Virtuoso still hopes he's 'growing musically'

Emanuel Ax doesn't worry about job security. The 60-year -old pianist knew he wanted to perform from the time he was a 14 year old pre-college student at New York's Juilliard School. Now a celebrated musician, he has no shortage of invitations to play with the world's finest orchestras and other "A" list musician friends like violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Yefim Bronfman.

But Ax still exhibits the gregarious thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm of a teenager just breaking into the business. "I hope I'm still growing musically," Ax said during a telephone interview from a German hotel room. He had just finished concerts in Spain and was working his way through Germany, The Netherlands and France before traveling back to Canada and the United States.

The soft-spoken pianist is genuine in conversation, freely admitting to sometimes becoming weary with the travel demanded by his busy international career. But he's not complaining. "I'm basically doing exactly what I wanted to do, so a little travel is not too much to ask."

Ax will be in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 4 to perform on the University of Utah's Virtuoso Series at Libby Gardner Concert Hall. He previously visited Utah three times to perform with the Utah Symphony Orchestra and conductors, Maurice Abravanel in 1978; Joseph Silverstein in 1992; and Keith Lockhart in 1999.

He enjoys the thrill of playing concertos with an orchestra and is in constant

demand as a chamber music partner, but he also relishes the idea of performing solo. "I think it's exciting to play on your own once in a while, but there's a lot of responsibility," Ax said. The unspoken pressure of maintaining a sterling artistic reputation isn't something that keeps him up at night. He welcomes each new challenge and enjoys learning new music -- especially modern works.

"What I appreciate about his playing is the intellectual quality he brings to the music," said University of Utah piano professor Susan Duehlmeier on the phone. Duehlmeier says Ax combines a depth of understanding and sense of architecture with passionate interpretation in a very unique way.

She was delighted to learn that the concert includes Frédéric Chopin's opus 41 and 56 Mazurkas and opus 22 and 61 Polonaises. These musical forms are considered Polish national dances, and since Chopin and Ax share a common Polish heritage, Duehlmeier thinks they may have an interesting take on how this music should be performed.

Ax was born in Lvov, Poland but moved to Canada with his family when he was 10. They settled in New York City two years later, and Ax became a United States citizen in 1970.

"Mazurkas are very sophisticated works, seemingly easy to play but deceptively challenging," Duehlmeier said. Mazurkas and polonaises are written in three-four time, like the waltz. But the mazurka doesn't maintain a steady pulse, accenting the second or third beat instead of the first, and the polonaise has a distinctive underlying rhythmic accompaniment. "To play mazurkas well, there has to be a lot of study and you have to live with them," Duehlmeier said.

The concert also includes Robert Schumann's Fantasy, opus 17 and Fantasiestücke, opus 12. "All of the music on the program is top drawer," Ax said. The pianist prepared the concert with next year's 200th anniversary of Chopin's and Schumann's births in mind.

Ax, who has a discography of nearly 45 recordings, has previously recorded albums of Chopin and Schumann works but doesn't expect to add to the collection during the bicentenary. Instead, he has partnered with Carnegie Hall, London's Barbican and the orchestras of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Amsterdam to commission new works from composers Thomas Adès, Peter Lieberson and Osvaldo Golijov and charging them to honor Chopin and Schumann in a contemporary way.

Lieberson's piece is called "Remembering Schumann," and Adès wrote mazurkas in the style of Chopin. "I'm not sure what Golijov is writing," Ax said.

Ax lives in New York with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. They have two children. His son Joseph is a newspaper reporter and his daughter Sarah works for a bank. He relaxes by watching sports and rooting for the New York Giants football team, and the whole family enjoys tennis.

Ax spoke with quiet contentment -- a peace that revealed a man who knows who he is and is living the life he always dreamed of living. "It is very comforting that I know what I will be doing for the rest of my life," Ax acknowledged. That is a rare type of job security -- a comfort to those who enjoy listening to this remarkable musician practice his craft.