Sunday, March 29, 2009
North Dakota: Hoodooed
It's all Obama's doing. Not only did he cause both a bear market and a bull market in his first 120 days; as soon as he told bankers to visit North Dakota to see how people can live on less money than in New York, a monster flood hit Fargo. The North Dakotans suddenly need a federal bailout. Just don't give them bonuses.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
China's Plain Talk
The Chinese have seized the global financial agenda again. Central bank governnor Zhou Xiaochuan called today for a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar. His remarks follow Premier Wen Jiabao's demand on March 13 for a guarantee of China's extensive U.S. assets. The plain speaking from China's leadership before next month's G-20 meeting contrasts remarkably with the haze emanating from Washington.
China is justly worried about the value of its dollar-denominated assets. The concern resonates beyond China. Too many nickels and dimes are rolling off government currency tables. Governments are probably finding that intolerable.
Fed chief Bernanke and T-Sec Geithner immediately said they categorically oppose a single global currency. Denials are traditional.
China is justly worried about the value of its dollar-denominated assets. The concern resonates beyond China. Too many nickels and dimes are rolling off government currency tables. Governments are probably finding that intolerable.
Fed chief Bernanke and T-Sec Geithner immediately said they categorically oppose a single global currency. Denials are traditional.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Steve Kenner
Today would have been the 52nd birthday of my little brother, Steve. He died in a car accident at 16. I still miss him. He was a surfer and could always beat me at chess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoHj289d-zM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoHj289d-zM
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday
1) The market behaved normally in advance of tomorrow's Fed annoucnement. I chipped at the short side all day as I am constitutionally unable to get long after four days of gains capped by an unch. I hate those little Brownian price knots that happen after nice moves. I call those idling moments "washing machines," because I know that the big players around the table use them to wash the profits out of my pockets, and I'd just as soon get in the washing machine as hold a position at such times. The Fed meeting concludes tomorrow, and I almost expect the post-announcement bungee jump so characteristic of the old days. I have been suspicious of the post-intervention market, but there is now so much money flowing through the zombie's, ah, veins, that it's almost like the good old days when Fed juice would kick in after six months to make the good times roll. Still, I just hate getting long after a 110-point up move.
2) My son Aubrey, 2 years 10 months, had his long-awaited first violin lesson yesterday with a great Russian violinist, Mara Milkis. She teaches him how to hug the violin and pluck the strings. Today we get out the violin and he hugs it with great affection and respect, and says a little "Ah," and I know it's love.
3) I spent January retracing the voyage of Charles Darwin on the Beagle with a Stanford study group, and I have not yet written about the experience. Darwin himself took many months to go through all his notes and reflect deeply on what he saw, and even the publication of his account of the voyage was only the beginning, as "The Origin of Species" followed some two decades later. My strongest impressions initially were of the personality of Darwin himself, quite simple and humble for someone so world-shaking, and of the philosophical fruitfulness and deep implications of his insights on adaptation. I believe that adaptation is the key to success in markets and life, and I expect to grok this for quite some time.
4)Q. I practice the Brahms A major quartet and a Scott Joplin arrangement for clarinet and piano. Which do I find more difficult? A. The Joplin is more difficult. Stride bass is a killer. It's what Joplin wanted the music to sound like, not what a pianist would necessarily play. The Brahms piano part grew the other way: It's definitely what the composer wanted it to sound like, but it's written by a pianist for a pianist.
5) I'm in Tribeca tonight walking down the street after a nice dinner at one of our beautiful cafes, missing a certain person and at one point say inaudibly, "Why aren't you here?" when all of a sudden a cute kid rolls up on a skateboard and says, "I just wanted to tell you, you have the sexiest calves. I'm waiting for a friend and I saw you walking, and I thought, either I'm going to scare you or make your day." "You made my day," I tell the kid, who's tall and quite good-looking, and I walk on home with a little bounce in my step appropriate for a one-eighth Irishwoman on St. Patrick's Day and a May baby just three suns away from the first day of spring.
