[pud99]

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/acc/levant.php

[extract]

... He was, after all, the beneficiary of a powerful education in classical music and piano technique. He studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg and piano with Zygmunt Stojowski. At the height of his career, he performed under the batons of Toscanini, Beecham, Mitropoulos, Reiner, Monteux, and Ormandy.

It doesn't help matters that he would not take seriously – at least in the words he used to describe it – his own concert music. Over a decade, he did write string quartets, a woodwind trio, a sinfonietta, and a piano concerto of genuine art and complexity.

"This concerto is fourteen minutes long, mostly in fast tempo, relieved with an all-too short slow section. Composed in the late Thirties, this music reflects an arrogance and a pretentiousness based on an economic and emotional insecurity. However, those are days we now look back on as happy."

Oscar Levant​

​

 

[stoobiedood]

I think that Jack meant hamentashen. (Mmmmm....!)

I think Jack meant yarmulke. (He was a comedian.)

As when Steve Martin guest-hosted a talk show and, after hearing about a guest's zodiac sign, remarked of his own, "I'm a feces."

(I still use that line whenever anyone starts seriously talking astrology.)

And having remembered that, I now know MoRoDoKaRaMiFo's zodiac sign :-D

 

[pud99]

Another [extract] (can't resist):

Robert Russell Bennett, WOR radio, December 1940: "I wonder if you remember the impression the work made on its first performance?"​

Levant: "Violently. It not only brought me obscurity but many enemies."​

 

[pud99]

As when Steve Martin guest-hosted a talk show and, after hearing about a guest's zodiac sign, remarked of his own, "I'm a feces."

That is simply, utterly wonderful, isn't it?

ETA: One of the things that makes life worth living.

 

[LowPolygon]

Just to clear up some of the confusion in this thread (and criticism being levelled at the mods), khristopher is not an admin or mod, in this thread or anywhere else on the forum. The inability to ignore him must have been some kind of administrative error.

Well it would be great to fix that administrative error. I, for one, could really do without having to be exposed to his pissy attitude. He's the most priggish and disagreeable senior member on the forum and always has been.

 

[JWBF]

of course I just gave an hour of my life to Wikipedia looking up oscar levant. Thank you both for piqueing my interest. Ill be checking out a book tomorrow.

Cheers.

 

[Lamport Davenport]

The one thing about holding a political fundraiser is that no matter how wealthy the candidate, it’s a litmus test of who *says* they will support you and who *pays* to support you. It helps separate the sheep from the goats.

Last Thursday’s weenie roast at Mom’s is likely to have fewer guests than claimed and even fewer paying ones. Further details are probably unnecessary.

We already know their former conservative “friends†like Hudak and Harper have not just left the building, but are seriously in hiding.

So let’s follow the money. If the low takings last week indicate that it would take serious Ford ca$h to run a campaign to win, at what point does FoFam fold its cards?

I tend to think in the FoFam dynamic, this would be seen as “spending all the money on Rob (again)†and probably not “defending the family honour†or some such nonsense. Besides, even if he did win, how long before he royally effs up again?

For all that FoFam $ outlay, what’s the return on investment?

There’s now the problem of scrutiny over Rob and Doug’s activities around city contracts, rent-seeking, insider information and council voting to benefit selected businesses and persons, e.g. Apollo, Donnelly, muzik, etc. There may not be much influence left to peddle. How can someone return a favour, if you can’t give ‘em one?

There’s rarely much pay-off in losing, but for FoFam in 2014 there may not be much in winning either.

 

[pud99]

I think Jack meant yarmulke. (He was a comedian.)

Yes. The hamentashen was a joke upon a joke - just because "I does love it".

 

[casita]

of course I just gave an hour of my life to Wikipedia looking up oscar levant. Thank you both for piqueing my interest. Ill be checking out a book tomorrow.

I addition to the book Pud recommended, "Memoirs of an Amnesiac" is also very good.
Sabre Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRhOOGDtoPk

 

[pud99]

Casita: I knew who. Question is, why Oscar?

 

[pud99]

I addition to the book Pud recommended, "Memoirs of an Amnesiac" is also very good.
Sabre Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRhOOGDtoPk

As I'm sure you know, Oscar wrote three "memoirs": Memoirs of an Amnesiac (2nd), A Smattering of Ignorance (1st) and The Unimportance of Being Oscar (3rd) [being such a wit he of course was plagued with Oscar Wilde comparisons, hence the spin on Wilde's masterpiece "The Importance of Being Ernest"). I put "memoirs" in quotes because they are performances more than confessionals.

 

[pud99]

“I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me.”
― Oscar Levant

 

[casita]

Casita: I knew who. Question is, why Oscar?

My mother still plays the piano and listens to his records. She still believes he was the best, so I take her word for it. It would have been great to go to one of his concerts.

 

[pud99]

My mother still plays the piano and listens to his records. She still believes he was the best, so I take her word for it. It would have been great to go to one of his concerts.

I think that the last concert he played was a performance of Rhapsody in Blue at The Meadowlands in New York City. (Ask your mother. It sounds like she will know!)

 

[basic]

absolutely petunia. Basic will you run it again? Nohostages says 18.5% cheers

Yeah, sure, I have no problem with that if people are interested.