Temianka’s Performance Lectures
By the mid-1950s, onstage lectures had become a staple of Temianka's performance style. Concert programs from as early as 1951 note "comments from the stage by Mr. Temianka," and his long-running concert series, aptly titled "Let's Talk Music," prominently featured lectures and discussions on topics like music history, appreciation and performance techniques.
[Short clip from Haydn lecture]
Temianka often stressed that it was just as important to learn about the composer behind a performance as it was to learn about their music. Many of Temianka's commentaries made sure to include "behind the scenes" anecdotes about composers and their experiences in everyday life, as everyday people.
In other commentaries, like the clip below from Temianka's "Sunday Evening Concert" radio show, Temianka used his own personal anecdotes as a way to communicate musical ideas or facts in a way that was more personable than simply stating them outright.
[Short explanation of his discourse on Oistrakh, from JH-1]
In doing so, Temianka worked to broaden the way his audiences understood composers and their works. Instead of portraying performances only as artistic or technical achievements, these stories demonstrated that musical compositions were the products of people with distinct personalities and experiences that influenced their work.
"The verbal introductions to the performance have often served to remind us of the close relationship between the Arts, of the background and events against which many of these masterpieces were conceived, composed, and performed," Temianka wrote in a 1986 concert program, "and frequently, personal anecdotes have made us more fully aware of the warm humanity, drama, and accidents of history that are an integral part of the lives and achievements of the composers."
Alongside Temianka's anecdotes, humor was another powerful tool Temianka often used to make his lectures less intimidating and more accessible for the general public. [example from lecture, program quote about learning through laughing; talk about personability]
Temianka was also quite the historian. [Historical stuff in Temianka's lectures, the Paganini Quartet being a history thing in the first place]
[Live performance demonstrations, "dissecting" the performance]
"There is a piece by the contemporary German composer Paul Hindesmith in which the second violins come in after the first violins, playing the same tune one beat later. This is like two actors reciting Hamlet’s soliloquy at the same time, but one syllable apart. When I let the first and second violins take turns playing the theme, the audience was able to understand what went on."
[Explain the reception]
Sometimes, large portions of the audience would stay back after a performance to ask questions and hear more of his remarks. But audiences weren't the only ones enamored with such commentaries. One program from a 1963 performance mentions the acclaim surrounding Temianka's approach to program notes:
"When someone like Temianka comes along to annotate verbally with human interest, accuracy and excellence, program notes give music a lift." — Herbert Donaldson
Despite the praise from audiences and critics alike, not everyone enjoyed Temianka's style of commentary.[some choice words on how his commentary sucked, while not unprecedented it was out of the ordinary and perhaps portrayed in a different light than other commentaries from the era]