2) My son Aubrey, 2 years 10 months, had his long-awaited first violin lesson yesterday with a great Russian violinist, Mara Milkis. She teaches him how to hug the violin and pluck the strings. Today we get out the violin and he hugs it with great affection and respect, and says a little "Ah," and I know it's love.
3) I spent January retracing the voyage of Charles Darwin on the Beagle with a Stanford study group, and I have not yet written about the experience. Darwin himself took many months to go through all his notes and reflect deeply on what he saw, and even the publication of his account of the voyage was only the beginning, as "The Origin of Species" followed some two decades later. My strongest impressions initially were of the personality of Darwin himself, quite simple and humble for someone so world-shaking, and of the philosophical fruitfulness and deep implications of his insights on adaptation. I believe that adaptation is the key to success in markets and life, and I expect to grok this for quite some time.
4)Q. I practice the Brahms A major quartet and a Scott Joplin arrangement for clarinet and piano. Which do I find more difficult? A. The Joplin is more difficult. Stride bass is a killer. It's what Joplin wanted the music to sound like, not what a pianist would necessarily play. The Brahms piano part grew the other way: It's definitely what the composer wanted it to sound like, but it's written by a pianist for a pianist.
5) I'm in Tribeca tonight walking down the street after a nice dinner at one of our beautiful cafes, missing a certain person and at one point say inaudibly, "Why aren't you here?" when all of a sudden a cute kid rolls up on a skateboard and says, "I just wanted to tell you, you have the sexiest calves. I'm waiting for a friend and I saw you walking, and I thought, either I'm going to scare you or make your day." "You made my day," I tell the kid, who's tall and quite good-looking, and I walk on home with a little bounce in my step appropriate for a one-eighth Irishwoman on St. Patrick's Day and a May baby just three suns away from the first day of spring.
TARP Winners & Losers
TARP Winners & Losers
12/17/2008 - 03/16/2009
Best Performing Members
1) MORGAN STANLEY 39.64
2) FIDELITY BANCORP/PA 34.12
3) GOLDMAN SACHS GP 19.19
4) NEW HAMPSHIRE THRIFT BANCSHARES 15.40
5) COMMUNITY BANKER 15.33
6) FLAGSTAR BANCORP 15.00
7) FIRST CITIZENS BANCORP 12.52
8) INTEGRA BANK CORP 12.50
9) BRIDGE CAPITAL HOLDINGS 11.29
10) NORTHEAST BANCORP 10.81
Worst Performing Members
11) PROVIDENT COMMUN -68.27
12) CITIGROUP INC -70.24
13) NARA BANCORP INC -70.48
14) UCBH HOLDINGS -71.29
15) SOUTH FINANCIAL -73.25
16) BANNER CORPORATI -75.22
17) STERLING FINL/WA -75.27
18) UNITED COMMUNITY -75.42
19) FIFTH THIRD BANC -75.63
20) HUNTINGTON BANC -77.29
Source: Bloomberg LP
BTCPP IndexMRR4
12/17/2008 - 03/16/2009
Best Performing Members
1) MORGAN STANLEY 39.64
2) FIDELITY BANCORP/PA 34.12
3) GOLDMAN SACHS GP 19.19
4) NEW HAMPSHIRE THRIFT BANCSHARES 15.40
5) COMMUNITY BANKER 15.33
6) FLAGSTAR BANCORP 15.00
7) FIRST CITIZENS BANCORP 12.52
8) INTEGRA BANK CORP 12.50
9) BRIDGE CAPITAL HOLDINGS 11.29
10) NORTHEAST BANCORP 10.81
Worst Performing Members
11) PROVIDENT COMMUN -68.27
12) CITIGROUP INC -70.24
13) NARA BANCORP INC -70.48
14) UCBH HOLDINGS -71.29
15) SOUTH FINANCIAL -73.25
16) BANNER CORPORATI -75.22
17) STERLING FINL/WA -75.27
18) UNITED COMMUNITY -75.42
19) FIFTH THIRD BANC -75.63
20) HUNTINGTON BANC -77.29
Source: Bloomberg LP
BTCPP Index
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Russia Boogie
My friend Boogie Bob Baldori just returned from a two-week tour of Russia to sold-out halls in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and Krasnodar. Bob's regular partner, the pianist Bob Seeley, is 80 years old and wasn't up for the grueling trip, so Bob went with the German pianist Martin Schmitt. Bob found the Russians to be great lovers of Boogie and says it was a pleasure to play in their beautiful halls on the fantastic pianos.
