When Beethoven wrote “the Moonlight Sonata,” he knew he had composed something revolutionary. But he wasn’t the one that named the piece (his publisher did), and he always hated the “Moonlight” label.
That’s the kind of inside information pianist Jeffrey Siegel presents at every Keyboard Conversation, his name for the “concerts with commentary” Siegel has been giving for 30 years. Lenore Naxon, director of the Friend Center at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, caught one of his shows years ago in her native Chicago and decided to book Siegel.
Siegel performs one of his Keyboard Conversations at the JCCSF on Thursday, Oct. 27. This one will be wall-to-wall Beethoven.
On the program besides “the Moonlight Sonata” are the famous miniature “Für Elise” and the ethereal second-to-last piano sonata, Opus 110, written when Beethoven was stone deaf. Before playing each in its entirety, Siegel will fill the audience in on history, meaning and musical innovations.
And he allows time afterwards for questions and answers.
“I speak to the audience about the music so that they will feel they’re on the inside track,” says the New York pianist. “The whole idea is to make it user friendly. The listening experience should be more meaningful than an ear-wash of sound.”
Trained at Julliard, Siegel has played with the world’s great orchestras, from Berlin to London to Moscow. He has teamed up with such classical music luminaries as Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, James Levine and Eugene Ormandy.
But he loves performing his intimate Keyboard Conversations best of all. These days, they take up the bulk of his busy year-round concert schedule (“My wife says I really live in Hangar 5 at La Guardia,” notes the pianist).
Siegel theorizes that his drive to educate audiences came from watching Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts while growing up in a culturally rich Jewish household in Chicago.
“Bernstein was the guiding light for what I do,” says Siegel. “The last conversation I had with Lenny was about the Keyboard Conversations. He knew I modeled my approach after his, and he said to me, ‘This is the most important work you do.'”
Siegel’s father played string bass in the Chicago Symphony, so it came as no surprise that he took to classical music early on. He studied with the legendary Rosina Lhevinne at Julliard and later with Ilona Kabos in London.
But with his first Keyboard Conversation 30 years ago, he realized he had something different to offer audiences. These days he draws an equal number of knowledgeable classical music buffs and total novices. “I try to structure the programs in such a way that I don’t bore the experts or lose the amateurs,” he says.
Though the Viennese masters are his bread and butter, Siegel loves American music, in particular the works of George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Bernstein and, all of whom happen to be Jewish.
“This is a musical heritage I am tremendously proud of,” he says. “When asked if they were Jewish composers, Bernstein and Copland both said, no, we are American composers and very proud Jews.”
With public music education on the decline and pop culture in ascendance, Siegel sees his Keyboard Conversations as serving a higher purpose.
“We are living in the most impersonal age ever,” he says. “Thus what great music has to offer is more necessary now than ever. The Keyboard Conversation is drop in the bucket, but it’s also an antidote.”
Jeffrey Siegel performs “The Power and Passion of Beethoven” 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27 at Kanbar Hall in the Jewish Community Center, 3200 California, S.F. Tickets: $15-$23. Information: (415) 292-1233.