Sunday, April 24, 2005
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April 24, 6:00 pm
The recital ended at 4:00, and after packing up and getting back home, I'm ready to enter the last blog about the performance.
It was very well received - there was a good audience, quiet, attentive, and very responsive. A standing ovation at the end of 'Moonlight' and lots of well-wishers afterwards. I personally was quite satisfied with the performance. The hall as a lovely acoustic for piano - live and resonant. The piano can really breathe, and the sonorities have room to grow in. So it's a pleasure to play there. I played a Steinway “B” which was quite good. Not as good as the Fazioli of the previous week, but certainly playable. And although it's smaller than a full concert grand (9 ft.) it has enough power for the Beethoven I played.
Here are a few general observations:
- my plan for preparation worked in general. However, I still would like to have a decent rehearsal at the piano the day before the concert. The hour I was allotted was barely enough time to get to know the instrument, and since I'm temperamentally disinclined to play everthing at full bore the day of the recital, it's quite a push to get through a program of this kind. This was especially true for the late Sonata, Op. 101. There were passages in it that I was simply playing for the first time in that hall, and that wasn't ideal. But the first hallmark of a good pianist is coordination, and the second is fexlibility.
- luckily, it was a cool day here, so I wore a jacket over to the hall. It turned out that the dressing room was rather chilly, and I kept the jacket on until the last minute before putting on my suit coat and going out onto the stage, where of course it's warm! So in the future, I intend to add to my checklist a note to bring along a warm sweater. With ventilation systems being what they are, the internal temperature of a building can range from freezing in one room to boiling in another. Flexibility again.
- I paid a lot of attention to my breathing throughout the recital, and this was a big help.
Now onto the 'Moonlight' itself.
- it was the correct thing to use the soft pedal in the first movement. Given the resonance of the hall, the sound was not at all muffled, and using the soft pedal gave the proper 'mystery' to the sonority of the first movement.
- here are some specific things I want to work on in the first movement:
ms. 48/50 didn't get the subito piano
ms. 58/59 another subito piano, this one I did better, but I'm not exploiting the full expressive value here
ms. 25 I need to check the triplet eighth notes, something doesn't feel right here
ms. 48 triplet eighth notes on the fourth beat, right hand - I discovered Friday that I was misreading this, but didn't have time to change it - should be c-sharp, e, g-sharp. I played c-sharp, f-sharp, g-sharp. Note that I repeated the last two eighth notes of the previous beat. Those darned patterns!
- second movement: Not too much here, I felt good about it, and have finally conquered the memory insecurity in measure 13/14. Was able to correct a misreading in 33-34, where I discovered (also on Friday) that I was prolonging the left hand chord and bringing it in with the right hand on the second beat, rather than letting the chord sound on the first beat only.
- third movement - went very well in general. In fact, certain problem passages, such as measure 9- 13 went better than ever before (boy, is it nice when that happens!) In think this was partly due to the resonance of the hall - I could actually hear the upper pedal g-sharp in the right hand.
- measures 53-57 and 148-151. In both of these passages I was hitting too many wrong notes. I think the reason is that I'm not feeling the rhythmic structure of the four measures, but instead playing each half measure as an equal to all the others. There's not enough impulse, in other words, particularly over the larger, half-measure span. I'll need to work on this.
- measure 78 - didn't play the slight change in chord voicing in the second half of the measure for the right hand. I got away with it, but I need that 'c' for the D7 chord.
- 178-185 This was better, but it still could have used more spaciousness, I need to broaden the tempo slightly here, and not play it strictly in time. It just feels to 'squeezed.' But was better, nonetheless.
Finally on 'Moonlight': frankly, I took on this Sonata after a conversation last year with out Program Coordinator, who is in charge of publicity and ticket sales, etc. She felt that we need to improve our audience attendance. And I knew that 'Moonlight' was a warhorse and would be a sure draw. What I didn't expect is that, even though I've taught it before, I would have such a wonderful time learning and playing it. I truly understand why it was such an immediate success when it was first performed, and why it has been played frequently ever since.
And now a few closing thoughts:
- recital making is a process not a product. And what you've read here is just a little window into the process that any professional pianist must go through to present a recital. Remember that this blog covered only one Sonata - and I performed two other Sonatas and two sets of Variations. So the Blog, if it covered the entire program, would be huge. As it is, I've still got to go to the other pieces, make notes on them and put in some corrections. This is the ongoing work of the process of being a musician.
