Talk:William Kapell

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It would be fascinating to discover who was the wiki-genius who invented the term peacock terms, and who is the super-wiki-genius who determines what constitutes a peacock term...or is it perhaps the same over-endowed individual? 65.206.122.30 (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some of the "peacock" termonology is questionable, but as a whole this article is rife with subjective language, and needs to be toned down. Make no mistake, I'm a Kapell fan (I wouldn't bother with the article if I wasn't). But as a whole the article is lacking proper citations and objectivity. I'll be working on it in the coming weeks.THD3 (talk) 18:05, 5 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I heartily agree and would be happy to assist you, THD3 (although I know that you have already written a your doctorate on Kapell so you probably know a lot more than I do on the subject!). I've a reasonable collection of primary and secondary sources (and, sadly, I have had some input to the circumstances of his death on Wikipedia as you will see from the link to BCPA Flight 304). BTW, the information you added about Kapell's parents I think originates from publicity in the 1940s/50s (for example see page 105 of Tim Page's book relating to the South American tour in 1948 just after his marriage to Anna Lou) and the omission of his Jewish background is probably a reflection of prevailing attitudes at that time which is no longer appropriate. Ruths9396 (talk) 16:38, 4 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reorg and rewrite

It's time, past time, really, to rewrite and reorganize this page. I will be taking out the POV and putting the page into a more chronological order. For sourcing, I'll be using liner notes and newspaper articles, and I am unaware of a full scale biography. If any one can locate a good fair use photograph, I'd appreciate it.THD3 (talk) 13:33, 5 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have deleted the POV that was permeating the page, and have deleted the tag (the user who added has not been active for several months).THD3 (talk) 13:43, 5 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A useful reference I did not see listed is the book by Tim Page, William Kapell: A Documentary Life History of the American Pianist (College Park: International Piano Archives at the University of Maryland, 1992) Singing Coyote (talk) 16:50, 16 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wife

In 1947, he wed the former Rebecca Anna Lou Melson, with whom he had two children.

Was she "Rebecca Anna Lou Melson" at the time of her marriage, or had she reverted to a maiden name after, perhaps, a divorce or the death an earlier husband? If not, she became "the former" Rebecca Anna Lou Melson only after her marriage to Kapell. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:42, 5 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's just bad writing. I've deleted "the former."THD3 (talk) 15:29, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. -- JackofOz (talk) 11:44, 8 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm editing Rebecca Anna Lou's autobiography, "Left-Over Life to Live." Marriage with Kapell was her first and Melson was her maiden name at the time of marriage to Kapell on May 18, 1948. He was 26 years old, she was 21. Following Kapell's death Anna Lou remarried, and later divorced, the perfumer and ethnographic art collector Gaston Dehavenon. She has kept his last name ever since. An interesting detail about Kapell's death is that his last concert in Geelong was Chopin’s Funeral March Sonata. The family is very active in projects related to Kapell, and several of Kapell's grandchildren are becoming very good musicians in their own right. -- Singing Coyote (talk) 16:05, 16 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Photograph

A major thing this article is missing is a photograph. Any ideas for what we can use that would be within Wikipedia's guidelines?THD3 (talk) 15:11, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding a photograph, one should be available from the family. I'll contact his son about getting one. -- Singing Coyote (talk) 16:05, 16 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Kapell in Australia

I’ve just trawled through a couple of dozen Australian newspaper reviews of Kapell’s Australian concerts. He was raved about during his 1945 tour; and almost all his 1953 concerts received similar high praise. The few criticisms some made were that Kapell was a brilliant executant who sometimes displayed more technique than feeling.

Kapell was indignant about a single article in the Sydney Morning Herald. In his final press conference he ranted about it like an angry adolescent. The Australian Jewish News which had praised Kapell to the skies gently chided him for over-reacting to one person’s opinion. One irony among many is that the article which angered Kapell was written BEFORE his concert, and was mainly the critic's objections to how other performers had interpreted the items Kapell was to play.

Doubtless had he lived, Kapell would have been back. In another article, Kapell said he preferred Australian audiences to American; we were radio-educated, and knew how to listen. Americans knew serious music only from television, said Kapell, and therefore considered it merely a 'show'.

We had among us a young man full of verve, talent and restless energy who still had some way to go to attain maturity. 2401:D006:A202:7E00:793A:228E:B6B1:3CE8 (talk) 20:27, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fascinating that a piece about how he might or might not perform an upcoming concert could cause him such angst. To be saddled with an expectation that everybody must always love him and his playing, even before they've actually met him or heard him play, seems to be an extremely heavy and unnecessary burden for any performer to shoulder. It's a shame that his uber-preciousness - betraying a profound insecurity, methinks - is what he's remembered for almost as much as his actual playing, which was magnificent. Lots of musicians are famously difficult, temperamental, high-handed, disdainful etc - Arturo Toscanini, Kathleen Battle, yada yada - but that's not what their musical gifts were all about. That's just their personal stuff getting in the way and taking up too much attention.

The personal angle is always of interest, of course, because these are not robots but fallible human beings. The irony is that, as good as they were, they'd have been even greater if they could just get an understanding that their way of conducting personal interactions does not serve them or anyone else, and crucially does not serve the cause of the music they're so devoted to. When the performer appoints themself to a position of importance greater than the music they perform, all is lost. But not irretrievably. The humility required comes in when they twig that "Oh, I need to change". That may have come to Kapell had he lived, but we'll never know now. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:43, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]