The Stars Shine Down

The ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria was crowded with patrons of Carnegie Hall. Lara moved through the crowd, looking for Philip. She recalled the telephone conversation they had had a few days earlier.



"Miss Cameron, this is Philip Adler."



Her throat went suddenly dry.



"I'm sorry I wasn't able to thank you earlier for the donation you made to the foundation. I've just returned from Europe and learned about it."



"It was my pleasure," Lara said. She had to keep him talking. "As...as a matter of fact, I'm interested in knowing more about the foundation. Perhaps we could get together and discuss it."



There was a pause. "There's going to be a charity dinner at the Waldorf Saturday evening. We could meet there. Are you free?"



Lara quickly glanced at her schedule. She had a dinner meeting that evening with a banker from Texas.



She made a quick decision. "Yes. I'd be delighted to go."



"Wonderful. There will be a ticket at the door for you."



When Lara replaced the receiver, she was beaming.



Philip Adler was nowhere in sight. Lara moved through the huge ballroom, listening to the conversations around her.



"...so the leading tenor said, 'Dr. Klemperer, I have only two high C's left. Do you want to hear them now or tonight at the performance?'...'



"...oh, I admit that he has a good stick. His dynamics and tonal shadings are excellent...but the tempi! Tempi! Spare me!..."



"...you're insane! Stravinsky is too structured. His music could have been written by a robot. He holds back his feelings. Bartok, on the other hand, lets loose the floodgates, and we're bathed in emotions..."



"...I simply can't stand her playing. Her Chopin is an exercise in tortured rubato, butchered textures, and purple passion..."



It was an arcane language that was beyond Lara's comprehension. And then she saw Philip, surrounded by an admiring coterie. Lara pushed her way through the crowd. An attractive young woman was saying, "When you played the B flat Minor Sonata, I felt that Rachmaninoff was smiling. Your tone and voicing, and the soft-grained readings...Wonderful!"



Philip smiled. "Thank you."



A middle-aged dowager was gushing, "I keep listening to your recording of the Hammerklavier over and over. My God! The vitality is irresistible! I think you must be the only pianist left in this world who really understands that Beethoven sonata..."



Philip saw Lara. "Ah. Excuse me," he said.



He made his way over to where she was standing and took her hand. His touch aroused her. "Hello. I'm glad you could come, Miss Cameron."



"Thank you." She looked around. "This is quite a crowd."



He nodded. "Yes. I assume that you're a lover of classical music?"



Lara thought of the music she had grown up with: "Annie Laurie," "Comin' through the Rye," "The Hills of Home"..."



Oh, yes," Lara said. "My father brought me up on classical music."



"I want to thank you again for your contribution. That was really very generous."



"Your foundation sounds so interesting. I would love to hear more about it. If..."



"Philip, darling! There are no words! Magnificent!" He was surrounded again.



Lara managed to make herself heard. "If you're free one evening next week..."



Philip shook his head. "I'm sorry, I leave for Rome tomorrow."



Lara felt a sudden sense of loss. "Oh."



"But I'll be back in three weeks. Perhaps then we could..."



"Wonderful!" Lara said.



"...spend an evening discussing music."



Lara smiled. "Yes. I'll look forward to that."



At that moment they were interrupted by two middle-aged men. One wore his hair in a ponytail; the other had on a single earring.



"Philip! You must settle an argument for us. When you're playing Liszt, which do you think is more important - a piano with heavy action that gives you a colorful sound or light action where you can do a colorful manipulation?"



Lara had no idea what they were talking about. They went off into a discussion about neutral sonority and long sounds and transparency. Lara watched the animation in Philip's face as he talked, and she thought, This is his world. I've got to find a way to get into it.



The following morning Lara appeared at the Manhattan School of Music. She said to the woman at the reception desk, "I'd like to see one of the music professors, please."



"Anyone in particular?"



"No."



"Just a moment, please." She disappeared into another room.



A few minutes later a small gray-haired man appeared at Lara's side.



