Martin Munch (continuing stories from Composer in Residence Lake Como Festival 2010

I want to share with you a bit about a wonderful, crazy, Type A+ polyglot composer/pianist who was featured in the Lake Como Festival as well. His name, is Martin Munch. Here he is in typical unassuming fashion:

Martin Munch

Can you see the wry grin lurking below his moustache? The raised eyebrow, just hinting that maybe there is something you don't know, and he does? The 5th finger curled towards his mouth, as if he is just about to become "Dr. Evil" from the famous shagadelic movie series Austin Powers?

Alter ego?

Yes Martin is all of this and more. But however much fun I poke with him, he is unquestionably a rockstar talent of a composer, whose music is ecstatic, joyful, and virtuosic. I urge you to seek out some of his music and experience it. Well, you can start with a Google search for Martin Munch. However, you won't find much there! The problem we Americans face is, we are so two - dimensional when it comes to the alphabet. With think there is only one 'u'. In reality there are a plethora of 'u's out there, and because the web wasn't originally designed to handle that, poor artists like Martin must spell their names phonetically.  For some fun bedtime reading about this, check out info on Internationalized Domain Names . I point you to Wiki instead of to Vint Cerf's IETF and other work on this, because Vint hasn't returned my calls in a while. Anyway, I will save you some trouble, start looking here for Martin Munch What's that you say, you don't read Deutsch? A problem for you perhaps, but not for Martin. He speaks Italian, English, Arabic, Greek, Spanish, Russian, French, and oh yes, Deutsch. (Martin did I leave any out?!) Basically, wherever there is the possibility to find great art or beautiful women, Martin can converse.

Villa Vigoni

I attended his thrilling recital (here is the program) at the heart-stoppingly beautful Villa Vigoni, a center for Italian-German excellence of cooperation in Europe. This picture isn't much, and the real view is facing the other way, from the terrace, where we all drank sparkling water waiting for Martin to begin, and for the sun to set over the hillsides. Sigh.

Martin performed music inspired by Scriabin from his youth, that just blew me away. He intermingled his own works with Chopin as channeled through his sensibility. Listen here to what he does:



Even I, who believe heart and soul that the performer should do what they feel, was amazed by what Martin feels! And it felt somehow quite true. I mean, what was Chopin thinking when he put "strict tempo" on that first waltz anyway? How can you play in strict time with a broken heart after the first three notes?

I hope this has intrigued you enough to go and find Martin's original music and join in his ecstasy for a few minutes.