- I already know I'll be performing the 'Moonlight' on at least two other occasions in the next month. And, given the success I had with it, I may program it more frequently in the future.
-Finally, I hope that this blog has given you some insight into what happens on stage, and in the months leading up to it. What I can't describe here is that magic that happens when I'm totally immersed in this magnificent music, sharing its beauty with listerners. That, dear blog-reader, you'll have to discover for yourself, by making music for others.
'Bye!
Saturday, April 23, 2005
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The concert is scheduled for tomorrow, April 24th at 2:00 pm. As I've noted in a previous blog, there was a scheduling problem in getting the hall for a rehearsal of the program. As it turns out, I'll only have one hour on the piano from 11-12 before the tuner comes. Then, rather than going home, I'll stay there, and wait in the dressing room until the program time. I know there are some pianists who 'warm up' and practice till the very last minute before going out on stage, but that has always been counterproductive for me. I've ended up getting more nervous, rather than calmer.
First of all, then, let me give you a list of what I'll need to take along to the hall. Note that I'll change there, rather than wearing a suit and tie from 10:30 when I leave the house until 2:00 when I begin to play. So I'll need to take:
- suit, shirt, tie, belt, concert shoes (I keep a special pair) dress socks
- food: bottled water, protein drink, bananas, salad, toasted soybeans
- comb, brush, hand towel (they only provide paper towels there), eye drops
- Music, DAT tape (they'll make an archive recording for me) , list of timings for the pieces, and entries/exits onto stage (this is for the crew)
All of the above I'll organize tonight, so that tomorrow I'll just have to load it into the car and go. The goal is to have as little distraction as possible - no last minute drama, or trying to remember everything. Then, in case the truly unforseen does happen (and believe me, it has happened and will again) I won't be distracted and forget something important (like my suitpants, which I once left home only to discover 15 mintues before the concert began that I only had the pair of jeans I was wearing!).
Here's my schedule for tomorrow:
7:00am up
7-8 exercise and shower (I'll put in 20 minutes of light exercise on the elliptical trainer, just to get the blood flowing.
8-9 meditate
9-10 Breakfast, probably a couple of eggs scrambled and some green tea.
10 - load up car
10:30 leave for hall
11 - hour of rehearsal
12-2 Lunch/change/study music/meditate for 30 mins.
After I finish this blog, I'll take a swim, then have a hot bath, dinner and study the music one more time. Then I may watch a movie, but try to be in bed by 11:00.
I'll enter one last blog tomorrow after the recital with some closing thoughts.
I've completed two more tryouts - one on Thursday afternoon here at my studio, and one on Friday morning. The Thursday afternoon run-through went better than the Friday. I was well rested Thursday, and was able to spend the morning reviewing the complete program before actually playing it. And on Thursday evening, I was able to put in a few corrections. However, on Friday I had to get up a little earlier than usual to do just a brief review of notes from the Thursday evening (notes as in things to correct and remember) and then I was off to get my hair cut. As soon as I returned home, I had to sit down and play the entire program for two students of mine, who followed with the score.
So I was not as well rested, and didn't have the entire morning to undertake a leisurely review. However, there's an advantage in this as well, as I'm able to see where there are still weaknesses or insecurities that need shoring up. Over all, there's been improvement from one tryout to the next, and I'm confident that things will go well - but it's interesting that things I thought I had fixed earlier in the week turned out not to be as secure, so I had to go back and review when I was finally able to sit down at the piano (around 5pm.)
This emphasizes the importance of being well rested on the day of a performance. A little later today, I'll post a second blog detailing how tomorrow will look - from the time I get up until the performance itself. Today, after posting this blog, I'll spend an hour meditating, then I'll work through the entire program in reverse order (starting with 'Moonlight') and starting with the last movement of the Sonata. Then I'll break for lunch, and since it's sunny outside, go for a walk - during the walk, I'll mentally review the program from two points of view - one the things I want to remember to do, and then a review of the general mood and atmosphere of each piece or movement. This is practice in finding the 'character' of each piece. On stage I'm something like an actor doing a solo show in which I take all the roles - so I do have to find the keys to the 'character' of each piece or movement.
Also today, I've got to do the practical things which will make tomorrow go smoothly. These include:
- preparing my clothes for tomorrow (since I have two hours inbetween my hour of rehearsal and the concert - I'll change in the dressing room there, so I'll have to organize and prepare everything today)
- preparing food for tomorrow (I'll need to eat something between 12-2 again, I'll need to be over there - not enough time to come home for lunch and go back again)
- making sure I have other essentails organized - some fruit and bottled water for intermission
This evening, I'll take a swim, and then after dinner sit down to review the scores one more time - no playing, just going through the printed page.
