Pianist

We all fall for something, at some point. A quick cure for the common cold. An impossibly cheap piece of electronic equipment that will somehow perform better than the high-priced name brand. Quite a few critics fell for the discography of the late British pianist Joyce Hatto. They have probably been trying to wipe the egg from their faces since the news broke a couple of weeks ago that the recordings are a giant fraud. (I had been feeling guilty that I never bought her CDs. Now, of course, I'm feeling terribly smug.

Baltimoreans have long acknowledged the city's good fortune in having pianist Leon Fleisher in residence at the Peabody Conservatory. Though not a native, he has made the city his home for 48 years and has enhanced Baltimore's cultural scene and reputation through teaching, conducting and, most notably, performing over these many years, even as he struggled to overcome a debilitating affliction of his right hand. But his talent has reached far beyond the borders of his adopted city - and his receipt of a Kennedy Center Honors award last weekend confirmed that.

A couple of years ago, pianist Simone Dinnerstein barely registered on the name-recognition scale. She had no management, no publicist, no high-profile concert engagements. But when the New York native took a bold, do-it-yourself approach to career-building, things started to change. In 2005, she raised $15,000 from friends to make a professional recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, and $6,000 more to rent out Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall to perform the demanding piece live in a concert that drew raves.

RIDGEFIELD, Conn. -- Helene Grimaud is headed outside to feed her pets.But the phone rings."Thank you," she says after listening to the caller for a moment. "But I'm just too busy.""That was Vogue, she says. "Someone named Annie Leibovitz wanted to come up to photograph me with the guys."Again she starts to take lunch out to the "guys"; again the phone rings.It's the producer of National Public Radio's "Performance Today." Grimaud politely explains that she's too busy to make an appearance on the program."

Gwendolyn Lightner, 73, who as a pianist and musical director for church choirs in Los Angeles was a dynamic and pioneering figure in the evolution of gospel music on the West Coast, died in southern California on Aug. 22 after a two-year battle with cancer.Born in Brookport, Ill., Ms. Lightner began playing piano when she was 8. After finishing her classical training, she became interested in gospel music through contacts with gospel giants such as Kenneth Morris, Roberta Martin and Emma Jackson.

When some men have a midlife crisis, they buy a red Corvette or run off with a woman half their age.Krystian Zimerman, 43, is going through his somewhat differently.The celebrated Polish pianist devoted more than a month last year to auditioning 450 musicians to form his own, all-Polish orchestra. He spent last summer in daily rehearsals -- one lasting 21 hours -- of Chopin's two piano concertos. In August he spent more than a week recording the two concertos for Deutsche Grammophon. And he's devoted the entire fall season to touring with his hand-picked orchestra -- which he calls the Polish Festival Orchestra -- repeating the same program, the two Chopin concertos, night after night in the 40 most important cities of North America and Europe.

Michel Petrucciani, 36, a French jazz pianist, died yesterday in a New York hospital. Mr. Petrucciani, who suffered from osteogenesis, a disease that restricted his height to just 3 feet, died at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.R. Brendan Hanlon, 62, an actor and accountant who appeared in several films and wrote a tax guide for those in show business, died Saturday of cardiac arrest in Marshfield, Mass. He had small roles in the films "Dirty Laundry," "Good Will Hunting," "A Civil Action," "Meet Joe Black" and "The Spanish Prisoner."

It's part of a music critic's job to alert audiences to the appearance of new talents.This isn't important when an extraordinary new talent is swept along by word-of-mouth, debut recordings on important labels or -- and sometimes it's justified -- by manufactured public relations. All of these circumstances surrounded the first appearances of such artists as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Evgeny Kissin and violinist Hilary Hahn. While they were still in their teens, we knew how good they were supposed to be.Sadly, such stories are rarely the case.

I've got good news, bad news, good news and, then, even more good news.The first news is that the complete recorded legacy of Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982), perhaps this century's most beloved pianist, will be reissued in October in its entirety as the "Rubinstein Collection." It's an unprecedented 94-CD compilation of all 706 recordings of 347 compositions made by the pianist between 1928 and 1976.The bad news is that this deluxe edition from BMG Classics, which contains many performances aficionados may already possess in various LP and CD incarnations, comes with a price tag of about $1,500.

Peter Roesel is the best pianist nobody's ever heard of -- including people who ought to know.Last year, conductor Gunther Herbig asked for Roesel as his soloist in Prokofiev's Second Concerto in this week's season-opening Baltimore Symphony concerts. The orchestra's knowledgeable artistic administrator, Miryam Yardumian, had never even heard of him."I drew a blank," Yardumian says. "But Herbig told me that Roesel was wonderful and that he played the Second Prokofiev better than anyone else alive.

