Review: PETER SCHICKELE at New York Society For Ethical Culture

It’s become the custom in recent years to present memorial concerts which pay tribute to musicians after they leave this mortal plane. Peter Schickele, a musician, composer, musical satirist, performer, and radio host was no less of a deserving hero to many classical music fans. Schickele was 88 years old at the time of his passing in January 2024,` so the time was right.  On June 2 Schickele was honored at the Ethical Culture Society by a panoply of high caliber musicians,  egged on by a very enthusiastic audience of afficionados.

But what was so special about Peter Schickele?

Let’s put it this way: if Victor Borge and Anna Russell had had a love child, it would have been very much like Peter Schickele’s most famous brain child. This would be none other than the zany PDQ Bach, the last and least of J.S. Bach’s twenty children (1807-1742). Schickele’s brilliant musical jokes as well as the seemingly endless supply of “discoveries “of  PDQ’s music have kept musicians and non-musician’s laughing in amazement, astonishment, cringing at puns, and  walking around in bewilderment for over fifty years.

With the genial countenance of Peter Schickele/ PDQ Bach smiling from a portrait looming over the stage, WQXR’s Elliott Forrest presided over a succession of orchestral, instrumental, and vocal works by Schickele and PDQ Bach. Curated by Schickele’s daughter Karla Schickele and her friends, the audience heard some of Schickele’s more serious compositions as well as those of PDQ. A lovely piano duet,  “Little Mushrooms” by Schickele was performed by two of Schickele’s grandsons. His more imaginative and inventive works, however, were composed by his alter ego and received eagerly by the audience. The audience was full of excitement and did the de riguer  hissing when the absent stage manager Bill Walters (known to this audience simply as “Walter”) was reverently mentioned.

The second half of the intermissionless concert was devoted to the music of PDQ Bach. By the way, PDQ (“pretty damn quick” )was given this moniker because  a few other Bach boys went by their initials (C.P.E. and J.C. B. come to mind). So why not this one? (I realize that this is neither here not there, but consider it offered in the spirit of the concert).

The program consisted of some of the old chestnuts in the PDQ repertoire from 1967 to 2001. From the Art of the Ground Round came Loving Is As Easy. This is, of course, a fun-to-sing round and one that is very cleverly written. Some very cheeky musical jokes appear in the well-loved My Bonnie Lass She Smellethi from The Triumphs of Thusnelda.This madrigal-style piece has a knock-out tenor solo. John Kawa,tenor profundo, delivered a virtuoso riff on
“fa la las”that only stopped when he ran out of breath.

The penultimate number was the Schleptet in E flat major. One of PDQ’s longer works, there are five movements, with names like Yehudi Menuetto and Presto Hey Nonny Nonnio. Performed by the New York Pick-up Ensemble (Special Ops Team) led by Lloyd Peterson, semi-conductor, they performed with straight faces (how do they do that?) through this thoroughly eccentric piece.

It was also delightful to see Sirius Broadway channel’s host Seth Rudetsky on piano. Although he’s used to taking the lead he demonstrated that he’s very much a team player. It was great to see him playing with friends (well, hopefully they were friends).

When the concert ended people seemed to want more.  I hope this is not the end for Peter Schickele or PDQ Bach. We miss him.