So that's today.
I also wanted to share some specific musical ideas for the 'Moonlight' that came out of the two tryouts.
1. Yesterday I removed the music stand from the piano when I played. It's important to do this, as the sound of the piano changes considerably when the stand is removed. It can be just the kind of 'aural shock' that can get you off balance at the beginning of a concert. My piano is on the bright side, and I experimented with playing the first movement of the 'Moonlight' using the soft pedal throughout. This worked fairly well - it provides a nice contrast in sonority with the second movement. So I'll try this in the hall during my one hour of rehearsal tomorrow, and if it feels right, I'll do it in the performance. Also, I've decided just in the past few days that at the very end of the first movement, I'll pedal more frequently. I'm referring to measures 66 to the end, which is all the c-sharp minor triad. Normally I would pedal the entire thing with one (right) pedal. But since there is a decrescendo indicated here, and since it's in the low register, changing the pedal every half-measure helps to clear the sonority and soften things. I may hold the pedal for the last two pp chords rather than changing. I'll have to see in the hall.
2. There are a couple of subito piano markings i.e. 48/49 and 58/59 where a cresc. mark is followed not by a logical peaking of the sound to a forte, but to a sudden piano instead. This is a dramatic device used fairly frequently by Beethoven (it will occur in last movement as well.) I find these markings pesky to pull off. The modern piano has so much sustaining power and sonority inherent in it that it takes careful planning to be able to drop down to piano after the build up of the crescendo. It takes a tiny pause to allow the previous build up of sonority to dissipate before we can actually hear the piano even if we're playing softly. So thiese kind of 'subito' markings almost always involve a tiny rubato.
3. The second movement is going well. Memory seems to be settling in, although I'll still pay attention to that similar spot I talked about in the previous blog. I need to make a correction here, as the version in measure 13/14 is only played twice (because of the structure of repeats in the movement) and not three times, as I indicated previously. So I need to be even more attentive to this in my preparation.
4. In the last movement, I've decided to add a tiny ritardando at the end of the chord that is arpeggiated in measure 19/20. It says crescendo and this implies another one of those subito piano spots, but I think the only way to achieve the transition here is with a little slowing down (not a lot, but a nice 'bend around the corner') to introduce the piano theme in measure 21.
I also need to remember that measure 33 moves from double forte to piano, and stays piano (BTW in measure 35/36 there's another one of those 'subito piano' situations) Also the chord at the downbeat of 37 is staccato and still piano - it's very tempting to play this chord forte in anticipation of the subito forte on the second beat.
In measure 55, I discovered earlier in the week a memory detail - I had inadvertantly changed the upper voice in the right hand to a sixth b to g-sharp rather than the sixth d-sharp to b. This was probably because I was anticipating the former since it appears in measure 56. This is a good example of the mind tryng to make everything fit a uniform pattern, a characteristic of our thinking and memorizing that's useful, but dangerous when there are this tiny differences in the music.
Measure 71 also calls for some careful playing - again we're transitioning to the theme being developed at piano in measure 72, and also turning a harmonic corner - moving from c-sharp minor to f-sharp minor.
In measure 88 and similar places, it's easy to rush the beats that are not articulated in the upper voice - I'm thinking of the third beat in measure 88, and the second and fourth beats in measure 97, as well as the second and third beats in 98. Again, the tendency is to accelerate through these beats - the left hand is pulsing in tremolando octaves, and will tend to push things forward. But we want the steady thrum of the dominant g-sharp pedal in the lower register. The return to the main theme in measure103 is much more effective and dramatic if we hold onto the tempo steadily here by sensing all the beats.
In measure 148, I'd been repeating the g-sharp bass note that occurs on the downbeat, rather than moving to the f-sharp on beat three. The harmony works here with g-sharp twice, and my ear didn't pick it up until I followed the score in slow practice earlier this week. Again, it's amazing how the brain will make these changes to accomodate it's innate sense of pattern making (which may not be Beethoven's!)
From measure 178 through 185, we are at a peak of music tension - a series of downward and upward sweeps through four different harmonies is followed by a rising chromatic scale. I discovered this week that it's important not to overplay these notes by trying to make the all forte. The aural sensation of forte will come about through a clean articulation of the sound, and holding the right pedal down for the two measures of each harmony. I need to take a tiny 'breath' before the beginning of each change of harmony in order to 'open up' the passages and allow them space to sound. I was pushing too hard here, and by the time I got to the diminished arpeggiation in measure 182/183 where the figure goes from triplets, to 16th notes, and then to sextuplet 16ths, I was feeling very crowded indeed. The principal is always the same the more difficult the passage, the greater the ease with which we play it.
