Pianissimo: Favorite
Hobbies
YOU MAY HAVE concluded by this time that playing the piano is my hobby. I really love to play—and I enjoy every minute of it! Sometimes someone will come up to me after a concert and ask, "But Rudy, what do you do?" Perhaps they think I must have some other job, such as selling insurance or real estate, and that the time spent playing for a service, or a concert, could not possibly be considered a full-time job. Indeed, it is not. The time spent playing for a program is but a small fraction of the hours spent daily in practice.
Playing the piano is more than my favorite hobby. It is my occupation.
But I do have hobbies. For instance, I am a dyed-in-the-wool sports fan. I enjoy all kinds of sports principally as a spectator. I hope to find the time to play golf, someday. (My family has promised me a set of clubs when I am sixty-five.) I can hardly wait!
I might say that I have to avoid some sports because
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of the danger of injuring my hands. One of my students recently dislocated his thumb playing basketball. He was "out of action" on the piano for about a month. Such an accident would be disastrous to me, involving the cancellation of piano lessons, outside engagements, services at my church, and radio broadcasts.
So, most of my enjoyment of sports is as a spectator. Of course, the best way is to see the events in person, but when this is not possible I can enjoy the games on TV. As a matter of fact, just about the only programs I enjoy watching on TV are sports events.
I especially like football, baseball, and basketball. Living in the Los Angeles area, we have the opportunity to see all the major league baseball teams. My family and I were present at the ballpark to witness the first home run to be hit out of Dodger Stadium. Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit the 480-footer over the roof of the right field pavilion and into the parking lot. It was an exciting moment of an equally exciting game. The Pirates were in great form that night, throughout all the innings.
And, of course, USC and UCLA usually come up with outstanding football teams. In professional football, there are the Los Angeles Rams. UCLA always has a topnotch basketball team, and the Los Angeles Lakers have had some of the greatest players in the game—Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor.
Not only do I enjoy watching the games, I like to read the accounts of the game in the sports section of the newspaper. Jim Murray, a syndicated columnist, is a classic writer, and this is the first part of the paper I read; after that I turn to the editorial page, then, the news.
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I like to read, not only the accounts of the baseball games, but also the box scores, because I like to know about individual performances and batting averages.
Another hobby of mine is working crossword puzzles. I like the hard ones, also the acrostics. These puzzles are challenging and educational and give one a sense of accomplishment when they are finished. And I am sure that working crossword puzzles increases one's vocabulary. I have spent many a pleasant hour on the plane, trying to finish a particularly difficult acrostic before I reach my destination.
My most enjoyable moments are spent attending classical concerts, especially piano recitals. We used to have "Evenings On the Roof" concerts in the Los Angeles area. One winter, all of the Beethoven sonatas were given in this series, and although it took some maneuvering, I managed to catch most of them.
The Hollywood Bowl is sheer delight on a summer evening, with its invariable thrill and inspiration in music. It has become the "in" thing to do; reserve a box in the Bowl and carry a picnic supper, to be set upon a portable game table covered with a linen cloth, and lit by your own candlelight. As the dusk settles on this beautiful setting, many candles are flickering, then extinguished, and the excitement of the concert begins. There is no hush like the stillness of that vast, attentive crowd in the silence of the great out-of-doors. At an all-Tchaikovsky Festival recently, Zubin Mehta established his charismatic mood, then closed the concert with the 1812 Overture. Real cannons roared, red rockets glared, and the Bowl became the essence of total war with the orchestra enveloped in the smoke thereof!
The manner in which the Los Angeles Philharmonic
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carried on to a triumphant finale brought deserved applause from a sold-out house.
After an evening of listening to renditions of the great masters, I come home inspired to work, and practice with new zeal.
I like jokes, and laughter, too, and speaking of new zeal reminds me of a story: of the deacon who was praying for the pastor. He prayed, "Lord, inspire him with a new veal and fresh zigor." Perhaps the artistry of a pianist is fortified with veal and embellished with zigor!
