How could I possibly forget P.D.Q. Bach’s (Peter Schickele’s) collaboration with the Oberlin Symphony when I was a student at the Oberlin Conservatory?

If my memory is correct, P.D.Q. swung down onto the Finney Chapel stage from the rafters, sliding quite a few feet on his stomach and coming to a halt a few feet from the back of the platform. What an entrance!! The concert included some P.D.Q. classics, but my most vivid memory is of his solo piano encore, “The High Karate Variations”. (High Karate was a pretty popular line of men’s fragrances at the time.) The first stand of cellos was just a few feet from the composer’s face and we wept with hysteria as he performed.

Later, I was introduced to the Schickele family through Andor Toth, the founder of the Stanford String Quartet who was friendly with Peter’s brother, David, an accomplished violist and documentary film maker. In fact, David invited us to join him in a memorial performance of the Schubert Cello Quintet to honor the passing of David and Peter’s father. At that time I had no idea that Peter Schickele was a serious composer.

What fun it has been to discover his more serious music through the charming and infectiously joyous Clarinet Quartet!
~ Stephen