I think that's about it on 'final insights.' I do want to emphasize that all of this thinking takes place before the performance, and not during. I'm not talking to myself during the performance. All of this careful thinking now is like creating the conduits through which my musical intuition can flow in the course of the performance, where my job is to experience and express the music as fully as I can in the here and now of the recital.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
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As I noted in my last blog, I am now in the process of 'test driving' the program to see how it will go. I gave my initial test performance last Thursday (today's Monday) and did another one on Friday. On Saturday I gave a lecture-recital on Beethoven and played portions of the program I'm giving on April 24th. And yes, I broke my own rule and played only the first movement of the 'Moonlight.' This was a lecture-recital in memory of one of my first piano students when I came to Palomar College nearly 25 years ago, and it felt right to close the concert with a performance of the quiet first movement. He had recently passed away. His Sister told me that he used to play the movement late at night, and that it brought back very tender memories for her. So, I broke my own rule and there was a rightness to doing that. Ordinarily I wouldn't play just one movement of a Sonata, nor would I end with quiet piece, but in this case, it seemed to work. Then on Sunday, I tried the program on a Fazioli concert grand in a private home. The piano was magnificent, and it was a good workout to try the program on a new instrument in a new setting, without any warmups.
Of course, having a first-class piano to work with was very inspiring - the piano I played on the pervious day for the lecture-recital was a Steinway 6' grand that had been rebuilt. It was serviceable, but nothing to write home about. I own a 7'4“ Falcone grand, which is a lovely instrument I've had for over 15 years. However, it's very important not to practice the program on just one instrument, and then move to another hall and instrument to perform. We can get used to the sounds of a particular instrument and its idiosyncracies, and moving to another instrument (especially if it is inferior) can pose problems - we may hear things we've never heard, or we may lose things that a better instrument brings out.
The concert on Sunday the 24th will be on a 7 foot Steinway, about 6 years old, in a hall the seats 500. (This is the Escondido Center for the Arts) The acoustics of the hall are excellent, and the piano is very good (although I must say not as good as the Fazioli from Sunday.) Most unfortunately, however, I will be unable to rehearse in the hall until 11:00 am the day of the performance. I'll have one hour, and then the tuner will come in. This poses special logistical problems that I'll deal with in another blog. It's doable (fortunately, I've played on the piano in that hall before, so it won't be a total surprise) but I need to plan very carefully in order to bring it off.
At any rate, I'm now “off” tryouts for today and tomorrow. On Thursday I'll try it here for a friend at 2:30 in the afternoon (Nota bene: the program is at 2:00 in the afternoon, so it's always good to schedule a tryout or two at that time. The Sunday tryout was at 2:00 also.) I'll also try it on Friday morning for two students - also at home. On this occasion, the students will follow along with the score, which adds a little 'pressure.' That will probably be the last tryout - Saturday I'll just practice quietly at home.
So exactly how am I practicing these last few days? First of all, I'm not playing the program fast, or at concert tempo. I'm working in tempo meditando using the metronome to establish a tempo of a quarter note = 72. At this tempo, the piece moves, but does not run. I use the score, noting any deviations that may have slipped into my memory. I note the dynamics, any expressive markings I may have overlooked. I also run continuous 'body scans' to see if there are any places where I'm tightening up. For me the indicators of tightening are:
holding my breath
tightening at the shoulder
pulling up on the sole of my left foot (don't ask me why, but it's a sure indicator of tension)
When I note one of these symptoms, it's like a yellow light indicating insecurity and tension. I may repeat that passage to make sure I'm as loose as possible.
In the case of the 'Moonlight' the tempo meditando applies to the last movement. It's very helpful here as I can notice how even at the slower tempo, there are places where I tend to rush. In general these are places where there is a repeated figuration, such as measure 33 and following, where the figuration winds back on itself. This is also a passage where the rhythmic/metric structure of the 16th notes is tricky. We have to be very careful that we don't inadvertently accent the first 'e' 16th note afer the A Major chord - doing so will make the rhythmic structure be unbalanced. The first metric accent is on the f-sharp immediately after, and then on the 'a' which begins the fourth beat. Metric accents are not conventional accents in the sense that we play louder, there more a felt/thought sense of where the beat and its subdivisions precisely lie.
