During a recent trip to New York, Adam’s Founder Joe Bratcher and Artistic Director Anthony Tobin visited Strand Books and found “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M Barrie, illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
Claude Debussy read the stories to his daughter Chouchou and was inspired by the vivid, victorian color drawings which depict the fantastic scenes of fairies and other mythical beings Peter Pan encounters. The Book II Prelude, “The Fairies Are Exquisite Dancers, was inspired by this stunning drawing:
The Fairies Are Exquisite Dancers
Hear Anthony Tobin playing “The Fairies Are Exquisite Dancers” in Steinway Hall Zurich, June 2018:
We are really excited to have this historic book in the collection at Adam’s Music House!
Our Founder Joe Bratcher and Artistic Director Tony Tobin just returned from a trip to NYC to glean new ideas and listen to music They heard Yefim Bronfman play the Beethoven Second Piano Concerto and the New York Philharmonic perform Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony. Bronfman has never played better and exhibited consummate control of tone, balance, and the beautiful Steinway D.
Next on the agenda was a wonderful performance of Verdi’s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. The cast, staging, and music were top-notch and made for a wonderful evening.
Aida at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC
But the highlight of the trip was a performance of the not-often heard Pelleas et Melisande by Claude Debussy. Since Tony Tobin is a Debussy specialist who had never seen the opera live, this was a special treat. Not only did the cast and staging impress, the new conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, is a worthy successor to James Levine and tantalizes with the possibilities the Met will have in the future.
We also shopped for music for the collection at Adam’s once it arrives we will tell you more about it, but in the meantime here is a preview:
The Fairies Are Exquisite Dancers by Debussy was inspired by a drawing in this book
Please Join us February 9th at 2PM for Dr. Kiyoshi Tamagawa’s master class, we already have 5 great students lined up to play.
February 24th at 4PM Dr. Tobin will play the first book of Debussy Preludes and show his new film about Debussy’s special Bluethner piano.
March 2nd at 2PM Sophia Gilmson will give an encore master class. The last was sensational so we do hope you will attend!
We had close to 50 people attend Dr. Anthony ‘Tobin’s special performance of Book II of the Preludes by Claude Debussy, March 25th at 4PM. A warm and enthusiastic audience helped us celebrate Debussy’s life and great innovations at the piano.
