Robert Silverman Home Page

Robert Silverman
Personal Stuff

Born
Montreal, May 25, 1938

Married
Ellen Nivert, also a pianist. No kids. (2 in the family are enough.)

Major Teachers
Dorothy Morton, Leonard Shure, Cécile Genhart, Richard Hauser

What I strive for at the piano
To bring the notes on a page to life as vividly as possible, while neither adding anything that is not there, nor subtracting anything that is there. I am well aware that such an endeavor is not the easiest path to fame and fortune. Moreover, this is certainly not the only way of playing; nor is it the only way of playing well. However, it is definitely the most difficult way to play, and for better or worse, it is the only way I feel that I'm doing an honest day's work.

"The vine grower determines a wine's quality; the wine maker's job is to bring out that quality and not alter or destroy the grower's effort. A real winemaker is subservient, not arrogant." ...Michel Chapoutier

"You see, my son, here, time becomes space." ...Wagner (Gurnemanz to Parsifal)

"Events do not take place in time, they express time." ...Leibniz

"Keep everything as simple as possible, but no simpler." ...Einstein

"No interpreter of any dramatic work, if he is genuinely intent on elucidating its inner meaning, can afford to be entirely subjective. It is clearly not enough to identify certain features of it which correspond to one's own view of things, and then to ignore or coerce any recalcitrant elements which do not fit in with that view. This is simply making the work mean what one wants it to mean. An interpreter should surely begin by paying full respect to the objective side of interpretation: he should adopt a realistic humility towards the artist's own avowed intentions in creating the work, and towards the manifest intentions of the work itself, before putting his own construction on these." ...Deryck Cooke

Favorite Beethoven Interpreters
Richard Goode, Artur Schnabel, and above all, Solomon--at his finest--for his refusal to over-elaborate, over-complicate, or draw unnecessary attention to himself, while at the same time expressing the composer's astonishing range and richness of expression as purely as has ever been achieved.

Interests / Obsessions (past and present)
The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, fine wines, not so fine wines, computers, high-end stereo, Inspector Morse, Law & Order, Donna Leon, Elmore Leonard, Cornell Woolrich and Raymond Chandler novels, Hitchcock films (Vertigo and Rear Window being his favorite), Roy Orbison, Bernard Herrmann film scores. Turner Classsic Movies (a true addiction) Plus....

pamplona.jpg (22089 bytes)

Pet Peeves
Cellophane candy-wrappers; parents who bring infants to concerts; self-conscious, PC-motivated euphemisms, raisin-bran and banana-walnut bagels.

A TRUE Factoid!
Robert Silverman is the only Canadian pianist who has signed a contract with the Montreal Canadiens. (Given their record in recent seasons, they could still use him.)

A TRUE Confession:
With so much controversy surrounding the use of drugs in athletics, I feel compelled to unburden my conscience. The following apologia concerns my recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas.

During the period in which the recordings were made, I was under legal medication. Although the substance-a very common drug which I shall call Vitamin P-was prescribed for other symptoms, I quickly noticed that its use significantly enhanced my artistic abilities, both creatively and technically. I now realize that I should have temporarily stopped the medication during the sessions, or failing my doctor's approval of such a step, at least postponed the recording sessions until a Canada Council-sponsored urine test pronounced me free of the drug's effects.

Alas, I did no such thing. I succumbed to the temptation of allowing these performances to make their way onto the discs, and have been unable to sleep well since. However, I wish to assure all potential listeners that no animals whatsoever were injured or abused during any phase of the production of these recordings. On that issue at least, my conscience is clear.

Moments I'll never forget
In 1962, I performed the Khatchaturian Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra under (or rather, in spite of) the baton of Arthur Fiedler when I was in my early 20s. At the first rehearsal, Fiedler asked me "I presume you know my recording with Willy Kapell." This put me on the spot because I knew Kapell's definitive recording very well, and I also knew that Fiedler didn't conduct it. Koussevitzky did. So, rather than get into a fight with him, I just said that I'd tried to find it in Vienna, where I was studying at the time, and couldn't.

Moments I'd rather forget
1. One of the ways I supported myself when I was a student was to accompany ballet classes. Some of the instructors were very responsive to the music, but as far as others were concerned, any piece worthy of being choreographed had to consist solely of four- or eight-bar phrases. I quickly learned that if I played an extended phrase containing, say, nine or ten measures -- a relatively routine occurrence in music -- I would be cut off in mid-stream by "Six.......seven...... and eight. THANK YOU!" Conversely, whenever I played something that ended sooner than she'd expected, I'd sit there quietly while the teacher would count through the silence toward that Apollonian goal of reaching a number that was some power of two.

After a few such events I began to use my ingenuity to improve upon the music of Schubert, Brahms and Mozart, by altering it so that each phrase was exactly four or eight measures long. It was during such an inspired revision of some masterpiece or other that the director of the school entered the classroom, accompanied by a distinguished-looking gentleman who, whenever the music failed to proceed in a fashion originally set out by the composer, would glance briefly in my direction, then continue talking quietly with the director.

At the end of the class, she brought me over to him and said "Mr. Silverman, I would like to introduce you to Maestro Robert Casadesus."

2. I am not the Robert Silverman whose name appears frequently in connection with Glenn Gould's. Over the years, my friend Bob Silverman (the editor-founder of Piano Quarterly) and I were mistaken for each other on numerous occasions.* He also was one of Gould's closest friends, whereas I never met the man. The closest my path came to crossing his was in 1967. To commemorate Canada's centennial, he recorded an album entitled Canadian Piano Music of the Twentieth Century. Included were the Jacques Hétu Variations, a work which is in the repertoire of several Canadian pianists, including mine. Gould's performance was frankly not at all respectful of the composer's wishes, and Hétu himself confided to me at the time that, despite the honour he felt at having an artist of Gould's calibre record the piece, he was a little upset by the freedom (some might say license) that characterized the interpretation.

A few months later the Stereo Review critic perceptively wrote that, although he did not know any of the works on the album, he suspected that the performances were a product of Gould's imagination as much as the composer's. "Right on!" I exclaimed. I immediately wrote the reviewer, enthusiastically agreeing with his assessment. I think I even called Gould's reading of the Variations a travesty. That wasn't all. I fearlessly continued: "And I should know. I have performed the piece often since it was written three years ago, and am about to give the world premiere of Hétu's Piano Concerto." Naturally, they printed the damned letter. As a result, I am probably the only Canadian musician who spent the next fifteen years hoping he would never have to meet Glenn Gould.

*For the record, I am also not the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Queen's University, nor am I the pro-Palestinian activist Robert Silverman (aka Bicycle Bob), also from Montreal, who once got arrested for painting his own bicycle path on a Montreal street (our fathers actually knew each other, but we have not met). I am not related to the late Monsignor Robert Silverman of San Antonio, Texas (if you don't believe there was one, Google his name). I once received a cheque from CBC television that was meant for a Toronto actor sharing our distinguished name. Finally, I am not related to Jonathan or Sarah, and above all, I do not need saving.

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