I also tend to rush in the passage that begins on measure 53 - again a pattern of repeated notes. There is a natural tendency to accelerate anytime the same information is repeated - I've seen it over and over again in my students. We have to be very vigilant not to let any accelerando happen unconsciously. I'm all for speeding up as an expressive device - but it must be applied with full awareness of what we are doing.
Apropos memory, I want to share one observation about the second movement. I've been insecure in measure 13, and just today figured out why. The last beat of ms. 12 and the entire next measure is varied in ms. 28/29. The notes are exactly the same, but the rhythm is different. Furthermore at 28/29 the same varied rhythm is repeated, whereas in measure 12/13 the rhythm appears with tied notes. By virtue of repetitions, we'll play measure 28/29 and its following repetition in 30/31 a total of six times, and measure 12/13 only three. If we're not careful, we'll want to apply the 28/29 pattern in place of the 12/13 as it is actually written. Again, making this pattern change conscious makes it less likely I'll 'mess it up' in performance.
Now apart from these kinds of specific observations, I'm spending some time each day just looking at the scores. I'm also beginning to hear the pieces in my head without the score. Yesterday while driving I went through the entire fugal development of the last movement of op. 101 several times, and also working through the last movement of 'Moonlight.' It's a good way to use up driving time!
Friday, April 15, 2005
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Yesterday I performed the entire program, which ends with 'Moonlight,' for a friend. I do want to emphasize that the process I'm going through with this Sonata that I'm blogging is also taking place simultaneously (although not on a blog, just in my head, and in notes I make for myself) for all the other pieces in the program. FYI, here is the entire program: (all by Beethoven)
Eight Variations in F Major, WoO 76
Sonata in Ga Major, Op,. 14 No. 2
Six Variations in D Major, Op. 76
Sonata in A Major, Op. 101
Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ('Moonlight')
As you can see, the Moonlight is the last piece on the program. Yesterday evening I played the entire program for a friend, straight through from start to finish, pausing for the intermission as I would in a formal recital. The entire program's playing time (not counting intermission) is about an hour twenty minutes. As this was the first time I'd tried it all the way through, I must say that by the end of the third movement of the 'Moonlight' I was pretty fatigued. I rushed the last movement - a symptom for me of being tired. As soon as my friend had left, I went back to the music, and reviewed each piece, noting where things weren't right, and correcting it in my head. At this point I didn't practice it, as I've learned that compulsive over-practicing after playing the program all the way through is ultimately more harmful than helpful. However this morning, after a good night's sleep I corrected any place in the program that didn't go as well as I would have liked, paying special attention to the last movement of 'Moonlight.' I'll be playing it again this evening, and will go through the same process. Tomorrow morning I'll have more time to do detailed corrections. I'll also have more time to record some specific insights about what I learned from my first two 'run-throughs' at that time.
But the most important point I want to make here is that the period immediately after a performance is the most powerful time for corrections. So I try to make a space shortly after a performance for a review and correction, and will continue to do so after each try-out.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
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I just finished practicing the Sonata today, and I thought I'd give you a list of the things I'm noting as I practice.
First Movement:
1. still getting confused in memory on the difference between measures 26-28 and measures 49-50, so I tried another approach - I wrote out an exact scheme of the two places and how they differ. Here it is:
a = 26-28 and a1 = 49-50
a RH E D# C# ] B# rhythm: half-note, quarter, quarter
LH C# F# Fx ] G#
a1 RH E ] Dnat B# ] C# rhythm: half-note, half-note, half-note
LH C#] F# G# ] C#
Please note that I couldn't do bar lines, so just used the right end of a bracket to indicate this. Also, in both cases the movement from C# to F# in the bass is down. I have all this sketched out on a post-it note, so I'll just stick on the music-stand on the piano, and also take it to bed with me, and read it just before sleeping, and first thing getting up. This should clear up this spot once and for all. I'll let you know in a day or two.
2. measures 32-39 order of beginning notes in ascending arpeggio figure in RH:
D#, then a measure later up a half step to E, then one measure later up next octave to C# (middle C#), then one meausre later to F#, then we begin our descent down.
3. Measure 56 = Three beats of same chord B7, in inner voice - melody and bass don't move till fourth beat . This is the only measure to change harmony on the fourth beat, after repeating the harmony on each beat for three beats. Measure 26 is similar, but there the harmony lasts the entire measure. This is probably why measure 56 has always felt a little insecure.
