Today's Oregonian reports how the Oregon Symphony found a last-minute replacement pianist to attack Rachmaninoff's Third [not Second, as I had mistyped this morning] Concerto for piano and orchestra, a notoriously difficult work that many concert pianists simply don't attempt. Most composers play the piano, but few world-class composers play at concert level. Rachmaninoff was both a composer and a concert pianist.
A pianist doesn't play solidly through a concerto, but has pauses and sometimes extended breaks during which the orchestra carries the score. It is said that after one concert in which Rachmaninoff played the piano part for a premiere of one of his concerti, a friend asked him, "I noticed that during the pauses you were staring off into space. What were you thinking of? The emotional power of your music? The lyrical nature of the orchestra?" Rachmaninoff replied, "I was counting the house."
That in turn made me think of the Oregonian's other notable story of the day, in which it reported that at least six people close to Neil or Diana Goldschmidt knew of Texas Pacific's plans to buy Portland General Electric weeks before the Goldschmidts say they learned of the deal. The Oregonian names three of them and describes the other three as staffers at the state treasurer's office.
Uncle Neil may say that he was staring off into space, but the Oregonian has started to count the house for him.
