Possibilities In Blend Of Disparate Music

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31595, 5 February 1968, Page 14

Possibilities In Blend Of Disparate Music

Three widely disparate kinds of music—jazz, electronic music and the 12-tone system —could produce something great if the right person came along to combine their best elements, said Mr Philip Lorenz in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Lorenz and his wife Ena Bronstein will appear as duo pianists with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra in The Proms in Christchurch this week.

“I am looking for a strong personality to come along and combine those elements,” he said. “It will be a serious person, using jazz things—it won’t be born in a night club.

All the elements are there; I am just waiting for someone to combine them.” Mr Lorenz is not a composer himself, but he does play music / by contemporary composers and sometimes he combines with electronic music. “I don’t know if I like contemporary music,” he said, “but it has to be done. I am always looking for good pieces, but I have not found many. There have not been many duo pieces for piano, and the future of duo piano lies in contemporary music.

“We sometimes combine with taped electronic music, but only for very small select audiences. Electronic music has a future, definitely." Started At 15 Mr Lorenz did not begin to learn the piano until he was 15, which he considers very late in life. But little over a year later he had won several contests in Washington, D.C., and made bis debut with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra. He and his wife are considered to be Claudio Arrau’s star pupils. At present Mr Lorenz is helping Mr Arrau to edit the Beethoven sonatas presenting interpretive clues for students.