Second Movement:
1. Noted that the third of the chord is in both outer voices on alternate iterations of the phrase i.e. ms.2 (upbeat to 3) then measure 6/7 then ms. 10/11 then 15/16. In between the melodic motive has the root of the chord in the soprano, and the third of the chord in the bass, rather than doubling the third as in the above measures. Again, a tiny detail that can trip the memory in the stress of a performance.
2. ms. 25/26 unsyncopated (like opening two measures) 26-28 syncopated unlike its equivalent at the opening.
3. The trio has accents and should be stronger than the first section. This also allows contrast with the 'pp' after the double bar.
Third Movement:
1. There are 5 sets of upward-sweeping arpeggio figures such as the one that opens the sonata. There are 6 if you count the repeat of the exposition. here are brief observations that I'm using to help keep them straight in my mind.
Assuming 6 in all:
1: c-sharp minor triad in second inversion, arpeggiated upward, bass moves down by step eventually to G-sharp, changing once per measure in this patters: C-sharp, B-sharp, B natural, A natural, G-sharp.
2: starts out like 1, but ends on the pitch 'e' in octaves, and proceeds to modulate to g-sharp minor. Note bass movment to a-sharp, f-double sharp, to g-sharp
3=1: return to beginning via first ending
4: starts out on c-sharp not g-sharp. So the arpeggio begins not in second inversion, but in root position, and is played twice, with downward movement in bass, eventually travelling from g-sharp to a to e-sharp, landing on f-sharp as the inital key of the development
5=1: return of main theme after development
6: in f-sharp minor, like a transposition of 1 but after two upward sweeps changes into faster arpeggios.
2. the fast figuration in measure 33-40 and 129-135 - I should only play piano as indicated. Tendency to overplay because of speed and difficulty. Also, I need to know exactly where the beats lie in the figure this is crucial to developing speed and accuracy, as in going fast, a false accent throws off the whole impulse/energy pattern, resulting in tension, and an unclear sound.
3. ms. 43 and similar places - need to work on dynamics more, not completely thought out.
4. 178 and following - the series of 'forte' descending passages. Here as in the note no. 2 above, I need to know clearly where the beats are falling, and also not overplay. With the pedal down, a clear mezzo forte after a forte beginning will result in an acoustically louder sound, than in trying to play all the notes forte. Here the energy has to be evenly distributed or the passage will cramp by measure 183.
So there's some notes from today's work. Along side this, I've arranged three run-throughs of the entire program,one on Thursday evening, one on Friday evening, and one on Sunday. The first two will be here in my home studio, the Sunday at another home on a piano I don't know. I'm also trying to arrange rehearsal in the hall, but so far, can only get it the day of the concert, which is not the most desirable.
The program itself has been submitted to the Publicity Coordinator, and I've already written program notes. These need to be proof read. I'm also beginning to send out e-mail copies of the really cool poster that has been designed for the concert. If you'd like an email version, let me know at pgach@palomar.edu and I'll be happy to forward one to you.
Time for lunch!
Saturday, April 09, 2005
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Well, I'm back at it today. Tomorrow will be two weeks until the April 24th recital. Today I have played the first half of the program, and when I return to the piano later on today, I'll practice the second half of the program, which concludes with the 'Moonlight.' This next week is a time of transition, when I move from the 'how' to the 'what' of the program. The 'how' are the technical things - briefly listed:
* reading the text correctly, the right pitches and the right rhythms, based on the best text available
* fingering the pieces, considering alternative fingerings and distributions of notes between the hands
* working through any tension, insecurities, or 'technical knots' that have come up during practice
* memorizing the pieces
* working through pedaling, colorization, i.e. dynamics, accents, overall sense of phrasing and lines
* analysis of form, theoretical considerations such as harmony, tonal centers, modulations, transistions between sections.
The 'what' :
* The 'emotional line' of the piece - where does the tension gather, where does it release, is there movement toward a point of arrival, is there movement away from that point. Are there places where we're 'on hold' the tonal center is stopped for a while. Are there places where the harmonic language points to a rise of tension.
* The overall rhythmic feel of each piece, each movement, each section - a constant check on whether my body is harmonizing with the rhythm of the piece. Am I clenching at a difficult spot? Is my breathing getting stopped by fear of a difficult passage? Am I playing with ease throughout? Is any possible clenching the result of a poorly or incompletely conceived sense of the rhythm? By rhythm here I mean the metrics of the piece - strong and weak beats, divisions of the beats into strong and weak groupings, strong and weak measures, places where there is a feeling of upbeat in comparison to places where there is a feeling of downbeat. This feeling may encompass entire groups of measures as well.