He says prices are as high as in New York, even at farmers' markets in the hinterlands. Only rubles are accepted -- no euros, no dollars -- even though the ruble has fallen to 36 against the dollar from 21 a year ago. When I was in St. Petersburg in 2005, the trade was entirely in euros.
Bob's promoter is already arranging another tour this fall, and Bob says he can't wait to go back. If you want a lift, click on the youtube link on Bob's website, www.boogiebob.com.
He says prices are as high as in New York, even at farmers' markets in the hinterlands. Only rubles are accepted -- no euros, no dollars -- even though the ruble has fallen to 36 against the dollar from 21 a year ago. When I was in St. Petersburg in 2005, the trade was entirely in euros.
Bob's promoter is already arranging another tour this fall, and Bob says he can't wait to go back. If you want a lift, click on the youtube link on Bob's website, www.boogiebob.com.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Hairpin Turn
I don't pay forecasters any mind most of the time, because the only time such forecasts get out to the public is after the issuing firm has put on its positions. Once in a while, a firm will stick the neck out in what turns out to have been the right direction, and in such cases it is possible to gain both entertainment and education, particularly if the firm in question owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
That's why it was so interesting when Goldman Sachs said Thursday, Feb. 26, that the S&P 500 cash index could fall to 650 "in the near term" (the prior day close was 765) and just six days later the index was trading at 666.
During the next five days, it loops on back up to close at 756 today.
It was a beautiful turn, the kind of thing that makes the market happiest because it shakes the change from so many pockets, especially the weak and the stubborn. My own pockets were regrettably among them, although I regained some dignity by the time the ride was over.
One certainly can't help but appreciate the timing of Goldman's forecast, although I can't help but think that it was coincidental.
The rebound came on the flimsiest of excuses in a week during which no less a personage that the premier of China did something previously unimaginable, publicly expressing doubt as to the soundness of the U.S. Treasuries of which his fine country is the main buyer.
Even more astonishing, he had the gall to conduct this public pantsing after Her Royal Clintonness assured said premier that the United States of America no longer cares what China does to its dissenters, if only China will please pretty please keep buying U.S. bonds.
The Chinese aren't exactly fools when it comes to business, and they can spot inflation a-coming. Paul Quaintance and his partner Paul Brodsky published an imaginary conversation between Hill and Premier Wen Jiabao in which they envision Hillary quietly assuring the Chinese leader that the United States will get the IMF to sell China a bunch of gold "before, well, you know..." in return for buying $1 trillion of bonds. She even gives him a little wink on the Taiwan thing.
Brodsky and Quaintance believe a sound money system should be established with gold priced at $3,000 an ounce. I don't think gold bugs should get too excited. With the banking system in cardiac arrest, gold would be way higher "right now this very minute," as my 2-year-old son Aubrey says, if not for the threat of government interference in that market on a nuclear scale. I'm not paranoid, just careful about who is sitting at my table.
Today, that other big survivor firm, the WASP one, came out with its own forecast: the S&P 500, says Morgan Stanley, will fall to 560 in the next few months. That's just over 100 points below the March 6 low.
Both Goldman and Morgan see a huge rally from the lows. What was so interesting about the Goldman forecast is that it actually came out right before the market fell off a cliff. I'm sure it wasn't intended. But then again, maybe market making isn't quite as important for the new Goldman as it was back in the day.
That's why it was so interesting when Goldman Sachs said Thursday, Feb. 26, that the S&P 500 cash index could fall to 650 "in the near term" (the prior day close was 765) and just six days later the index was trading at 666.
During the next five days, it loops on back up to close at 756 today.
