Bob Sherman: Hello everybody. I'm Bob Sherman. We've heard Alexandre Moutouzkine on a number of past programs with recordings made at Astral Artists concerts. Now he's ready to play for us in the studio on this edition of The Young Artist Showcase. 

Yes, we are moving on a pace in this 39th consecutive year of talents scouting adventures on WQXR, presented with the generous underwriting of the Harold W McGraw Jr. Family Foundation. One of the puzzlements I hope to resolve very soon is why Sasha, born and trained in Russia, now living here in New York and teaching at the Manhattan School of Music, got so excited about Cuban music that he produced an entire CD of music by such unknown, at least to me, composers as Tomás Vuelta y Flores and César Pérez Sentenat. Maybe pronounced approximately that way. In fact, Alexandre Moutouzkine will play let's see, it is, I'm not gonna try the Spanish pronunciation at all. Spare everybody, but it kind of comes out as a girl with a violin by Ernán López Nussa. 

MUSIC - Ernán López Nussa: Niña con violin 

Bob Sherman: And we certainly had a bright hello from Alexandre Moutouzkine. This was Ernán López Nussa's Niña con violon, violin? How do you say violin in Spanish?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Uh, it's violin, it's actually the same word.  

Bob Sherman: Oh.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: López Nussa, a very young, very talented guy. He was born, I believe, only 1979. So, I met him in Havana two years ago,  

Bob Sherman: Uhhuh. So, the Havana connection and the Cuban recording begins now to take some kind of shape here. But first of all, [Russian greeting]. You're from, uh, pretty far away from, uh, Havana, yes? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Uh, well at this point, yes. But, uh, the entire journey actually started for me when, almost at the same time as I arrived to New York. I came here in 2001.  

Bob Sherman: from, from directly from Russia? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Well, actually before that I studied in Germany, so it has been a long way for me. 

Bob Sherman: Oh, I see.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Right. But I arrived here a week before 9-11.  

Bob Sherman: Oh boy.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: And, uh, yeah, it was, it was quite a memorable moment and within a year my teacher, who is actually Cuban Solomon Mikowsky, he sent me to a competition in uh, Havana. And this is how my sort of encounter with Cuba and its music has started.  

Bob Sherman: Wow. How did you do in the competition? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Um, I did pretty well. Yeah, I won, I won a second prize. You know, the, the half of the jury were Cubans, half of the jury were international. And so right from the first round there was a basically big fight. So Cuban jury was voting for the Cuban pianists to be in the finals, and the international jury was actually, 

Bob Sherman: I see. You should have been used to that from Russia. From all I understand, that was the, the Soviet methodology, wasn't it?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Well, I mean, you know, they were great friends during the, you know, Cold War, the whole history.  

Bob Sherman: We know that, at least we've been told that in Russia, not only there was tremendous talent, but there was a tremendous audience for it. Is there an audience for classical music in Cuba?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Incredible. This is one of those places when I go there, I literally start feeling the way probably rock stars feel or something. People line up on the streets. You know, way before the concert, the concerts are packed. You cannot walk in. People opening doors and listening, standing outside. This is an incredible feeling for any musicians, for any artist.  

Bob Sherman: Marvelous. All right, well, what would you like to play for us next?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: The next piece I'd like to play for you will be actually the piece that has started this whole Cuban journey for me. It was a piece written specially for that very competition, in 2002 by, um, Cuban composer Juan Piñera, it's called Concert Etude in F Major, and every contestant had to learn the etude, and this is when I fell in love with imagination, with talent, with colors of Cuban music.  

Bob Sherman: Wow. All right. We are going to hear this piano concert etude here in our studio, and of course, our performer, Alexandre Moutouzkine. 

MUSIC - Juan Piñera: Estudio de concierto en Fa Mayor 

Bob Sherman: And I guess the mark of a really successful piece that has been commissioned for a competition is for a pianist to like it enough to continue playing it. So,  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Oh, by all means, yeah. You have to fall in love with it, even if you don't feel like it otherwise. If you don't enjoy it, no one probably will.  

Bob Sherman: Now again, I feel so stupid here, not knowing most of these composers, never having heard their names. Uh, in this case, Juan Piñera, I think you said 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Juan Piñera. Yeah. He's in incredible man. He's still alive. In fact, most of the composers who are on the CD they are still alive and, and composing. But with Piñera the story was that every contestant had to perform this piece, and then jury was supposed to choose the best performance. 

