from babyhood to Bach — 'a sense of showmanship'

By Sandra Schlanger

February 26, 1979

It will be a recital of 19th-century music this evening at 8 as accomplished pianist and UH associate professor of music Paul Lyddon takes to the stage in Orvis Auditorium for a program of Grieg, Beethoven and Liszt.

What this evening has in store is the promising combination of that special Romantic ethos, fine musicianship and Lyddon's not insignificant personal charm.

Lyddon regards himself as being a product of the Eastman School of Music, as he was a student there, quite literally, from babyhood to baccalaureate. In 1934, at the age of three, his mother enrolled him in Eastman's then innovative classes for preschoolers, and, as he recalls it, the first musical instrument put into his hands must have been a drum.

"The idea was that very young children were best introduced to music first through rhythm, and we little tykes were given all sorts of percussion instruments — gongs, drums, triangles — to play, and we listened and marched around a lot to music," he said.

At the age of seven, Lyddon formally began his studies on the piano with his first, and most influential, teacher, Eastman's Marjorie Truelove MacKown. "She was very short, rather fat, and very, very British," Lyddon recalled, "and she treated me very gently and with great love."

Arthur Rubinstein was Lyddon's first musical hero, whom he describes as a "performer's performer." His parents took him to many of Rubinstein's concerts at the Eastman School.

"Rubinstein," he said, "was the most devastating performer in terms of the visual. He was a musician who was truly turned on by the audience and put on SHOW. He was electrical."

The influence that Rubinstein had can be noted when Lyddon talks about his own professional credo. "A pianist must have an emotional rather than controlled, outlook on life," he said, "and be extroverted enough to project a sense of personality and emotion across the footlights. But a sense of showmanship is the crucial part of the whole business."

In 1948, at the age of seventeen, Lyddon had his first public opportunity to try it all out when he appeared with the Rochester Pops Orchestra, playing Gershwin's "Concerto in F." Since that time he has appeared before the public in many cities across the nation and in all the usual vehicles open to pianists — recitals, concertos, accom- paniment. Being soloist with the Denver Symphony on tour was a highlight, he said, as was accompanying violinist Pinchas Zuckerman in Carnegie Hall.

Perhaps most colorful, though, among his musical memoirs are the years 1956-59, when, as a member of the U.S. Army Band and accompanist to the U.S. Army Chorus, Lyddon was called upon on many occasions to entertain at the White House during the Eisenhower administration. Lyddon remembers the former president and first lady as being "extremely kind and hospitable, especially Mrs. Eisenhower, who was very sweet."

More than once, Lyddon happily obliged Mamie's requests for favorites such as "Claire de Lune" and the "Moonlight Sonata."

Lyddon said he likes to play everything from Bach to mid-20th-century music, although probably, he admits, he is most fond of the 19th-century literature.

Very contemporary music does not engage him. "It is mainly because the lyric element is missing or too hard to find," he says. "For the most part, it is too mathematical, too calculated. If music doesn't reach the emotions of its listeners, then it doesn't do what it is supposed to."

Tonight, Lyddon will play Grieg's "Holberg Suite," Beethoven's "Sonata in D Major," Op. 28 (Pastoral), and Liszt's "Sonata in B Minor." Tickets are available at the door. Admission is $2 general, $1 for students.