It was a beautiful turn, the kind of thing that makes the market happiest because it shakes the change from so many pockets, especially the weak and the stubborn. My own pockets were regrettably among them, although I regained some dignity by the time the ride was over.
One certainly can't help but appreciate the timing of Goldman's forecast, although I can't help but think that it was coincidental.
The rebound came on the flimsiest of excuses in a week during which no less a personage that the premier of China did something previously unimaginable, publicly expressing doubt as to the soundness of the U.S. Treasuries of which his fine country is the main buyer.
Even more astonishing, he had the gall to conduct this public pantsing after Her Royal Clintonness assured said premier that the United States of America no longer cares what China does to its dissenters, if only China will please pretty please keep buying U.S. bonds.
The Chinese aren't exactly fools when it comes to business, and they can spot inflation a-coming. Paul Quaintance and his partner Paul Brodsky published an imaginary conversation between Hill and Premier Wen Jiabao in which they envision Hillary quietly assuring the Chinese leader that the United States will get the IMF to sell China a bunch of gold "before, well, you know..." in return for buying $1 trillion of bonds. She even gives him a little wink on the Taiwan thing.
Brodsky and Quaintance believe a sound money system should be established with gold priced at $3,000 an ounce. I don't think gold bugs should get too excited. With the banking system in cardiac arrest, gold would be way higher "right now this very minute," as my 2-year-old son Aubrey says, if not for the threat of government interference in that market on a nuclear scale. I'm not paranoid, just careful about who is sitting at my table.
Today, that other big survivor firm, the WASP one, came out with its own forecast: the S&P 500, says Morgan Stanley, will fall to 560 in the next few months. That's just over 100 points below the March 6 low.
Both Goldman and Morgan see a huge rally from the lows. What was so interesting about the Goldman forecast is that it actually came out right before the market fell off a cliff. I'm sure it wasn't intended. But then again, maybe market making isn't quite as important for the new Goldman as it was back in the day.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
One of my favorite sayings is: "Don't believe your brother; trust your own crooked eye."
In trading, life and art, it's necessary to see what one sees, hear what one hears and feel what one feels. The tendency to block out input that doesn't confirm a set course is ruinous.
If I ignore my own perceptions, I miss the chance to arrive at the high philosophical vantage expressed by a magnificent new friend of mine as: "It is what it is." I.e., if you can't control it, forget it and focus on what you can control. He's a very, very smart guy. Check him out at masteroftheuniverse.wordpress.com.
The above is why I love sad operas like Madame Butterfly. It's also why the recent string of newspaper bankruptcies is tragic.
I always thought of Butterfly as a particularly nonproductive, maudlin story despite the wonderful Puccini music. If the show came up in my season tickets, I'd trade it for something else. If forced to go, I would fall asleep. That changed last weekend when I saw the new Metropolitan Opera production, by Anthony Minghella, director of "The English Patient." My companions found the sets stark, and I overheard others complaining that they liked the old, sentimental production better. But I found the austerity very Japanese and very effective, and for once I stayed awake through the whole performance.
The plot is about a 15-year-old Japanese bride abandoned by an American officer, who regards Asian contracts as less than binding and soon heads back to home for "a real American wife." When he shows up after a three-year absence, the American wife's first question after a perfunctory "that poor woman" is "Do you think she will let us have the baby?" Butterfly dutifully gives up her 2-year-old son to the happy American couple and then commits hari-kiri.
I'm not advocating hari-kiri as a means of dealing with betrayal, any more than I recommend the Mexican soap-opera formula of vengeance. But I appreciate the catharsis of raw emotion, free of modern counsels such as "Get over it." Ignoring what's there leads to enslavement.
Now for the newspapers. Most of them are little more than propaganda sheets for socialism. Everybody knows it. Survey after survey shows that 95 percent of journalists are registered Democrats. Still, there are some good apples (I noted several great female economics columnists while reading the London papers when I was snowed in last month). At their best, journalists are ornery creatures who give no quarter to anyone. Joseph Pultizer once said, "A reporter has no friends." With the world headed on a dangerous course, we need ornery people who see through their own crooked eyes.