"Good morning. I'm Leonard Meyers. How may I help you?"



"I'm interested in classical music."



"Ah, you wish to enroll here. What instrument do you play?"



"I don't play any instrument. I just want to learn about classical music."



"I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. This school is not for beginners."



"I'll pay you five thousand dollars for two weeks of your time."



Professor Meyers blinked. "I'm sorry, Miss...I didn't get your name."



"Cameron. Lara Cameron."



"You wish to pay me five thousand dollars for a two-week discussion of classical music?" He had trouble getting the words out.



"That's right. You can use the money for a scholarship fund if you wish."



Professor Meyers lowered his voice. "That will not be necessary. This can just be between you and me."



"That's fine."



"When...er...would you like to begin?"



"Now."



"I have a class at the moment, but give me five minutes..."



Lara and Professor Meyers were seated in a classroom alone.



"Let us start at the beginning. Do you know anything about classical music?"



"Very little."



"I see. Well, there are two ways to understand music," the professor began. "Intellectually and emotionally. Someone once said that music reveals to man his hidden soul. Every great composer was able to accomplish that."



Lara was listening intently.



"Are you familiar with any composers, Miss Cameron?"



She smiled. "Not too many."



The professor frowned. "I don't really understand your interest in..."



"I want to get enough of a background so that I can talk intelligently to a professional musician about the classics. I'm...particularly interested in piano music."



"I see." Meyers thought for a moment. "I'll tell you how we're going to begin. I'm going to give you some CDs to play."



Lara watched him walk over to a shelf and pull down some compact discs.



"We'll start with these. I want you to listen carefully to the allegro in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. Twenty-one in C, Kochel 467, and the adagio in Brahms Piano Concerto No. One, and the moderato in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. Two in C Minor, Opus Eighteen, and finally, the romanze in Chopin's Piano Concerto No. One. They're all marked."



"Right."



"If you would like to play these and come back in a few days..."



"I'll be back tomorrow."



The following day, when Lara came in, she was carrying half a dozen CDs of Philip Adler's concerts and recitals.



"Ah, splendid!" Professor Meyers said. "Maestro Adler is the best. You are particularly interested in his playing?"



"Yes."



"The maestro has recorded many beautiful sonatas."



"Sonatas?"



He sighed. "You don't know what a sonata is?"



"I'm afraid I don't."



"A sonata is a piece, usually in several movements, that has a certain basic musical form. And when that form is used in a piece for a solo instrument, like a piano or violin, the piece is called a sonata. A symphony is a sonata for orchestra."



"I understand." That shouldn't be difficult to work into a conversation.



"The piano was originally known as the pianoforte. That is Italian for 'soft-loud'..."



They spent the next few days discussing tapes that Philip had recorded - Beethoven, Liszt, Bartok, Mozart, Chopin.



Lara listened, and absorbed, and remembered.



"He likes Liszt. Tell me about him."



"Franz Liszt was a boy genius. Everyone admired him. He was brilliant. He was treated like a pet by the aristocracy, and he finally complained that he had become on par with a juggler or a performing dog...."



"Tell me about Beethoven."



"A difficult man. He was such an unhappy person that in the middle of his great success he decided he didn't like the work that he had done, and he changed to longer and more emotional compositions, like the Eroica and the Pastoral...."



"Chopin?"



"Chopin was criticized for writing music for the piano, so the critics of his day called him limited..."



Later: "Liszt could play Chopin better than Chopin could..."



Another day: "There's a difference between French pianists and American pianists. The French like clarity and elegance. Traditionally, their technical schooling is grounded in jeu perle - perfectly pearly evenness of articulation with a steady wrist..."



Each day they played one of Philip's recordings and discussed it. At the end of the two weeks Professor Meyers said, "I must confess that I'm impressed, Miss Cameron. You are a truly dedicated pupil. Perhaps you should take up an instrument."



Lara laughed. "Let's not get carried away." She handed him a check. "Here you are."



She could not wait for Philip to return to New York.