And so, it happened the same way that the Cuban jury felt that it, it was supposed to be a Cuban pianist. And then the entire international jury was voting for me, and it was a tie. Eight people against eight people. Oh. And the chairman of the jury invited Cuban composer in hopes that as a Cuban, he would choose the Cuban pianist. 

And then when Piñera came, he said that he felt that when he listened to my performance, that he actually discovered things he didn't know he write in the music. And so, he chose and the prize went to me.  

Bob Sherman: Wow. Wow.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: So, it was a very special piece. And since then, he's been a great friend, a wonderful supporter,  

Bob Sherman: Uhhuh. Well, again, it is, it's sort of like opening a box of treasures and we didn't know any of them that were there in the first place. Is this music better known in other countries? Is it known elsewhere in Latin America? Is it known in Europe?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Um, it's very hard for me to talk about Europe. I can tell you that this music is really well known in Cuba and the countries that are closely keeping in touch with Cuba. But yeah, because of the economic situation and the embargo, yeah. It, it rarely has traveled across the border here.  

Bob Sherman: Uh, okay. What would you like to do for us, next?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Um, I'd like to play for you at piece that actually turns rather, uh, shows a major change in style in which Cuban composers were writing. So, you mentioned Ernesto Lecuona. 

Bob Sherman: Yeah. Well, this is the guy I know one of the most, but that was earlier generation.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Was very early 20th century. He still was alive. He was performing at Carnegie and all over the world. And then, but still the style was really style of Cuban music and Cuban culture in, in, in, uh, composition was dictated majorly by Spain, and you know, tradition of Spanish dances and small pieces. And then there were two great friends, two composers who studied in Spain and then came back to Cuba, who literally changed the world. Alejandro Caturla and uh, Roldan. And I'll play for you a piece. It's called Comparsa by Alejandro García Caturla. 

MUSIC - Alejandro García Caturla: Comparsa 

Bob Sherman: Short and exciting. The, um, composer Alejandro García Caturla, and uh, what was the title?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Uh, the Comparsa. It's actually a very famous dance that was usually danced, uh, in carnivals.  

Bob Sherman: Now you say that he and, and, uh, others changed the whole landscape of composing in, uh, Cuba. I'm wondering if it if it's similar to what happened in Israel when the, the, uh, German and other composers came in the mid-1930s and they combined what they grew up with, Austrian, German, the central European traditions, with what they found in Israel, the dances and the shaping of, of the, of the Yemenite and, and other  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Exactly. The rhythms and the, and all, and all the folklore.  

Bob Sherman: So, is that the kind of thing that you think happened here? That they're now starting to use Cuban dances in classical form? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Exactly. This is what happened. Uh, you know, they went and studied in Spain and so this is how they really got to know a lot of modern movement people like Stravinsky. I mean, they already were around for a while, but this is where they learned about Stravinsky. This is where they learned about 12 tone music and all these harmonists, this progressive thinking at the time in Europe. 

And so, when they came back to Cuba, they took a lot of native rhythms, a lot of Cuban rhythms. And they would set up the most, uh, at the time they were considered as most raging harmonies, The raging sonorities, bringing combination of that written in those sonorities together.  

Bob Sherman: All right. Alexandre Moutouzkine, uh, still in Cuba I take it and. You don't have to. I mean, if, if you feel like playing Rachmaninoff, if it's okay, too.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Oh, thank you.  

Bob Sherman: I don't know why but...  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: I'd like to play some more from this city. Uh, the next composer is actually the one who, despite all the economic difficulties, he made wonderful name for himself here in the United States. His name is Leo Brouwer. Yeah, he's still alive. He's a legendary composer. Um, every year he has, there is a festival in Havana that's entirely dedicated to his compositions.  

Bob Sherman: Really?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Right. And I believe two years ago, even Itzhak Perlman went there to perform his violin concerto. So, he's well known. His played all over the world. And I'll play for you, one of the most beautiful pieces, Pieces I love, uh, probably the most, uh, that he wrote in recent years. It's one of the Bocetos.  

