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When the depression began, I was in Europe. After a while I came
back and lived with my family in the Pacific Palisades. I had read
somewhere that Richard Buhlig, the pianist, had years before in
Berlin given the first performance of Schoenberg’s Opus 11. I
thought to myself: He probably lives right here in Los Angeles. So
I looked in the phone book and, sure enough, there was his name. I
called him up and said, “I’d like to hear you play the Schoenberg
pieces.” He said he wasn’t contemplating giving a recital. I said,
“Well, surely, you play at home. Couldn’t I come over one day and
hear the Opus 11?” He said, “Certainly not.” He hung up. ¶ About a
year later, the family had to give up the house in the Palisades.
Mother and Dad went to an apartment in Los Angeles. I found an auto
court in Santa Monica where, in exchange for doing the gardening,
I got an apartment to live in and a large room back of the court
over the garages, which I used as a lecture hall. I was nineteen
years old and enthusiastic about modern music and painting. I went
from house to house in Santa Monica explaining this to the
housewives. I offered ten lectures for ..50. I said, “I will learn
each week something about the subject that I will then lecture on.”
¶ Well, the week came for my lecture on Schoenberg. Except for a
minuet, Opus 25, his music was too difficult for me to play. No
recordings were then available. I thought of Richard Buhlig. I
decided not to telephone him but to go directly to his house and
visit him. I hitchhiked into Los Angeles, arriving at his house at
noon. He wasn’t home. I took a pepper bough off a tree and, pulling
off the leaves one by one, recited, “He’ll come home; he won’t;
he’ll come home . . .” It always turned out He’ll come home. He
did. At midnight. I explained I’d been waiting to see him for
twelve hours. He invited me into the house. When I asked him to
illustrate my lecture on Schoenberg, he said, “Certainly not.”
However, he said he’d like to see some of my compositions, and we
made an appointment for the following week. |