Joseph Robert Smith (July 4, 1948 – March 23, 2015) was an American pianist, author, and lecturer. The son of Robert Paul Smith and Elinor Goulding Smith, Smith was a long-time student of pianist Seymour Bernstein.
Career
Smith gave nearly-annual New York recitals from 1974 to 1991. His 1987 recital at Alice Tully Hall included two unpublished piano works by George Gershwin, "Novelette in Fourths" and "Rubato".
Smith recorded about a dozen LPs and CDs, many of them anthologies of related piano pieces by different composers. Gershwin scholar Edward Jablonski included one of Smith's CDs, Rhythmic Moments, in a Gershwin discography even though it contained only three Gershwin pieces, because "the collection is valuable in part because of the non-Gershwin activity... even without Gershwin this would be a fetching collection of musical Americana."
Smith was known for bringing public attention to piano works of musical worth that had fallen into obscurity for non-musical reasons. His "Rare Finds" column in Piano Today magazine combined editions of piano pieces with essays about the piece and the composer. David Dubal wrote that "Smith's editions of rare piano musics are exemplary, and his articles in the magazine Piano Today are eagerly read." He published books combining essays and sheet music, in some cases with a bound-in CD of his own performances. He also presented his ideas in recitals, recordings, books, and radio broadcasts. Stuart Isacoff called him "a walking encyclopedia of the piano" and credited him with help in writing A Natural History of the Piano. He also appeared in the documentary film, Seymour: An Introduction.
Smith taught "Introduction to Music" for over ten years at the John J. Cali School of Montclair State University, and was on the faculty at Montclair's Stokes Forest Music Camp. He had a special interest in the composers John Field, Percy Grainger, Edvard Grieg, Charles Griffes, Robert Schumann, and Carl Maria von Weber and produced a recording of Griffes: Piano Music
Benita Meshulam, a pianist and friend of Smith, wrote in tribute to him:
"Joe was the most curious musician I have ever known, always looking for forgotten works, studying them thoroughly. He was interested not only in the works but the composers and investigated everything. He was a pianist who didn't care about the condition of the pianos he performed on. It was his message that he wanted to get across – a real musician's musician who lived and breathed his art. He was also the kindest and most generous colleague."
An example of Smith's style of analysis is provided by his essay in Piano magazine, based on a 2013 seminar he conducted at the New England Conservatory of Music, entitled Hand Divisions (an ethical, technical, or esthetic issue?) Smith wrote:
Recordings
"American" Piano Music by European Composers (Musical Heritage Society) Grieg and Grainger Piano Music (Musical Heritage Society) Joaquin Turina, Seymour Bernstein, Felix Mendelssohn, Abram Chasins (Orion – ORS 81402) Rhythmic Moments: Piano Pieces by "Popular Music" Composers From Foster to Ellington (Premier 1028) Burleigh: From the Southland (includes songs and piano works) (Premier) Let My Song Fill Your Heart: A Remembrance of the American Concert Song (Premier) Romancing the Piano (included with piano anthology of this name) (Ekay) Rare Finds (included with piano anthology of this name) (Ekay) Familiar Melodies: Transcription, Variations, Fantasies (Brioso 126) Piano Waltzes from Beethoven to Poulenc (Brioso 142) Piano Barcarolles: from Veniceto the Mississippi (Brioso 155) Griffes Piano Music (Arkiv 70001)