Bob Sherman: What does that mean?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Uh, boceto means just little sketches. Boceto is a sketch in Spanish, so it's number four, and it's dedicated to a painter, Cuban painter Acosta Leon, who was a very young man who died in his early thirties, and he led incredibly tragic life. He was in pain most of his life, and somehow, he always dreamt actually of becoming a bus driver. But, but he couldn't, he couldn't become bus driver partly because he was constantly in pain. Partly because it was a road that he would have to take, and it was a difficult road. 

But somehow all his paintings they're full of, there is this always this painful element. And at the same time, uh, you can see at least some sort of little mechanics from buses or something that always reminds you of buses. So, it's a, it's a Boceto by Leo Brouwer Acosta Leon. 

MUSIC - Leo Brouwer: Boceto No. 4, "Acosta Leon" 

Bob Sherman: As promised. Very beautiful, very touching piece, especially given the context. A piece by Leo Brouwer, a sketch of Acosta Leon, the painter. And, uh, another very, very dramatic and wonderful performance here in the studio by Alexandre Moutouzkine. Thank you very much. Well, thank you. And we're, uh, only -about halfway through, I think. 

So let's take a, Let's take a brief exhibition while you think of what else you're going to treat us with from the Cuban repertoire. I'm Bob Sherman, and you're listening to. The Young Artist Showcase.  

Bob Sherman: We are having a very exciting session here with Alexandre Moutouzkine, who was not only played frequently in Cuba, but has performed, and now on recordings, uh, a full CD of music that we really do not know in this country. A few exceptions, at least we know the name of Leo Brouwer, but most of the composers we don't know and hardly any of the music do we know. So it is, well it's a very exciting sense of discovery for me. Uh, now you started to say it, I shushed you up because I wanted you to say it on the air, that there's a tradition in Cuba that you wanted to tell us about. 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Right. There's incredible tradition of sort of whatever parents know passing onto their, their children. Uh, tradition that has been always kept in many communities, but somehow, it's um, in musical world, it has been successful in Cuba. So, there are several examples of families who are the father and let's say then there is a son and there is a grandson. They're all musicians and they're all prominent and famous musicians.  

Bob Sherman: Well, that's true in your family, right? Your own family does it pretty well in Russia, right? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: I mean, yeah, but I mean, I'm talking on the level.  

Bob Sherman: No, I understand.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Just like, just like you described, your mother was a great pianist, which nobody really knows because you made the name for yourself as a, you know, wonderful music… 

Bob Sherman: Whatever  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: No. The person who really knows the music, who can talk about it, who sort of shed light on so many things and, uh, it's, it's, it's quite unique. So, it's very similarly in Cuba, there are several families who are both, let's say father, son, and a grandson. Really outstanding musicians that made a big difference in, you know, in the way musical community has shaped. 

Bob Sherman: Did it shape your decisions about selection of pieces? I mean, are there  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: actually, funny enough, you mentioned No, it didn't. Cause what I would like to do today, I would like to play two pieces. One by a father. And one by his son. Oh. However, the fathers recording somehow didn't make it onto this CD, so it's only the son's recording that is included. 

Bob Sherman: I see. Well, which you wanna do first. 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: I, if possible, I'd like to play them back-to-back because uh Okay. I believe they are very interesting in a sense where both father and son explore percussive possibilities of piano. So, the father is Guido Gavilán and his son is Aldo López Gavilán. And so, Aldo López is actually a very young man who is a very famous jazz musician in Cuba. 

Literally someone that, even though if you meet the jazz musician in New York, there is a good chance that they know who this person is. And, uh, Guido Gavilán, his father, he's the one who wrote a very interesting piece, and I'll start with that. It's called Toque. So, Toque is a piece that is dedicated to rhythms. Toque is the specific name of specific rhythms that is used in a Brazilian martial art form. Where people who fight, they have a certain music to move to, to learn their moves next to really, and in that fight, you don't necessarily have to fight people as long as you perform your moves brilliantly, you can do it next to your opponent without touching him. And whoever does their thing better is pronounced the winner. And so 

Bob Sherman: now what a wonderful way to have a conflict. Right?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Exactly. And get all your energy out. Right. And so, the specific rhythms, for those fight moves are called toque. So, it's actually really a Brazilian rhythms that Guido Gavilán used and then Aldo López Gavilán wrote a piece. It's called Pan con Timba. 

It's a little bit harder to translate. It's basically bread and entertainment. It's, it's comes from an old Latin phrase by Cesar and, um, I know very well how to say it in Russian. I've never actually tried to translate it into English.  

