Episode 355. John Wustman (Honor Your Mentors I)
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I have been reminded over and over again in recent weeks of the preciousness of life as numerous dear friends and family members face loss of loved ones and their own life-altering health crises. This got me to thinking about how much my mentors have shaped my life. So with this latest episode I inaugurate a new Countermelody series entitled “Honor Your Mentors.” I have already posted numerous times on the podcast about my beloved teacher John Wustman. This coming July my friend and colleague Chanda VanderHart’s monumental book Accompaniment in America: Contextualizing Collaborative Piano, co-authored with Kathleen Kelly and Elvia Puccinelli, will be published by Routledge. Chanda has put together an astonishing digital archive featuring a wealth of material related to the book: https://accompanimentinamerica.website/index.html. Included among these is an interview I did with Chanda about my teacher and mentor John Wustman. Chanda has given me permission to include that interview on my podcast, but don’t miss all of the material that is available on the website that richly supplements the book itself.
I was enormously saddened a few days ago to read of the death of my first serious voice teacher in New York, Joan Caplan. Joan was not only a teacher and mentor, she was a close friend. In recent years she had been living at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. I was able to visit her there last summer and had intended to go see her again when I am back in New York next month. Alas, that will no longer be possible, but since I was already planning an episode featuring my dear Mr. Wustman, I decided to honor both of these life-changing mentors of mine in a single episode. Joan is heard singing Mahler, Donizetti, and Handel; and John is heard in a sampling of his studio recordings featuring, among others, Régine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Brigitte Fassbaender, Luciano Pavarotti, and Irina Arkhipova.
I was also reminded again this week of the preciousness of life as numerous dear friends and family members face life-changing health crises. Please do not forget to tell those that you love how much they mean to you. And don’t wait until their funerals to give them their flowers!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani [after Victor Hugo]: Il segreto per esser felici (Lucrezia Borgia). Joan Caplan [unknown pianist and date]
Traditional Auvergnat, arr. Joseph Canteloube: Lou coucut (Chants d’Auvergne, IV/6). Régine Crespin, John Wustman [live Strasbourg 1966]
Robert Schumann, Joseph von Eichendorff: Zwielicht (Liederkreis, Op. 39/10). Mildred Miller, John Wustman [1977]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Victor Hugo]: Ella mi fu rapita… Parmi veder le lagrime (Rigoletto). Luciano Pavarotti, John Wustman [live Carnegie Hall 01.XI.87]
Carl Loewe, Johann Gottfried von Herder: Herr Oluf, Op. 2/2. Donald Bell, John Wustman [1962]
Franz Schubert, Johann Mayrhofer: Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren, D. 360. Donald Bell, John Wustman [1962]
Gabriel Fauré, Paul Verlaine: Clair de lune, Op. 46/2. Régine Crespin, John Wustman [1966]
Francis Poulenc, Guillaume Apollinaire: Hôtel (Banalités, FP 107/2). Régine Crespin, John Wustman [1967]
Claude Debussy, Pierre Louÿs: Le tombeau des naïades (Chansons de Bilitis, L.90/3). Régine Crespin, John Wustman [1967]
Modest Mussorgsky, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov: Полководец [Field-Marshal Death] (Песни и Пляски Смерти [Songs and Dances of Death]). Irina Arkhopova, John Wustman [1970]
Gioachino Rossini, Carlo Pepoli: La danza [Tarantella] (Soirées musicales). Carlo Bergonzi, John Wustman [1977]
Stefano Donaudy, Alberto Donaudy: O del mio amato ben. Carlo Bergonzi, John Wustman [1977]
Franz Liszt, Francesco Petrarca: I’ vidi in terra (Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, S. 270/3). Luciano Pavarotti, John Wustman [live Carnegie Hall 01.XI.87]
Claus Ogerman, Rabindranath Tagore [German translation by Gabriele M. Muncker, Adam Haas]: Zeit ist endlos, Herr (Tagore-Lieder, No. 3). Brigitte Fassbaender, John Wustman [1986]
Alban Berg, Alfred Mombert: Warm die Lüfte, es spriesst Gras auf sonnigen Wiesen (Vier Lieder, Op. 2/4). Brigitte Fassbaender, John Wustman [1986]
Hugo Wolf, Eduard Mörike: Der Knabe und das Immlein (Mörike-Lieder, No. 2). Susan Dunn, John Wustman [2010]
Hugo Wolf, Eduard Mörike: Auf eine Christblume II (Mörike-Lieder, No. 21). Thomas Potter, John Wustman [2010]
Hugo Wolf, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Mignon [Kennst du das Land?]. Régine Crespin, John Wustman [live Hunter College 11.XI.67]
Johannes Brahms, Georg Friedrich Daumer: O schöne Nacht (Vier Quartette, Op. 92/1). Robert Shaw, Robert Shaw Festival Singers, John Wustman [1993]
Hugo Wolf: Verschwiegene Liebe (Eichendorff-Lieder). John Wustman [ca. 1964]
Robert Schumann, Joseph von Eichendorff: Mondnacht (Liederkreis, Op. 39/5). Régine Crespin, John Wustman [live Strasbourg 1966]
