Historical Figures

St. Germain Street

“St. Germain Street” (Written by Reynold Philipsek, 2012 copyright) all instruments by Reynold, except drums by Michael Bissonnette June 15, 2018 marked 50 years since the untimely death of Jazz guitar great Wes Montgomery. Summer always puts me in a Wes Montgomery mood. I associate his sunny disposition with this season, and definitely with a certain period of my life. […]

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Conditions of the Tournament

Music history is replete with stories of artists meeting an early demise: Chopin, Django, Dinu Lipatti, William Kapell, and even Scriabin all passed on young. Perhaps Lipatti and Kapell are less well known, but they are very important musicians in my estimation. Lipatti (1917-1950) was a fantastic composer and pianist who thankfully left us some recordings, though precious few, and

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Alexis “Sigi” Weissenberg (1929-2012)

As I have said before in this space my favorite hobby is to study the work of classic pianists of the past. The “somewhat” distant pianists of the past I have looked at encompass Cortot, Lipatti, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Schnabel, Rachmaninoff, Godowsky, Hofmann, etc. The more recent past include Gould, Ashkenazy, and “Sigi”. Born in Bulgaria and migrating to America during

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