Bob Sherman: Say it in Russian.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Yes. Uh, [Russian phrase]. So at some point he said,  

Bob Sherman: Sounds like bread and relish. 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Right, right, right. So it's bread and entertainment of some sort.  

Bob Sherman: Yeah.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: And it also explores, uh, percussive rhythms, but this time these are percussive rhythms, uh, of Cuban jazz. You know, and, and, an art from, that's actually quite different from any other country. They, they really have developed their own understanding and a feel to it. And so, here's, here's an example of the father and son, you know, writing incredible music.  

Bob Sherman: Wow. All right. Once again, first hearings for us here in The Young Artist Showcase played by Alexandre Moutouzkine. 

MUSIC - Guido López Gavilán: Toque 

MUSIC - ldo López Gavilán: Pan con Timba 

Bob Sherman: Wow. We need a crowd here to stand and cheer and applaud. And uh, one of the things, um, Alexandre Moutouzkine that you said, uh, earlier on was that each one of these pieces that you've been playing for us has a different quality. That nothing sounds like the one we just heard. And that, uh, certainly applies to the father and son sketches you just, uh, played for us. Guido Gavilán. Both of these are, are rhythmic, uh, expressions and explorations. And then Aldo López Gavilán the, uh, bread and entertainment.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Entertainment, right 

Bob Sherman: as you mentioned just now. Yeah. So very exciting pieces and, and as just thrilling performances here. So, uh, I am really delighted at this whole, uh, the way this whole program is taking shape because I must say I hadn't had the, uh, recording before we came here. 

I just knew your wonderful work. As I mentioned, uh, when you came in the room, I heard you play Rachmaninoff and Liszt, was it at the, with the Greenwich Symphony? So, I, I knew you're terrific, but I didn't have any concept of what this music was, except maybe just because I didn't know it. I was very curious about it. 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Well, that's fine. There is truly a lot of incredible talent in Cuba and even cd. It's only a little, little glimpse into that world that there is so much more that this island has to offer.  

Bob Sherman: Well, actually, the uh the Aldo López piece that we just heard, the son's piece is on the cd. It is the father's piece the Toque is not. So that was just for us. That's even more exciting. So how many more pieces do you have that, I mean, I was kidding you before, about a volume two of chamber thing. What about a volume two? I mean, obviously there seems to be an indefinite source of material here.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Oh. Easy, easy. And you know, I, I happen to go back to Havana quite a bit and I, I keep finding out new compositions, new composers, and the repertoire keeps expanding. Yes, it, it's really endless. It could be more than two and three or five CDs.  

Bob Sherman: Do they Cuban audiences appreciate your playing Cuban music, or do they want you to play American music? rather? I mean,  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: No, actually, actually I think they do like very much the fact that I play Cuban music, in fact, So I had a recital of all Cuban music, uh, three years ago in Havana. And they've asked me to do it repeatedly after that. And this year, uh, I'm going back to Havana. I'll play two Rachmaninoff Concerti there and a another recital of Cuban music. But just because they really would like to have that and  

Bob Sherman: Well, that's great.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: It will happen in June. Yes.  

Bob Sherman: So, the two halves of your, your musical life, the Rachmaninoff from the old days,  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: hopefully there are more hats than just those two, but those were,  

Bob Sherman: we, we, we build this up gradually as we learn. You are interested I take it in all forms of music and all types.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Oh, very much so.  

Bob Sherman: We just, we happen to be focusing today, but I mean,  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: very much so. Yes. In fact, uh, uh, I mean, there is so much, you know, you will sort of leave more out than you'll talk about but I'm very much interested in all types of music. I absolutely, uh, one of the things that I constantly play nowadays is, uh, I made a transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, which is a huge orchestral piece.  

Bob Sherman: Of course, 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: over a hundred instruments into the piano transcription. And this, um, I played a lot in programs throughout, um, throughout United States. You know, I did it eight times in New York last year on 92nd Y. Uh, just took it Kravis Center in Florida and many other places. I mean, yeah, there is.  

Bob Sherman: So, is that another, uh, uh, sort of arrow in your bow, the idea of making transcriptions of pieces?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Oh, I've been doing it pretty much all my life since I was very little child. You know, just like every child pianist. I was so fascinated with Horowitz, with, you know, Rachmaninoff, with, with Tchaikovsky that I was transcribing things since I was very little. And, uh, it always has been a, you know, great hobby of mine.  