In trading, life and art, it's necessary to see what one sees, hear what one hears and feel what one feels. The tendency to block out input that doesn't confirm a set course is ruinous.
If I ignore my own perceptions, I miss the chance to arrive at the high philosophical vantage expressed by a magnificent new friend of mine as: "It is what it is." I.e., if you can't control it, forget it and focus on what you can control. He's a very, very smart guy. Check him out at masteroftheuniverse.wordpress.com.
The above is why I love sad operas like Madame Butterfly. It's also why the recent string of newspaper bankruptcies is tragic.
I always thought of Butterfly as a particularly nonproductive, maudlin story despite the wonderful Puccini music. If the show came up in my season tickets, I'd trade it for something else. If forced to go, I would fall asleep. That changed last weekend when I saw the new Metropolitan Opera production, by Anthony Minghella, director of "The English Patient." My companions found the sets stark, and I overheard others complaining that they liked the old, sentimental production better. But I found the austerity very Japanese and very effective, and for once I stayed awake through the whole performance.
The plot is about a 15-year-old Japanese bride abandoned by an American officer, who regards Asian contracts as less than binding and soon heads back to home for "a real American wife." When he shows up after a three-year absence, the American wife's first question after a perfunctory "that poor woman" is "Do you think she will let us have the baby?" Butterfly dutifully gives up her 2-year-old son to the happy American couple and then commits hari-kiri.
I'm not advocating hari-kiri as a means of dealing with betrayal, any more than I recommend the Mexican soap-opera formula of vengeance. But I appreciate the catharsis of raw emotion, free of modern counsels such as "Get over it." Ignoring what's there leads to enslavement.
Now for the newspapers. Most of them are little more than propaganda sheets for socialism. Everybody knows it. Survey after survey shows that 95 percent of journalists are registered Democrats. Still, there are some good apples (I noted several great female economics columnists while reading the London papers when I was snowed in last month). At their best, journalists are ornery creatures who give no quarter to anyone. Joseph Pultizer once said, "A reporter has no friends." With the world headed on a dangerous course, we need ornery people who see through their own crooked eyes.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Journey Home
The best way to appreciate the city where you live is to show a visitor around. I had the great pleasure of accompanying one of my favorite writers during his sojourn in New York over the past few days. My companion was one of those rare, Rabelaisian, Runyonesque people who appreciate everything with eyes wide open, and his energy and good spirit put us on a happy course for enjoying the delights of New York. We saw the fantastic new "Guys & Dolls" production, caught Kelly O'Hara's last night as Nelli in "South Pacific," paid our respects to Jesse Livermore at his last stop, the Sherry Netherlander, walked in Central Park at 1 a.m. I came in for some gentle ribbing from my guest, a tough survivor of the midwestern grain pits, when we found ourselves perhaps the only heterosexual couple at Betty Buckley's late show at Feinstein's. The best for me was watching the moon set over the Hudson River, traveling from high over the Jersey skyline, fast and yet slow.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Perhaps the Worst Yet
Timmy Geithner put in a puff today for O's proposal to tax gains from investment partnerships at ordinary wage rates.
Gains are now taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, but O wants them to be taxed at ordinary rates, which would be as high as 39.6 percent,
"The tax code will provide equal tax treatment for wages
regardless of whether an individual works as a teacher or a
hedge fund manager,” Geithner told the Ways and Means Committee, according to Bloomberg News.
The problem is that investing is not the same as earning a wage. Investors take risks. Wage earners do not. Their employer assumes all the risk of the venture. A worker can pretty much count on a steady paycheck; an investor cannot.
To tax them at equal rates is ludicrous.
Gains are now taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, but O wants them to be taxed at ordinary rates, which would be as high as 39.6 percent,
"The tax code will provide equal tax treatment for wages
regardless of whether an individual works as a teacher or a
hedge fund manager,” Geithner told the Ways and Means Committee, according to Bloomberg News.
The problem is that investing is not the same as earning a wage. Investors take risks. Wage earners do not. Their employer assumes all the risk of the venture. A worker can pretty much count on a steady paycheck; an investor cannot.
