Between two stools

[smittims]

A rare appearance of Liberace on TalkingPicturesTV next Friday prompted me to contemplate those pianists who made successful careers (for a while at least) in what some consider an unbridgeable gap between Classical and Popular music. I'm thinking of such figures as Albert Semprini, Winifred Atwell and Russ Conway.

In each case careful thought seems to have gone into their choice of repertoire and even appearance, so as to occupy a particular position in the spectrum. Semprini was always in immaculate white tie and tails, and always looked and behaved like a classical pianist would in those days. His music always had some relation to the classical repertoire , though it usually comprised sweetly-scored shortish allusions to the 'big tunes' , as if aimed at an audience who reacted against the 'pop' revolution but who didn't fancy sitting through a complete concerto.

Trevor Stanford was an accomplished pianist and light-music composer, the piano-playing half of a song-writing partnership, when a conversation with a record producer revealed a 'vacancy' in the market for a pianist located in style and taste half-way between Semprini and 'pop', and Trevor became Russ Conway, emphatically informal enough to be seen reclining in a Pringle-type golf-shirt with a well-endowed blonde , at other times as formal as Semprini .

Wiifred Atwell was decidedly more on the popular side than either of these, but she did once record the complete Grieg concerto, which had quite a stay on Ace of Clubs.

In each case they owed their success to their adherence to a particular image , as immediately identifiable as Delia Smith's hairdo and smile, but I do wonder if they ever regretted their choice and longed to do something different.

[Petrushka]

I met Russ Conway once, many years ago, and missed an opportunity to ask that very question. He did quite well out of his career, as did Atwell, and doubt if either had pretensions to be a concert pianist. I can still summon up Pixilated Penguin and Side Saddle in my head straightaway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPrvoN4c7g

[vinteuil]

those pianists who made successful careers (for a while at least) in what some consider an unbridgeable gap between Classical and Popular music. I'm thinking of such figures as Albert Semprini, Winifred Atwell and Russ Conway...

... not forgetting "the most successful pianist in the world" - the inénarrable Richard Clayderman

.

[french frank]

Not sure about this but I'd say that they were all outside the then pop scene - especially Semprini ("Old ones, new ones, loved ones, neglected ones"), whereas the current - many definitely younger - generation of varyingly competent pianists (Elton John, Rick Wakeman, Lady Gaga, Piano Flow's Tokio Myers) were/are all definitely from the pop world.

I met Russ Conway once, many years ago, and missed an opportunity to ask that very question. He did quite well out of his career, as did Atwell, and doubt if either had pretensions to be a concert pianist. I can still summon up Pixelated Penguin and Side Saddle in my head straightaway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPrvoN4c7g

[eighthobstruction]

....and of course not forgetting Eric Morecambe....

Ed: the Billy Cotton Band Show has a lot to answer for -Wikey Wike oo

[jayne lee wilson]

Not sure about this but I'd say that they were all outside the then pop scene - especially Semprini ("Old ones, new ones, loved ones, neglected ones"), whereas the current - many definitely younger - generation of varyingly competent pianists (Elton John, Rick Wakeman, Lady Gaga, Piano Flow's Tokio Myers) were/are all definitely from the pop world.

But Elton John, Wakeman and Myers all had some classical studies and training, so (as you often find with Pop singer-songwriters) there is much crossover....

There's a lovely early scene in the biopic Rocketman where young Elton John is playing the Trout Quintet at the Conservatoire... not long before we morph through into the sensational Saturday Nights all right for Fighting sequence down the pub...

[smittims]

Russ Conway did appear , memorably, on the Billy Cotton Band Show.

Myleene Klass was also trained as a classical pianist, and look where she ended up: having a shower in the jungle...

I expect she's often wondered how different her career might have been .

[Petrushka]

Shame we never heard Mrs Mills in Mozart!

[french frank]

But Elton John, Wakeman and Myers all had some classical studies and training, so (as you often find with Pop singer-songwriters) there is much crossover....

That's why I mentioned them: because they could manage a niftyish bit of classical (I might have added Chick Corea except that he wasn't a 'pop' musician anyway); or, outside piano, Jonny Greenwood (at a pinch - he was described as 'classically trained' at the time R3 was courting him). Nevertheless, their performing careers were in the pop world, not the classical world.

Semprini lived at a time when, in a sense the pop world was not as all-embracing as it is now, which is why he was more obviously 'between two stools': he was 'popular' but never 'pop', and was seriously 'classically trained'. His commercial career included a substantial amount of classical recordings and performances: John's, Wakeman's and Myers's haven't - to my (limited!) knowledge. Singer-songwriters don't by definition, have much time for even a marginally classical career - whatever they may, or may not, be capable of. Among singers, Mario Lanza could be included with Semprini; but there were others who were definitely 'popular' but had decentish tenor (usually) voices: like David Hughes, David Whitfield. Autres temps …

[mikealdren]

And there were (are) violinists too. Campoli, Max Jaffa, Stéphane Grappelli and from the pop world curved air: Darryl Way and Eddie Jobson. There are a good few jazz violinists and, of course, there's Nige.

[RichardB]

Speaking as someone without "classical training", I do find it annoying that this formulation is so often used as a guarantee of some numinously serious kind of "quality"... the most important "training" a musician can have is the result of approaching their work and development with the kind of dedication and depth which for example Myleene Klass clearly doesn't have, in distinction to an "untrained" individual like Frank Zappa, who, whatever his faults, wrote more interestingly for orchestra than a lot of people who had all the lessons.

[Mal]

Jon Ronson - after pop stardom with Frank Sidebottom I've heard he was known to hammer out some Mozart on his multi-dimensional keyboard.

Professor Brian Cox - although he realised that things could only get better if he concentrated on physics, his fantastic keyboard playing in all genres should not be ignored.

[french frank]

Speaking as someone without "classical training", I do find it annoying that this formulation is so often used as a guarantee of some numinously serious kind of "quality"..

Yes, of course. I mentioned that it was used (by the BBC) of Jonny Greenwood at the time he'd been in engaged as - I forget the exact title - Associate Composer(?) of the Concert orchestra with the remit to do a bit of experimentation and see what he could come up with; and with a promised Proms commission. My memory is that the 'classical training' was learning the viola at school; but I suspect this was a sop to the enraged 'classical fans' at seeing the job being given to a 'pop musician'.

And it depends also on the type of musical career one is hoping for. Semprini studied, apparently at the "Verdi Conservatory" in Milan.

[Maclintick]

Russ Conway did appear , memorably, on the Billy Cotton Band Show.

As of course did the Queen of the Ivories herself....the incomparable Gladys Mills

[pastoralguy]

How I wish I could play the piano like any of the luminaries mentioned above! I remember, many years ago, reading a biography of Liberace and discovering that behind all the candelabras, outrageous costumes and razzmatazz was a very fine pianist who had certainly paid his dues as far as hard work went.