Updates
presentation = watch this space for details
Les Oiseaux et la Musique
6 mars 2024
Société d'histoire avec Alliance francaise
24 rue Spadina, Toronto
Bitds and Music (in French)
March 6 2024
at the Alliance francaise
24 Spadina (near Bloor)
On the light side.....
A judge thought the defendant for a minor traffic offence looked familiar. "Have we met before?" he asked the accused. - Yes Your Honour, I gave your son violin lessons many years ago. "Ah - then that will be 20 years ! "
The great British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, in Toronto for a concert, stayed at the Royal York Hotel. He wished to order wine with a meal, but it was during prohibition, so he required a license, obtained from the bus station across the street. Grumbling, he went to Union Station.
Clearly annoyed, he answered the agent's questions:
Name ? (miffed as everyone supposedly knew him): "Sir Thomas Beecham"
Occupation ? (increasingly huffy as his career was acclaimed) "Conductor"
Not bothering to ask who his employer was, the agent wrote down Toronto Transit Commission.
A comment on playing the piano by Hans Von Bulow (conductor/pianist):
"Piano playing is very difficult...First we have to learn to make all the fingers equal. Then later, playing music with several independent voices, we have to learn to make them unequal again. That being so, it seems best not to practice the piano at all - and that is the advice I give to many....".
In the same vein
King George III of England once had violin lessons from Johann Salomon who gained fame from his association with Joseph Haydn. When asked about his progress. the teacher was said to reply that there were 3 levels of skill in violin playing : 1) the inability to play 2) the ability to play badly and 3) the ability to play well. He congratulated His Majesty on having achieved level 2 !
Les Oiseaux et la Musique
6 mars 2024
Société d'histoire avec Alliance francaise
24 rue Spadina, Toronto
Bitds and Music (in French)
March 6 2024
at the Alliance francaise
24 Spadina (near Bloor)
On the light side.....
A judge thought the defendant for a minor traffic offence looked familiar. "Have we met before?" he asked the accused. - Yes Your Honour, I gave your son violin lessons many years ago. "Ah - then that will be 20 years ! "
The great British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, in Toronto for a concert, stayed at the Royal York Hotel. He wished to order wine with a meal, but it was during prohibition, so he required a license, obtained from the bus station across the street. Grumbling, he went to Union Station.
Clearly annoyed, he answered the agent's questions:
Name ? (miffed as everyone supposedly knew him): "Sir Thomas Beecham"
Occupation ? (increasingly huffy as his career was acclaimed) "Conductor"
Not bothering to ask who his employer was, the agent wrote down Toronto Transit Commission.
A comment on playing the piano by Hans Von Bulow (conductor/pianist):
"Piano playing is very difficult...First we have to learn to make all the fingers equal. Then later, playing music with several independent voices, we have to learn to make them unequal again. That being so, it seems best not to practice the piano at all - and that is the advice I give to many....".
In the same vein
King George III of England once had violin lessons from Johann Salomon who gained fame from his association with Joseph Haydn. When asked about his progress. the teacher was said to reply that there were 3 levels of skill in violin playing : 1) the inability to play 2) the ability to play badly and 3) the ability to play well. He congratulated His Majesty on having achieved level 2 !