To tax them at equal rates is ludicrous.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Buzzword Watch: Reset
I'm always interested in word fads get going, particularly when they are associated with political-economic memes. "Reset" appeared tonight in two big news stories that reflect major O'Changes.
First, GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt used "reset" three times in a letter to shareholders:
A "brutal" global economy means GE and capitalism itself will have to be “reset,” Immelt wrote, according to a Bloomberg News summary. “We intend to reset this business to be smaller, less volatile and more connected to the GE core." Capital. As for the economy, “we are going through more than a cycle. The global economy, and capitalism, will be ‘reset’ in several important ways. The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.”
And here's an excerpt from a New York Times article on Obama's offer to back away from the East Europe missile defense system in exchange for Russia's help stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons:
"Mr. Obama’s letter, sent in response to one he received from Mr. Medvedev shortly after Mr. Obama’s inauguration, represents part of an effort to “press the reset button” on Russian-American relations, as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. put it last month."
Reset, then, puts a hip, techie gloss on the recent efforts in Washington to repudiate 500 years of accumulated wisdom about the beneficial effects of economic freedom.
How did it start creeping into the public discourse?
Biden credited the Big O for the "reset" concept in policy, if not the word itself. Here's the quote in question, courtesy of a transcript of his Feb. 7, 2009 speech in Munich on politico.com:
"The United States rejects the notion that NATO's gain is Russia's loss, or that Russia's strength is NATO's weakness. The last few years have seen a dangerous drift in relations between Russia and the members of our Alliance. It is time -- to paraphrase President Obama -- it's time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia.
Looking back, Time magazine may have set the ball rolling in an Aug. 28, 2007 story on Obama's change of heart after Hillary Clinton attacked his offer to meet with dictators such as Fidel Castro. The story was titled: "Obama's Foreign Policy Reset."
Reset is an inappropriate word to describe the policies being suggested for our future. When a computer is reset, it usually fixes the problem by going back to the basic system. What's happening in Washington and being echoed in corporate boardrooms by those with much to fear from their new masters is an atrocious piling-on of spaghetti code by a collection of pompous "organizers" who believe they know better than anyone with actual business experience how to run a very complex financial system.
First, GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt used "reset" three times in a letter to shareholders:
A "brutal" global economy means GE and capitalism itself will have to be “reset,” Immelt wrote, according to a Bloomberg News summary. “We intend to reset this business to be smaller, less volatile and more connected to the GE core." Capital. As for the economy, “we are going through more than a cycle. The global economy, and capitalism, will be ‘reset’ in several important ways. The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.”
And here's an excerpt from a New York Times article on Obama's offer to back away from the East Europe missile defense system in exchange for Russia's help stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons:
"Mr. Obama’s letter, sent in response to one he received from Mr. Medvedev shortly after Mr. Obama’s inauguration, represents part of an effort to “press the reset button” on Russian-American relations, as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. put it last month."
Reset, then, puts a hip, techie gloss on the recent efforts in Washington to repudiate 500 years of accumulated wisdom about the beneficial effects of economic freedom.
How did it start creeping into the public discourse?
Biden credited the Big O for the "reset" concept in policy, if not the word itself. Here's the quote in question, courtesy of a transcript of his Feb. 7, 2009 speech in Munich on politico.com:
"The United States rejects the notion that NATO's gain is Russia's loss, or that Russia's strength is NATO's weakness. The last few years have seen a dangerous drift in relations between Russia and the members of our Alliance. It is time -- to paraphrase President Obama -- it's time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia.
Looking back, Time magazine may have set the ball rolling in an Aug. 28, 2007 story on Obama's change of heart after Hillary Clinton attacked his offer to meet with dictators such as Fidel Castro. The story was titled: "Obama's Foreign Policy Reset."
Reset is an inappropriate word to describe the policies being suggested for our future. When a computer is reset, it usually fixes the problem by going back to the basic system. What's happening in Washington and being echoed in corporate boardrooms by those with much to fear from their new masters is an atrocious piling-on of spaghetti code by a collection of pompous "organizers" who believe they know better than anyone with actual business experience how to run a very complex financial system.