ALICIA DE LARROCHA, 86 Spanish pianist Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha, who thrilled music listeners for decades with polished and enthralling interpretations of great classical works and Spanish masters, has died aged 86. Measuring just under 5 foot (1.52 meters), and with unusually small hands for a piano virtuoso, de Larrocha won listeners over with the richness and robustness of her sound. Critically acclaimed for her technique in performing Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Rachmaninov, de Larrocha was also seen as unrivaled in her interpretation of Spanish composers such as Manuel de Falla as well as masters from her native Catalonia like Enrique Granados and Isaac Albeniz.

Certain artists, like certain politicians, generate such intense for-them or against-them camps that there's little room for any reaction in between. Lang Lang is such an artist. The Chinese-born piano virtuoso, who will be the featured soloist in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's 2009-2010 season-launching gala concert on Saturday, has a decidedly personal approach to music-making. With Lang Lang, you get an experience, not a mere performance. He doesn't sit still or maintain a poker face when he plays, and he doesn't hesitate to push or pull a phrase, to rush or slow a tempo in an unusual manner.

For his appearance this week with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Christopher O'Riley will perform works by 20th-century French composer Maurice Ravel and Radiohead, the British alternative rock band - a perfectly normal juxtaposition for this pianist. "There never was a plan," O'Riley says of his emergence from traditional classical artist to multimedia celebrity to crossover success story, acclaimed for brilliant arrangements of rock songs. "It was just a matter of willingness, and doing what I like doing, and playing what I like playing."

He writes verse, and one of his poems won an international poetry competition. He paints, and one of his works was displayed on the Web site of a major British newspaper. He blogs for another major British newspaper. He composes music that gets performed in high-profile places. He's the author of a book on prayer. Oh yes, and Stephen Hough also plays the piano. Brilliantly, incisively, compellingly. The British keyboard artist and 21st-century Renaissance man, a recipient of a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship (the so-called "genius grant")

A few years ago, when the University of Baltimore unveiled its intimate Performing Arts Theater at the Student Center, a handsome new Steinway concert grand, selected by eminent pianist Yefim Bronfman, was part of the package. That piano will soon get a significant workout. A "Great Pianists Series" will be inaugurated during the 2008-2009 season, starting on Oct. 11 with jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, father of Wynton and Branford, among others. The senior Marsalis is a considerable force in his own right - as a performer, composer and teacher.

Julian Pushkin, owner of a Baltimore actuarial firm and a passionate pianist who nearly lost his hands to a shotgun blast, died of cancer June 12 at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 82. Mr. Pushkin was born in Baltimore and came from a family of musicians. His Russian grandfather played in the czar's royal orchestra, and his father played drums for the Baltimore Municipal Band and timpani in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As a child, Mr. Pushkin also wanted to take up the drums, but his father encouraged him to study piano.

Takoma Park native Eric Hutchinson -- pianist, singer and songwriter -- has opened for several artists, such as Rachel Yamagata, Blind Melon, Jason Mraz and OneRepublic. Singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist Marie Digby gained YouTube fame for her acoustic cover version of Rihanna's "Umbrella." The breakout artist released her debut album, Unfold, this year. Recher Theatre, 512 York Road, Towson, hosts both multitalented performers Sunday. Doors open at 7 p.m. $12. Call 410-547-7328 or go to ticketmaster.

With a lineage going back more than 550 years to the reign of Henry VI, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, enjoys a sterling reputation for tonal beauty and technical polish. The current roster of boys and young men, led with impeccable taste by Stephen Cleobury, lived up to that reputation before a capacity crowd of 1,600 Sunday evening at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. People started arriving more than two hours early for the event, quite a testament to the choir's appeal. Presented, in a rare off-campus venture, by the Shriver Hall Concert Series, the ensemble explored repertoire that touched on various time periods and styles of sacred music.

At 77, the eloquent Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel, who made his debut six decades ago, brings his concert career to a close this year. His farewell performance will be in Vienna in December. Meanwhile, he has been saying his goodbyes elsewhere, and, on Monday night, he played his final U.S. recital, an event that drew a packed and affectionate audience to the Music Center at Strathmore. Presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society -- his 14th appearance for that organization since 1973 -- Brendel offered a sampling from his canon: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert.

Almost every year, the Shriver Hall Concert Series presents an exceptional roster of artists, but the 2008-2009 roster looks even starrier than usual. The 80th birthday (it's in July) of nearly legendary pianist Leon Fleisher will be celebrated in several places and several ways next season. One of the most festive may well be at Shriver Hall on Oct. 5, when he'll collaborate in four-hand music with three former students - his gifted wife, Katherine Jacobson, playing Ravel; the formidable Yefim Bronfman, playing Dvorak; and one of best younger-generation pianists, Jonathan Biss, playing Schubert.