UBC Reports | Vol. 47 | No. 06 | Mar. 22, 2001

Pianist's work in the key of Beethoven

Ten-CD set conveys composer's magnificence in black and white over 11 hours

For the record, Music Prof. Robert Silverman is not the Toronto actor for whom he once received a cheque from CBC Television. Nor is he dean of Arts at Queen's University or "Bicycle Bob" Silverman, also from Montreal, who once got arrested for painting his own bicycle path on a city street.

A faculty member since 1973, who served as director of the School of Music from 1991-95, Silverman is the renowned pianist who has arrived at the peak of classical music after performing live and recording Beethoven's 32 sonatas.

Comprising 103 individual movements and more than 11 hours of music, the 10-CD set is on the Orpheum Masters label.

Silverman has performed with the world's greatest symphonies. He has made more than 15 winning recordings.

But after serving as the school's director he says he was looking for something big to get him back in the swing and keep him off the streets.

"I spent four years on this project, but have been living and teaching this music for a lifetime."

"The sonatas embody the core of the piano repertoire, in which Beethoven's immense expressive range, limitless powers of invention and technical mastery are revealed," he explains.

Silverman, who scaled his personal Everest on a high-tech Bosendorfer 290SE piano, only one of 32 manufactured, says his life has changed.

"The sense of any work is so much clearer to me now. I feel totally gelled artistically."

He describes his current UBC class as the best in 35 years.

"We pass on what we know and that helps develop ideas. I am a much better pianist because I teach and a much better teacher because I perform," he says.

A pianist and professor whose 10-disc set of the sonatas sold out in two months and is being reissued, Robert Silverman is enjoying the view.

See also: Genetics in book's makeup, More authors than ever honoured at annual event, Author flies high, UBC Authors 2000.