Bob Sherman: Well, it sounds like there's, I got another CD for you coming. Yeah. I, I, I think we can keep you employed for quite a while if you just  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: That would be quite lovely. Thank you.  

Bob Sherman: All right. But let's return to, uh, Cuba and, uh, Sasha, what would you like share with us next?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Another, another composer I'd love to share with you is José Vitier. He's the composer who writes, uh, in a rather what I call this old salon, Cuban style. He writes a lot of pieces, but the, this particular piece, uh, Habanera del angel, Habanera of angel, it's, it's enormously popular in, in, uh, Cuba. 

Like literally anybody who has been in touch with music. They know this particular piece. And, um, it's something that really touched me, and I'd like to share it with you.  

Bob Sherman: Great. So once again, Alexandre Moutouzkine at our studio piano, uh, just a little north of Havana, but uh, it's the best we can do here. 

MUSIC - José María Vitier: Habanera del angel 

Bob Sherman: Very lovely. I think Alexandre Moutouzkine, you referred to this as a kind of salon music, but it's so much more than that.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Oh, definitely, yes. This particular piece, it's uh, actually very, this is one of my favorites because to me there is so much to it. Of course, there is this natural, um, Habanera rhythm, bam bum. And, but he somehow, unlike many other composers who used that rhythm, he actually does something so different with it that, you know, you don't think of Carmen anymore. You don't even think of, you know, every great composer had like something to do with a rhythm.  

He really creates his own atmosphere and somehow in between there is little moment, like a few lines of music that, so remind me, maybe an invention by Bach or something suddenly so there is like a little glimpse of Bach and then later on you get to a moment that really reminds me of a little Schubert. 

And then somehow it all very smoothly goes back into his habanera. There's something very special to this composition.  

Bob Sherman: The composer, José María Vitier, I think you said? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Correct. Yes. Jose María Vitier, 

Bob Sherman: Uh, kind of an angels habanera, so very wonderful. To what extent is there an equivalent, I mean, these are classical, um, extrapolations of, of Cuban Cafe or popular music. What sort of pop music is there? What? What do the kids listen to on the radio?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: That's fun. You know what the truth is? I'm probably the last person you wanna ask that question regarding any pop music because whatever. I hear it. Probably, you know, I still used to listen to things like ABBA and you know, things, what my parents used to listen to. 

This is what I grew up listening to a little bit on the side. But once I got into classical music fully. You know, I never really recovered, so I stayed there. So, I'm, I'm very, very bad with, I have a very good friend whose son is fascinated with Katy Perry, so he told me about her and things like that. 

But tell you the truth, uh, I'm embarrassed to say that I know very little from that side. I know that the, the rhythm and the, the music that they play a lot in Cuba, uh, riga dance. So apparently something  

Bob Sherman: riga dance, that we're back to Bach again, right? Am I mishearing you? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: right? I believe that that's, that's what it's called. But I could be so wrong too, that you really don't wanna quote me on that.  

Bob Sherman: All right, listen, it's just, just those chickens here. Nobody's listening, anyway, so don't worry about it. But, um, you said that you might, uh, include a piece by Lecuona, even though it has nothing to do the recording. Uh, and that as, as I mentioned earlier, that's the one Cuban composer I really know something about. So, uh, did you hear his music in Russia at all? Was it you were aware of it at all?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Um, tell you the truth. No, I wasn't. I have never really heard his music there. I, I came to know it as soon as I met Solomon Mikowsky.  

Bob Sherman: Mm-hmm.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Yeah. I remember as a, as a student, has this incredible LP election. So, at some point he pulled out LP with Lecuona's Music and he was playing, and it was from Lecuona's recital at Carnegie Hall. 

Bob Sherman: Oh, wow.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: And. I was so fascinated with this musician, pianist, and if you actually look at the score things he writes, it's very minimal of what he plays himself. So, he was a great improviser. He would add things. And of course, a lot of his music that's known, you know, things like he, his Comparsa, his dances, it's uh, it's wonderful. It's somewhat entertaining in its nature. Almost, you know, a lot of it sounds almost like rag times in, in Cuban style. But what I'd like to play for you a piece that I absolutely love. So there is this tradition of Cuban, um, salon music, and one of the dances at the time was mazurka. So what Lecuona did, he took that dance and he used the piano technique, it's called glissando. Glissando is a technique where you literally, you know, put this sleeve of your jacket over the keyboard and just dust it off. That technique is called glissando, and he uses it in the funniest and the most imaginative way and creates this little dance. So, here's a Mazurka en Glissando by Lecuona.  

