Ask pianist Alon Goldstein how he's doing, and you're likely to get an effusive spiel about life in bucolic northern Italy. Goldstein, soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Saturday night, has been based for the past 18 months in quaint Bellagio, overlooking Lake Como.
He's in residence at the Theo Lieven International Piano Foundation, which means Goldstein'sprovided a quiet refuge, free of financial woes and other mundane pressures, where he can immerse himself in music. Every month or so, the 31-year-old musician gets to work with such master teachers as Leon Fleisher and Alicia De Larrocha.
"The whole pulse of life is different here," said the Israeli-born pianist. "It allows you to relate to a piece of music in a more natural way."
Actually, Goldstein's stay in Italy has not been entirely free of distraction. He still maintains a pretty active concert schedule, which means he's hopping a jet to somewhere every couple of weeks. Not long ago he gave a recital at New York's Metropolitan Museum.
Still, Goldstein said he can get more accomplished in two weeks in Italy than in two months in a big city.
Goldstein's stop in Rhode Island is part of a U.S. tour that will take him to Florida, Michigan, Missouri and Texas, where he'll play the Beethoven Fourth Concerto with the Houston Symphony.
Saturday, he plays the youthful F Major Concerto of Mozart, K. 413.
The score is one of those charmers that almost never gets performed. Everyone feels they have to go with one of the popular concertos from the composer's mature years. But Goldstein finds the F Major a winner: It's humorous, with a number of unexpected twists, and as lean as chamber music.
"It might look easy," he said. "It's one of those pieces you could probably play when you're 8, but still has a lot to offer when you're 80."
Santa Fe festival
Although Goldstein doesn't have a big name in this country, that may change. He and his psychologist wife, whom he met in the Israeli Army, plan to move to New York this summer. His U.S. manager has been lining up a lot of work for him here, including summer appearances at the Sante Fe chamber festival and an engagement with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Goldstein has fond memories of this country from the four years he spent getting a master's degree at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory with Leon Fleisher. Fleisher, who opened the Philharmonic season with the left-hand concerto of Ravel, was a major influence, "an incredible, wonderful teacher," who taught Goldstein how to be his own teacher.
Goldstein also found living in a foreign country exhilarating, providing a fresh perspective on the way he looked at the world. The experience was so enriching that he decided after four years to pack up and move somewhere else, just to view things from yet another vantage.
In 1997, Goldstein and his wife settled in London, where he became an ardent theatergoer. He'd hoped to study at the Guildhall School, but the administration created a job for him, a "performance fellow."
"Great," said Goldstein. "What do I do?"
"We don't know," said his bosses, who cooked up the position especially for Goldstein. "Do what you want and we'll see if we like it."
Goldstein ended up instituting a concert series using the format made popular at Vermont's Marlboro Music Festival, where students share the stage with their teachers.
"I was self-indulgent," said Goldstein. "I always played the piano part myself."
Alon Goldstein joins the Rhode Island Philharmonic Saturday night at 8 for Mozart's Concerto No. 11. Tomorrow afternoon at 4, he gives a free master class at Rhode Island College's Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts.
Saturday's concert, led by Larry Rachleff, also includes Brahms's Fourth Symphony and the Passacaglia by the 20th-century Viennese composer Anton von Webern. Tickets range from $25 to $45.
Without Goldstein, but with host Karin Reed, the Philharmonic plays a shorter Rush Hour Series concert on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $24, students $12.
Both concerts are at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 69 Avenue of the Arts, Providence. Call 831-3123.
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