Match Made In Heaven

Pianist, piano, hall come together Thursday...

For the first time in more than two years, internationally acclaimed concert pianist Jura Margulis will perform in Northwest Arkansas.

Among his last performances in the area was a halftime rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever" at a Razorback football game in the Donald W. Reynolds Stadium. But this time the venue and the musical selection will be wildly different.

FAQ

Jura Margulis

WHEN — Discussion of music 5 p.m., concert 6 p.m. Thursday

WHERE — Honors Student Lounge in Ozark Hall on the University of Arkansas campus

COST — Free

INFO — honorscollege.uark.…

The concert is a part of the Honors College Invites Series and will take place 6 p.m. Thursday in the Honors Student Lounge at the newly renovated and expanded Ozark Hall on the south side of the University of Arkansas campus. It is free and open to the public and will begin with a discussion of the repertoire, which includes pieces by Schumann, Bach, Mozart, Puccini and Liszt.

The venue is a small one, lending itself to the style of a house concert, when people would spend the evening gathered in a living room to entertain each other with music. Its size makes for a more intimate performance during which the musician and audience can speak casually and freely.

Margulis' extensive experience made choosing a venue second nature, and he says it is something he constantly considers.

"There was a reception there (in Ozark Hall) ... We walked in and immediately I saw, 'You know, this is a great room, like a small house, for a recital in the old tradition.' They always played in this environment,'" he says. "I've been in hundreds of different halls and have an intuition after many years that this will sound good."

When choosing a space for performance, Margulis says that choice of instrument is an equally important consideration.

"We have a wonderful instrument, a Steinway grand piano, the best instrument. (When assessing a venue), I look at the hall in connection to the instrument and what will it sound like in here. It's always a given, I look at any room with the consideration of 'How would a piano sound in this space?'"

Though performers often create a program based on a theme, such as a list of songs by a single composer, in the same musical style or all from a particular time period, choosing a program with a wide variety of styles, composers and eras makes a great opportunity for instruction.

"The diversity gives room to present what classical music (is), romantic, all the styles covered," Margulis says, emphasizing that the discussion of repertoire before the performance will be a clean cut way to explain a style, exhibit it and make it an easy learning experience for the listener.

Many of the pieces Margulis will perform are adaptations and transcriptions of other arrangements, which sometimes pare down songs that were meant for orchestra or choir, while others add to or embellish the music. It's a practice of true virtuosos, like greats Franz Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz, and it's a process that happens while learning and rehearsing the music.

"There are people who do this in the virtuoso community, creating their own arrangements," Margulis says. "It's the ability of a concert pianist. ... It's a rare thing ... difficult, requires mastery and a basic understanding of composition ... (and) how improvisational you can make it."

Fans who hope the dry spell of his local performances is over for good have a lot to anticipate.

Margulis' most recent CD, "Franz Schubert Piano Works," came out March 12, and a second CD that features a variety of his transcriptions is set to be released in June. Margulis is also currently in the editing process of a book about musical concerns, observations and discoveries based on essays from his website, Pianist to Pianist.

NAN What's Up on 03/28/2014

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