Bob Sherman: Very good, and once again, our studio performance by Alexandre Moutouzkine. 

MUSIC - Ernesto Lecuona: Mazurka en Glissando 

Bob Sherman: What a delight. Mazurka Glissando by Ernesto Lecuona, and I shouldn't say this because we've been talking about all these glorious classical music things, but it reminds me very much of Chico Marx. Have you ever seen the Marx brothers’ movies? Did you those circulate in, in Russia at all?  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Uh, you know what? It rings the bell, but I can't think of one right now. 

Bob Sherman: In almost every Marx brother. These were, these were zany comics. Groucho Marx was probably the most famous of them, but there were three, actually, four brothers, three, uh, were the lynchpins of most of the movies that they made. And Harpo, of course, played the harp. So, every, every movie. He stumbles on a harp somewhere, you know, whatever, whatever spy story, he finds a hoard of gold, but in, there's the harp. 

So, he sits down and plays the harp and in every picture, Chico finds a piano. And some of the funniest moves he makes the same little glissandos he made except he then he does like a little pistol shot with the second hand to hit the top note. So it's very funny, but it as it is strange. Silly way. It's very reminiscent of that,  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: very interest. Interesting.  

Bob Sherman: So, you gotta see Marx brothers. Otherwise, you're, you're not fully Americanized if you haven't seen the Marx Brothers. So that's a, that's your assignment.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Sounds great.  

Bob Sherman: Alexandre Moutouzkine, it has been a special joy finally, after many years, to have you here in the studio, and then to encounter this extraordinary range of absolute discoveries. So many, many thanks to you. Great. Good luck to you and, and all best wishes in every further endeavor. And don't forget you've got at least five CDs yet to, to make so.  

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Great. Thank you so much. But has been a great pleasure and thanks for having, giving this chance to me to present this music. 

Bob Sherman: Well, we're hopefully wonderfully delighted to have been able to share it with our listeners here. 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Thank you.  

Bob Sherman: And with that we will share some final thoughts from our good friend Terry McGraw.  

Terry McGraw: There are many kinds of young artists on the Young Artist Showcase. We had an amazing 10-year-old American pianist and an astonishing 16-year-old violinist from China. While some major prize winners are emerging into greatness in their mid-twenties, the point is that whenever great talents arise, it's our responsibility to spread the word and it's our joy to let you enjoy their music every week on WQXR.  

Bob Sherman: Thank you, Terry. Now, a very happy circumstances arrived. I've miscalculated the time a little bit. Usually, I run over. This time we're a little short and, uh, Alexandre Moutouzkine is still with us in the studio. So, could you provide a short encore for us, do you suppose? 

Alexandre Moutouzkine: Absolutely. I'd love, I'd love to do that. And it'll be a piece. Again, by Lecuona, but it's probably one of his most famous pieces. It's called Comparsa, which is a special type of dance that people dance usually in carnivals. And the idea behind this that it starts. As, as, as a carnival approaching the city starts quietly, far, far, far away. It goes through the city with fan fairs with trump. It's really loud, and then it disappears, and it's gone.  

[Russian phrase]. That's, that's the, uh, the Russian version.  

Bob Sherman: Okay. Comparsa by Lecuona and a final performance here by Alexandre Moutouzkine. 

MUSIC - Ernesto Lecuona: Comparsa 

Bob Sherman: And as the carnival departs to all the parts of the city, we'll close our wonderful program with Alexandre Moutouzkine. This was Lecuona's Comparsa. Next week I'd like to pay respectful homage to a broadcaster from whom I learned so much and whose adventures and good music. Delighted listeners across the country for even more than the 39 years our Young Artist Showcase has been on the air. That could only refer to one man. So, I do hope you'll join me for our affectionate remembrance of Karl Haas. Merrin Lazyan is my producing partner here at WQXR, our engineer tonight with Chase Culpon, and looking ahead to the showery month of April, I'm Bob Sherman. Good night, everybody. 

 

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