* Cultivating a sense of the awareness of what I am playing. If I find myself thinking of a fingering, or technical solution to a passage, I immediately go back and rethink it in terms of what the music says, not how I'm playing it.This is critical for a successful performance, because thinking of how I'm playing something pulls the focus of my attention back onto myself. And when the focus is on myself and not the music, I'll probably start judging the past of what I've just played, the future of the tough stuff that's going to happen, and ignore the present of the music flowing through me.
* Practicing continuity - the ability to get through the piece no matter what. Continuity practice is not detailed polishing - although that is also important and has to happen. Continuity practice is sitting down and beginning a piece and not stopping, regardless of how bad it is, or how many mistakes I'm making, etc. In other words, this is practice for performance. Once I've completed a continuity practice, I'll go back polish, and make notes on what to do. But it is vital to begin doing this type of practice. So over the next week to ten days, I'll arrange for several 'test runs' of the program - first each half, and then the entire program. This builds mental stamina, and creates a 'wholistic' continuity for the emotional line of the entire program.
BTW, the closer I get to the performance, the more frequently I'll begin just looking at the score, and not playing it at all...
So that's where we are in the process. I'll be practicing the 'Moonlight' later, and have some more specific thoughts on it for you then.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
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March 30, 2005
This weekend is a performance of the Beethoven First Piano Concerto, dress rehearsal is tonight, so for the past few days my creative energies have been going into preparation for that event. There will be two performances, Sat. eve and Sunday afternoon. After that, I'll take two days off from practice, and then devote my full energies to the solo Beethoven recital. So you can expect my Moonlight entries to pick up from next week until the performance itself on April 24.
It is extremely important to acquire (and this comes only with experience) the ability to know when to 'stop' preparation for a performance. The fact that I have to interrupt my preparation for one program to concentrate temporarily on another is not a tragedy, but rather an opportunity. It is always a pleasant surprise to leave a program for a few days, and then go back to it and discover that some things have improved 'on their own.' What I think is happening is that we are unconsciously integrating the material we've acquired, and the rest time really allows our brains time to absorb all that material we've been putting into it.
I have spent a moment here and there in the past week playing 'knotty' spots in the program - places where a sense of insecurity still lurks. And on one or two occasions I've played the last movement of the Moonlight, just to see where it is. As the last movement is the freshest item on the menu for April 24, it deserves occasional visits. But even it will be ignored until next Wednesday.
I've learned over the years that there is a danger in compulsive, over-practicing. We can get so obsessed with perfection that we begin to neurotically focus on our mistakes, getting 'hung up' on tough spots, technical challenges, and ignoring the music that is to be made. If I have any pangs of conscience over the next few days, I may take the scores and read them away from the piano. But this backing off period is really a good thing. That much I've learned from experience.
So I'll be back at it next week. On the agenda when I return:
1. trying out entire movements in the 'no stopping/performance' mode
2. arranging to play the entire program for friends, and willing listeners on a variety of pianos, including my piano here at my home studio, and and the homes of friends and music lovers.
3. spending an increasing amount of time away from the piano, looking at the score, and thinking through the music.
(I already notice that I can 'think through' a good deal of the program just after I wake up in the morning - my musical imagination is particularly strong then)
Friday, March 18, 2005
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I've been concentrating mostly on the First Concerto in the past few days - the first rehearsal with orchestra is on Tuesday of next week, but I have also tried to cycle through the solo program for the 24th (which includes the Moonlight.) This means that within every 3 days I've managed to play the entire program, and “hone in” on any problem areas. In the case of the Moonlight, this is the last movement, and it's here that I want to concentrate my attention for today's blog. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've established a tempo range of half note = 80-88. This is based on tempi given in two different editions, the Schnabel (which I purchased as an undergraduate student at Indiana University in the 70's) and a Polish edition edited by Woytowicz (which I purchased in Warsaw while a student there in 75.) The Woytowicz is the lower end of the range - Schnabel in general faster in all his metronome markings. In addition, I listened to two old LP's I have of the Sonata. One by Joseph Cooper, and the other by Walter Gieseking. Here's an aside - students of mine reading this blog will note that I've broken my own rule about not listening to performances/recordings of works I'm currently developing. The problem with doing so is two-fold. Most performances have been edited, so that a perfected version of the actual performance is heard - there is so much splicinig and pasting together of versions that you're really not hearing a performance, but a perfected facsimile of one (I know, I've done the same thing when I've recorded.) And nowadays with digital editing, the possibility of creating a 'flawless' performance are nearly endless. So hearing a recorded performance can unduly influence our expectations of how an actual performance sounds. Second, a recorded performance, with it's aura of finality, validation (afterall, the performer must be pretty good if company x has issued the recording, there's a picture of the performer, usually some validating notes in the liner, etc) can act as a powerful drug, overwhelming our own developing interpretation and imposing an external vision of the work when we are trying to develop an internal vision which we want to communicate to the audience. For these reasons, I've always recommended staying away from listening to recordings.
