Home >  A & E

Sunday, March 23, 2003

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic

One wonders how many miles renowned pianist Byron Janis' hands have traveled on their countless runs up and down the keyboard.

But it's quality, not quantity that brought fame to the McKeesport-born pianist. His commanding virtuosity and insightful interpretations have led him around the world and placed him on many recordings. He debuted in Carnegie Hall as a 20-year-old and was included in the Phillip's "Greatest Pianists of the 20th Century" series a few years ago.

Since arthritis has hindered his ability to perform, he has been devoting time to composing music and to writing an autobiography.

On the occasion of his 75th birthday tomorrow, we got the busy-as-ever musician to pause for five questions on the phone from his residence in New York City, where he lives with wife Maria Cooper, daughter of Gary Cooper.

QUESTION: Is there a music that is dear to you these days?

ANSWER: I am finding myself more and more in love with Mozart. I really have a feeling about him that I didn't have before. I enjoyed playing Mozart and Haydn when I was younger, but, really, my record companies wanted more, they wanted the big romantic concertos.

Q: How much do you perform these days?

A: I don't play as much because of my arthritic condition. In 1991, I had an operation, and the surgeon shortened my thumb. My extension was bad, and I went into a severe depression. I said, "My life, there it goes." Soon after, my wife was doing a documentary on Gary Cooper and asked me to write the theme to it. I wrote "A Hero's Passing By," and it was extremely successful. [Later], I wrote 22 songs in six weeks. [Composing] pulled me out of my depression. I found another way to express myself. I am now working on a piece of musical theater. [Because of all of this] I became an ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation.

Q: For a pianist, a hand problem must indeed be shocking to deal with. Is this the first time you had to deal with a problem with your hands?

A: When I was 11, I put my hand through a glass door in Pittsburgh, and it required immediate surgery. I lost a tendon and some nerves. My little finger on the left hand is still numb.

Q: What was it like to study under Vladimir Horowitz, especially as you were one of his first pupils?

A: He had never worked with anybody before. Horowitz heard me when I was 16 in a concert with Lorin Maazel conducting as a 15-year-old in Pittsburgh. I played Rachmaninoff's Second [Piano] Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Q: One of your great joys was your ballyhooed discovery of several Chopin manuscripts in 1967. How did that happen?

A: I found them in a chateau outside Paris. They had a vast library that had not been cataloged. There was a trunk. There's always a trunk. There were these beautiful gowns in there, along with letters and some manuscripts. I pulled out the manuscripts, which were tied with a blue ribbon. The owner said they were probably scribblings. I said, "These are not scribblings of your grandma, they are Chopin waltzes!" They were not unknown waltzes, but there were differences [from existing editions]. When I played them, it was unbelievable. I published them and recorded them.