Obama Market Down 25%
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has now fallen 25% since the inauguration of Barack Obama as president. Maybe Mr. Obama is not entirely to blame, but he certainly hasn't helped.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Leon Fleisher Plays Mozart K488
I had a perfect seoncd-row seat Friday night at Leon Fleisher's performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto K488 in A major. Fleisher is 80 now. As a kid, he went to study with Arthur Schnabel in Berlin. Schnabel didn't teach kids, so he turned him over to Aube.
Leon was just 9 years old, and Aube was probably still a teen-ager himself. He taught Leon piano and tennis until he was ready for lessons with Schnabel. Leon went on to a stellar performing career. Aube, fleeing the Nazis, went back home to Canada and ended up running a factory during the war. Afterward, he developed a case of performance nerves, and went the teaching route -- fortunately for me and hosts of other students in Los Angeles. He was a fantastic teacher -- both tough and inspiring -- and has many "children" in the concert world, including Wu Han, co-director of the Chamber Music Society here in New York.
At UCLA, Aube became a father figure to me -- culturally, emotionally, intellectually. He died years ago, but I think of him every day. Every time I touch the keyboard, I hear him singing, counting, admonishing, encouraging. I miss him. So I was pleased when Leon started performing again after beating a neurologial problem. I go to hear him every chance I get.
One of the last pieces I played for Aube was the Mozart K488. Like all of my lessons, that one was intense and moving. It all came back on the concert on Friday night. I sat through the first two movements in tears. The slow movement is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. It's sad, dignified, quiet -- autumn turning to winter, with death in sight.
Leon played it simply, beautifully, without sentimentality. The perfect approach for Mozart. Like Schnabel, he's not about showy gestures. I could see his mouth moving as he sang each note to himself.
The tears stopped streaming when the finale began and the the comically cheerful bassoon licks began. Impossible to feel sad then.
Leon bowed to several rounds of applause. He smiled. I smiled. Greatness is worth it.
Leon was just 9 years old, and Aube was probably still a teen-ager himself. He taught Leon piano and tennis until he was ready for lessons with Schnabel. Leon went on to a stellar performing career. Aube, fleeing the Nazis, went back home to Canada and ended up running a factory during the war. Afterward, he developed a case of performance nerves, and went the teaching route -- fortunately for me and hosts of other students in Los Angeles. He was a fantastic teacher -- both tough and inspiring -- and has many "children" in the concert world, including Wu Han, co-director of the Chamber Music Society here in New York.
At UCLA, Aube became a father figure to me -- culturally, emotionally, intellectually. He died years ago, but I think of him every day. Every time I touch the keyboard, I hear him singing, counting, admonishing, encouraging. I miss him. So I was pleased when Leon started performing again after beating a neurologial problem. I go to hear him every chance I get.
One of the last pieces I played for Aube was the Mozart K488. Like all of my lessons, that one was intense and moving. It all came back on the concert on Friday night. I sat through the first two movements in tears. The slow movement is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. It's sad, dignified, quiet -- autumn turning to winter, with death in sight.
Leon played it simply, beautifully, without sentimentality. The perfect approach for Mozart. Like Schnabel, he's not about showy gestures. I could see his mouth moving as he sang each note to himself.
The tears stopped streaming when the finale began and the the comically cheerful bassoon licks began. Impossible to feel sad then.
Leon bowed to several rounds of applause. He smiled. I smiled. Greatness is worth it.
Let's Take a Holiday!
The new bankers in Washington are pulling out all the stops to save the financial system.
The Fed Chief says the only problem with the New Deal is that it didn't go far enough -- but they haven't even used all the tools in the old toolbox yet. I therefore am pulling an unused wrench out myself, in the service of speculation.
My prediction: Next, we'll see bank holidays.
The Fed Chief says the only problem with the New Deal is that it didn't go far enough -- but they haven't even used all the tools in the old toolbox yet. I therefore am pulling an unused wrench out myself, in the service of speculation.
My prediction: Next, we'll see bank holidays.
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