nice to find the company of other "brave" souls here. my upcoming recital is on dec. 3rd at the home of my teacher and his wife. she is also a piano teacher and all their students will participate. there will be a couple of other adults students, but it will mostly be youngsters. can you say major humiliation in the offing?

i am to play the Cm courante from the french suites by bach. it is not ready. i am going off to practice right now!

I hope to play something at the adult piano performance gathering on December 3. But I haven't been practicing, so I'm going to have to play something old.

Good luck, Pique and AdagioM. Let us know how things go. Anthony's concerto competition is on the third as well. Poor kid, he's got to take a bloody test during the morning and then do the Haydn piece in the afternoon.

I played the adagio from Haydn's Sonata No. 48, Hob. XVI/35 at the adult performance class this morning. It went fine, notes were all there, expression was fine, but I was really nervous so it was definitely not adagio! More like a peppy andante. I don't know why I was so nervous; I wasn't before I stood up to play. Weird.

Pique, how was your recital?

And ShiroKuro, what's up? I'm hoping that the reason we haven't seen you here is because you've had your nose to the grindstone, practicing!

Well, the Harp 'n' Adult Piano Music 'n' Munchies recital was last night.

Actually, a handful of kids played. One of the ABs has two daughters that are taking lessons, and each daughter played a duet with mom. About half of the harp students are teens, and one is about ten.

I was fourth on the program. I was supposed to play Wachet Auf and the Musette from the Anna Magdalena Notebook. Somehow, PT forgot to put the Musette on the program. She said I could play it if I wanted, and just announce it. I told her I'd see how the first piece went and decide at the end of it.

I actually played it pretty well. Better than I expected. One or two stumbles, but I managed to keep going. PT has been coaching all of us on this: when you flub something, don't go back and try to fix it. So the little voice of PT in my head told me to just press on, and I did.

I played the first page twice through and called it good. Oh, and I did it from memory. Yee-hah! PT was impressed.

I decided to pass on the Musette. I'll save that for the next recital.

I brought a sushi tray from Costco.


Adagiolady should have been there, too, but I understand it was her hubby's birthday (a round number), so she had other commitments.

Congratulations, PJ! And from memory, too!

I was impressed by your calm performance demeanor when I met you at AdagioLady's house last summer. (feels like aeons ago, doesn't it?)
Cheers, Michele

Well, my holiday choir concert is tomorrow--Tuesday from 6-9pm. Five different choirs, each with 6 songs. My fingers are already tired!

Hey PJ, glad it went well! I have WAY too many commitments right now, but sorry I missed the fun!

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:
Pique, how was your recital?
!

thank you for asking! i impressed myself. it was probably my most successful "performance" ever. the bach courante (french suites #3, if i recall) was not easy. it ranged across just about every key in the book, lots of counter-intuitive stuff and lovely dissonances (i love bach dissonances).

i kept my rhythm and "drive" intact, did not let the piece get away, and i even made it quite musical. people always praise your playing at such gatherings, whether it was any good or not, but this time lots of people came up afterwards to ask about the piece, which they had never heard before, describe the parts they really loved, and it provoked quite an interesting discussion about bach. when my listeners become more interested in the music than in my performance, i consider that a success.

my new teacher gets a lot of the credit. he's been intensively teaching me what he calls "PTs" or practice techniques, and they are really working. chief among them is that i must continually read ahead in the score, my hands must always know where they are going, and my attention must remain focused on what is going to happen next.

by focusing my attention in this way, there is no room to think about how i am screwing up or not screwing up. it takes all my attention just to prepare my mind and my hands for the music.

he also gave me his protocol for how to begin when performing:

1. breathe deeply and slowly twice.
2. bring both hands into position on the keyboard
3. hear and feel the rhythm/beat silently in your head at the speed you wish to play it.
4. begin playing.
5. if you chose a speed that is too fast or two slow, no need to start over, just subtlely and gradually speed up or slow down in a way that is imperceptible to the audeience (this one really saved me, because i usually start at a bad speed for the piece and then i screw up).

he also taught me when are the critical times to look at my hands instead of the score, and is encouraging me to wean myself away from the score more in performance.

he says he's got a lot planned for me for the next stage of my studies. i can hardly wait. also, we're going to have many more gatherings like this one so that everyone gets more practice performing.

the party afterwards was a great time, lovely people. my husband had a lot of fun there, too.

congrats on your concert, pj!

so, nina, how did it go?

I lived! It actually was pretty fun. They broke it up into two groups to keep the audience size down, which helped a lot... also a few solos thrown in (to CD accompaniment), so I could take a breather or two.

There's a video around--does anyone know if it's possible to digitize the sound from a VHS tape, and upload it to computer? I could put one or two songs somewhere if it is.

Pet peeve major du jour: CELL PHONES! There were at least 5 rings during the concert, and twice they just kept ringing. I think the culprits were too embarrassed to admit it was their phone that was ringing, so they just sat there stone-faced. Turn the **@#^^ thing off!

Worst was one that went off during a solo--and as it was a musical ring, it had the effect of throwing the singer off-key. Death to the cell phone infidels!

Ooh, allow me one quick preen. The middle schoolers sang a jazzy song about Elijah (of prophet fame). It starts out slow, big break in the middle where it moves into sort of a boogie-woogie thing. The chorus has a great walking bass line that goes lickety-split but makes the piece. I nailed it! All three times! Whoopee!!

Wow, all you guys playing Bach at your recitals! I'm impressed! And I've played my share of Adagios (from Haydn, no less) everywhere from Lento to Prestissimo. Thank heaven for middle movements of those classical sonatas!

We all rock!

Nina,

I share your pet peeve about cell phones. Did anyone in charge ask at the beginning for the audience to turn the bloody things off?

Congrats on the successful show. I still tend to run in the opposite direction when anyone asks if I'm interested in public performance. Well, I did accompany my youngest at his last talent show. He played a familiar three movement Clementi on flute. My part was pretty simple.

Pique,

Bravo for the Bach performance. I find Bach really challenging, doubly so as a recital piece. They are such intellectual workouts, and there is so little margin for error.

I'm really glad the new teacher is working out so well. It looks like your patient search worked out spectacularly. His pre-performance techniques are spot-on! That's exactly what I was taught, and I'm passing it along to my kids.

Best,

David

I played Debussy - The Girl with the Flaxen Hair - at my teacher's student recital yesterday and did not embarass myself. I was nervous (as always) but still focused on the music and played with feeling. One of the things that has tripped me up in the past is thinking "Gee, this is going really well!" then losing my concentration and making a flub. This time I was able to think "OK, good," and get right back to focusing on the piece. My cheering section said it was really good.

My teacher holds recitals twice a year, in June and December. I did an ok job last December and a good job this past June and yesterday, which is helping me to rebuild my confidence following the massacre of a 2-part invention (the B-flat) in June 2004. Phew!