How the Beaux Arts Trio kept going against the odds
RIPObituarists for Menahem Pressler in the Times (London and New York) take the group’s success for granted, noting that it played 100 concerts a year, in one instance 130.
What the papers fail to mention is that there was no money in it. Or, at least, not enough to feed three men and their growing families.
So, as Menahem Pressler told me, they would drive 500 miles through the night from one US hall to the next, taking turns at the wheel, eating from a vending machine if they could find one. Arriving at dawn at their next concert venue, they would check in at a motel, catch 4-5 hours sleep, then grind down for an afternoon’s rehearsal before yet another concert that night.
Only after the recordings started selling did they make enough money to catch a plane.
The obituaries are flawed by several more perceptual errors.
The papers alone are not guilty of “perceptual errors.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/arts/music/menahem-pressler-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1
Perceptual errors included
You are correct, Norman. Menahem told me about those tours throughout the Midwest, driving from little town to little town. Often they arrived at a venue only to find a miserable, out-of-tune piano. One time he was given an old upright! When he complained to the presenter that he needed a grand piano, he was told, “But you are only the accompanist”!!
But he always laughed in recalling those difficult times. He had no hard feelings about anything.
At least it did not affect his health. He lived
A long life.
It’s evening here in London. My wife and I have just just arrived home after an enjoyable afternoon meal with neighbours.
I am now listening to the complete BAT recordings of the Haydn trios streaming on Qobuz through my stereo system. Pressler and the trio of which he was the core will always be there. Art is long and life is short. At 86 years old I can remember a recital years ago in Chicago.
It is good that you have gone beyond the “free” press.
Excellent
I’d like to tell a story I will witnessed in Calgary in 1981.
The trio was on a tour comprising of 20 concerts in 21 days…. The evening before that they had played in Sacramento, the day before in Boston! At 57, Presser was the youngest of the three.
At an after concert reception I heard Mr. Pressler go up to the other two and say in his very distinctive voice (I was only a metre away from them). “You know what, I think I can get us a concert for next Thursday!” Mr. Greenhouse rolled his eyes, and both of them stared incredulously…. to which Mr. Pressler added “It’s a free evening, why shouldn’t we playyyy?” (sic)
At the time, one of our nicknames for him was the Tasmanian Devil. He seemed just as active – but the 2nd word was also apt. Someone else here has mentioned that he could be sadistic… It would be more accurate to say being sadistic was his default setting if you were one of his students, even just at a masterclass. When I remarked to a colleague many years later, “He hated me” the response was “Come on, he hated everybody” :-((((
Thank you WP. I don’t have any adverse stories about MP, but I am heartily sick of obituaries whitewashing people who clearly were not angels.