Celebrities revisited, a few memories from Walter Pierce

Our esteemd former Executive Director, Walter Pierce, offered the following comments after reading my post, In Memorium 2005, which lists artists once presented by the Celebrity Series that passed away during 2005. I think Walter's comments deserve their own post outside the comments section:

"When I see the number of celebrated and near-celebrity artists who have passed away, it makes me ponder my age, but fills me with delightful memories of all those wonderful performances I was privileged to attend over the years. What's curious is the random thoughts associated with some of those experiences. Remember, that as the presenter, one is always wary of what can go wrong, whether it be weather, illness, flood -- or interplanetary implosion -- which was listed in a dance company's contract as a reason for cancelling a concert, one season."

"By the time, I was the presenter of Victoria de los Angeles, the voice, though still beautiful was hardly the silvery sound long associated with the soprano, but she captivated the audience nevertheless, and when she returned for encores with her guitar, the audience was spellbound."

"Lazar Berman was an interesting phenomenon, who blazed across the heavens drawing full houses whereever he played, but soon the critics became disenchanted with his playing and within two or three seasons, he no longer commanded the large audiences he played to in his initial debut."

"Dame Moura Lympany was a delighted lady who appeared in the Series much too late in her career -- she was over seventy, I believe, when she made her debut."

"I recall the night the Amadeus Quartet reconstituted itself as a trio when one of its members couldn't play."

"Isidore Cohen was such a stalwart member of both the Juilliard String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio. I wonder if any one in the recent history of chamber music performed for two such celebrated chamber music groups -- a trio and a string quartet. He was a great teacher and spent considerable time imparting his wisdom at Marlboro each summer."

"Was there any conductor as elegant on the podium as Giulini? He looked straight out of central casting for the role -- interesting considering he was the Los Angeles Philharmonic's principal conductor for several years."

"When I was in high school and beyond, I was a great fan of be-bop and thought the combination of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker was the living end. When I became a presenter, I wanted to present Dizzy Gillespie some day in Symphony Hall. I thought it was a brilliant idea to combine the Modern Jazz Quartet with Dizzy and his group. After all, I surmised, Dizzy played with Percy Heath and others in some of the bands before he went on his own. But lo and behold, Dizzy wanted to play with his group first, the MJQ to follow. I thought that they at least would jam at the end, but Dizzy had other plans. At intermission, he told me he was catching the late plane back to NYC where he had an evening gig. So, that's my sad Dizzy G story - thank you very much for the gig, and goodbye."

Thanks, Walter!