "to make 10 fingers and two hands do the work of 80 people" (an orchestra plus piano). And he did!
It was a foreshadowing of Pandolfi's all-Gershwin concert set for the Sumter Opera House at 6:30 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 24).
I'm sitting here now listening to his recording of Gershwin's Concerto in F, purchased after the USC Sumter concert, and anticipating tomorrow night's concert. I promise you'll be impressed and have a great time if you attend. Tickets are only $10.
And thanks to USC Sumter, the USC Sumter Korn Trust and hostess Jane Luther Smith for such an entertaining and enthralling lunch.