Maestro Parkening was simply one of the kindest persons I have ever met in my professional career. In the 1990’s I hosted a monthly column called “The Classical Corner,”for a small NY based magazine, titled 20th Century Guitar. They organized an interview for me with him at Columbia Artist in NYC. At the time I had a brand new Sony DAT Walkman (I’m really showing my age!) Chris entered the room and I felt like a teenager meeting his idol. About 10 minutes into the interview, I looked down and realized my new recorder was not working! I must not have a good poker face, as Chris recognized something was wrong. He laughed it off, asked for some coffee, and we started over. His handling of my mishap relaxed me, and I was charmed by his warm and generous personality. For a USA guitarist in my 50’s Chris was “my guy.” For me, his sound is sublime, and is still the sound I try to recreate when I play.
What a unique story. Love his boldness in his faith to say the name of Jesus, and share what it is to be alive in Christ... and the incredible opportunities he had to learn and develop on his instrument - for sure the grace of God is very present in his life. A legendary guitarist
Passei uma semana de retiro de Deus , sua palavra e até mesmo não participei da ceia do Senhor. Mas hj irei à igreja e retornarei ao quartel de Cristo.Thanks Parkening
Put simply, I believe that maestro Parkening exceeded his teachers and is to me the greatest classical guitarist that I've ever heard (even allowing for the amazing David Russell). Any good I've attained in playing guitar owes, humanly speaking, to the great Christopher Parkening.
Surgeon and musician here. Parkening has helped me so much with the phycology of being a musician and a surgeon. These two professions are very similar in the fact that people can have expectations of perfection. We are not perfect even though we put those expectations on ourselves. Excellence is attainable but not perfection. I hope this post will be encouraging to the those that struggle with these expectations.
I’ve just finished all parts of this excellent interview. Many thanks for it. And his words in praise of Our Lord Christ the King are most refreshing, since most elites today are Godless degenerates.
During the summers of 1984 and '85 I was a performing student at the Christopher Parkening Eastern Summer Master Class. As you may read in the following comments, he is truly one of the kindest and gentlest people I have ever met. He is always very supportive of the students, but it still took me two attempts before I could settle down and get through a piece with him sitting next to me on that stage at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. I may have been the resident hotshot and official GOAT at Salisbury State College on that there Eastern Shore of Maryland, the land of crabs, clams, arsters, soybeans and chicken magnate Frank Perdue of "tough man and tender chicken" fame. But sitting up there before God Himself reduced me in my own mind to being just another hick from a small town with big dreams. On the third day I inhaled my lunch and bolted over to the stage where I warmed up until The Man Himself got there. I played "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" for him with my neck craned to the left with eyes focused intently on the left hand when I noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye. I looked down, and there was The Man Himself looking as if he was trying to smell my right hand. His face was below the strings, and he was looking up to get a good view of my right hand "tremolo" technique. I was so startled I just had to stop and ask him, "May I help you, Sir?" The class had a good laugh over it. Aside from that little blip I actually got through the song without having a meltdown. He spoke well of my right hand, and he made a simple adjustment to my left that changed my playing forever. The improvement in the strength with which I attacked the strings made a day/night difference in my playing that made the whole experience worth it.
I love Chris P for his musical precision and unsurpassed talent - and although I respect his right to believe what makes sense to him, I wish he would just quit it with the proselytizing already. To me, believing in a certain god because he’s going to punish you in hell if you don’t worship him is an extremely poisonous message that is used to control people.
Interesting: two outstanding musicians, one of the best guitarists ever, who both abandoned their God given gifts for frivolous purposes which did not match the magnitude of their vocations.
Pois é. Por algum motivo ninguém no meio musical fala dessa figura; nem mesmo no meio do violão. O que ele representa para a história da música ou do violão? Excetuado o fato de ele falar com entusiasmo a respeito de Segovia (o que parece colocá-lo no panteão dos imortais do violão) não vejo sentido. Mas, enfim, é só a minha opinião. 😂😂😂😂
Ele foi importante nos anos 70 como o primeiro concertista americano de nível mundial (claro, sempre como o representante americano de Segóvia): tem que lembrar que além de Segóvia (já de idade avançada) Williams, Bream e Yepes As interpretações são notáveis (um som realmente bonito, uma técnica limpa, excelente, um estilo próprio mas dentro da linha de Segóvia), embora o repertório (tirando o disco de Bach que também foi uma referência naqueles anos...incluindo transcrições novas numa interpretação romântica) seja aquele dentro do universo segoviano. É mais o menos como o Bobby Fischer no xadrez (nunca tinha tido um mestre desse nível), daí sua importância. Talvez comparável ao papel de Turíbio Santos aqui no Brasil, embora o Parkening tenha chegado a um patamar muito mais alto em termos mundiais (e eu diria também em termos musicais e técnicos). Foi também uma espécie de estrela: jovem, bonitão e um concertista de primeiro nível naqueles anos. Infelizmente, já não lembramos da época quando tinha pouquíssimos concertistas e tocar a Chaconne, ou até Recuerdos e Asturias era uma façanha. Hoje, pela proliferação de violonistas dotados de uma técnica extraordinária, a realidade é outra. Depois, com sua conversão e o surgimento de uma nova geração como Fisk, Isbin, Barrueco, Russell e outros, ele foi eclipsado: mas seus discos dos anos 70 foram super interessantes para despertar um interesse pelo violão nos EUA. Ele foi o primeiro naquele então a embarcar numa carreira internacional. Depois (sua tão divulgada conversão) quando ele voltou e gravou outros discos, continuava bom, mas não tinha mais aquele impacto inicial e vivia mais de sua fama de aluno direto de Segóvia e da imagem inicial e o sucesso dos seus primeiros discos.
Like, what? I can’t even begin to understand the comparison. Can you enlighten us with some context? Two different people who lived different lives, unsurprisingly; one was a composer from the beginning of the 20th century, and the other one , renowned concert guitarist. Hello!
@@niceguitar6144 helloooooo!!! Lol. Barrios was the guitar composer Segovia was not. Barrios was an accomplished concert player. Shunned by the " apostle" of the guitar.
@@swmartin1960 if it really did happen which I think shows he is delusional it's ridiculous to talk about it so much. in fact someone who assumes his faith is interesting for everyone is ignorant
he talks about his faith, because it’s important to him. No one forced you to listen, stupid. He has beliefs that you don’t, how does that make him a fanatic?
