practice journal 7

What a day...

Thursday- one of my favorite days, usually because Friday is my "Saturday" for most of you... Tonight, I had a concert to play in with the youngsters. This concert was put on by the directors that told me thank you yesterday after playing for the performances. Again- always nice to be told that you don't go unnoticed.

I hate bowing in performances that aren't solo performances of mine. If the piece sounds like it deserves a bow, then I will take one. If the piece is applauded by obvious obligation, I nod on a small, simple acknowledgement scale. Sometimes, I nod, or do the namaste hands or whatever. When I do my solo performances, I do want to be noticed, and do the full head to your waist sort of low-dip bow.

Speaking of tricks, buy up that penicillin before some disgusting dweeb like Martin Shkreli get's ahold of it and charges too much. Actually tonight's trick in question is that ol' Rachmaninoff. Let's be bougie tonight and spell as Rachmaninov.

The piece in question tonight is as usual per lately, the transcription of Kreisler's Liebeslied. Well... I have been "learning" and marinating with this piece for years and years, and YEARS! Recently re-visiting Liebeslied, I am re-working, re-learning everything. This number is a beast. Firstly, it is deceptive to the eye. Looking like a simple waltz, at first glance, then the second glance reveals more. Then the third look, even more, and so on and so forth ad-nauseam. It's just a tough piece. The cadenza while visually a mess, is not nearly as tedious as the inner movements and details of the rest of the piece.

Thoughts:

• The two hands function as a soloist, with four accompanists. The bass player, the mid-range orchestra accompaniment, the woodwinds textures if you're thinking orchestrally as I do, are represented and placed in the low treble area at first- decorating the accompaniment, and fitting when possible into the rest of the accompaniment. Then you have the melody that floats about all this swirling, though, the melody is solid and throughout, it is altered by devils of decorations and articulations that must be deciphered.
• The visuality of the piece is easy and even on the eyes, though, the details requiring attention are obvious in the score, they take a great deal of settling, and rational fingering.
• The accessibility of this piece is like any other- if you do the work it will arrive. However, I "learned" this number probably in 2001, and put it away again until recently. The notes of Liebeslied do not dial up the past in my hands, so again, the struggle of learning a brand new piece is certainly a real one. Some pieces return to my fingers/motor memory rapidly after not visiting said piece for a while, however, this piece is so obtuse in that way.
• The hands do not seem particularly comfortable in this piece, everything seems just a little bit awkward.
• Rachmaninov's interpretation of this piece even to me sounds a bit more stuffy and Germanic in regards to tempi and subtlety. I believe that pianists now, over-play sooooo many details in Rachmaninoff. The Rachmaninoff playing by the younger cats now is really great, as it should be, because the competition is fire under any tail of us. In the golden age of the last romantic pianists, the idea of a story was paramount to the excesses of clinically analyzed and highly detailed pointillistic style of Rachmaninoff that we are used to hearing now.
• Phrasing and textural appropriation are important. There are multiple textures in play almost constantly. The accompaniment may be chunky and the melody and decorations could be chunky and legato at the same time, or perhaps contrapuntal sounding. Super slow and detailed practice/work seems to be the only ways to skin this cat. There aren't many tricks to make this piece more "do-able."
• While the tune is "Love's Sorrow" from what I can put together, the tune doesn't have to be played in a forlorn or melancholy way. Liebeslied can also tell a great story that isn't too infested with the emotion of being crestfallen. As far as I detect, the sorrow of love is not always a bad thing, and nor is this piece implicitly implying a certain kind of love. The love of Liebeslied is one that is lost, or is remembered through the tender psyche.
  • There are thousands of ways to do this number...
    • My way will no doubt be just to solidify the notes, and play the piece to mean something at the time, and for the situation. If the pieces conjures up love, and the loss of it, then dandy. No matter what one does, that gorgeous Rachmaninov melodic prowess is sexy, and all the piano trickery- Liebeslied is worth all the drama.

Today's Rehearsal:
Rachmaninov/Kreisler or Kreisler/Rachmaninov: Liebeslied

Chopin: Etudes Op. 10, 1 & 2

• ​So difficult. I am trying not to see pieces as this. Alas, the Chopin etudes. Holy moly.
• Just learning notes, and trying to solidify my ever moody and ever changing fingerings.

Rachmaninov:
Moment Musicaux: 4 &6

• Again, sooooooooo many notes.
• Practiced hands separately