So why did I break my own rule? I'm far enough along in the process to know the works, and to have developed my own vision. And I listened one time only, with an ear toward the tempi of the last movement in the two recordings. Also, the recordings were vinyl, so the editing is not digital, and there are lots of tiny inaccuracies which give the recording a sense of life that digital editing largely takes away. It's a funny thing that if I had listened to these two recordings before my detailed study and playing of the score, I would not have heard all the little fuzziness that's in the recordings. But once I know the score well, I can begin to hear how really “human” piano playing is - with its imperfections, however small. But it's those small imperfections - a missed note here, a tone a little too loud there, a note a little out of tune - that gives the playing its character.
At any rate, I noticed that the tempo was slower in the third movement for the Cooper recording, and faster for the Gieseking. Yet both were convincing in their own way. The listenings reinforced an insight I've had before: the impression of speed for the listener is not completely a function of the absolute tempo. In other words, I convey the 'speed' of a movement, not just by playing at a fast metronome marking, but by the combination of factors - clarity, phrasing, shaping, color - that convey the emotion associated with 'speed.' You don't have to play as fast as possible to sound fast.
So the exercise in listening to the recordings (one time) was helpful, and a refreshing look back (the recordings were made in the 60's) to a time when the world was not so falsely perfect.
My second approach to the speed of this movement came from the realization that I hadn't fully practiced through the implications of the half note becoming the unit of energetic impulse. At a slower tempo, the “C” marking indicating four beats to the measure would allow us to hear the conventional 'each quarter note is a beat' metric structure, and to play with that feeling. But if we try to carry a pulse on each beat, four to the bar, through to a faster tempo, we're bound for trouble. There's no way to sustain four beats to a bar when the tempo is at half note = 80 or faster. Then the quarter note is equal to 160 beats per minute, and this will result in cramping, both rhythmically and physically. So we both have to feel and hear the half note as the new unit of beat - remember that every beat is the beginning of a new impulse and the last notes of a beat unit get less energy than the first notes - it's a kind of decrescendo of energy (NOTA BENE: not a decrescendo of sound, we're not talking dimenuendo here, but distribution of energy, periodically renewed at the appropriate beat level) So the practical result of my insight is that I'm going back and practicing at speed, but thinking in half-measures, using the half-note as my unit of beat. Now 8 16th notes are subsumed under one beat. In fact, if we look at the way Beethoven has written the movement, analyzing the harmonic movement, we see that it is relatively slow, for example, there's only one chord change every two bars at the opening. We're moving toward a sensation of hyper-measures in which there's a strong beat every two measures. I'm not sure if this is practical from a playing point of view, but it might be a way of shaping my perceptions of the overall flow of energy in the movement.
This practicing in larger beat units has proved to be very helpful in working out some difficult places - I'm placing the impulses more efficiently, and not trying to 'energize' every quarter note. It's also making the speed of the last movement more attainble as I'm hearing in larger units of time. For those of you curious about where the challenging measures are - here's a list: 9-13, 33-40, 111-115, 129 - 135 and 178-184.
Monday, March 14, 2005
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Over the weekend, I put in two sessions on the Sonata. In the first session, I determined final tempi for each of the three movements. I put a metronome range on each of the three movements so I have a general idea of about how fast I'll be taking the movements. Please note that I rarely use the metronome all the way through a piece. In the case of the first movement, I checked two other editions of the Sonata (a Schnable edition, and a Polish edition) both of which give metronome markings. It is interesting to note that the Schnable metronome numbers are faster than the Polish edition, and that Schanbel changes metronome markings in the course of a piece. This has been a matter of some discussion among pianists for some time, as everyone says that a movement should be played at a uniform tempo. But if you try putting the metronome to a recording, you'll find that after a few beats, the metronome and the player rarely coincide! In fact, the metronome marking is a general guide to a “tempo band” that can vary as much as one marking up or down from the established tempo. If this is done with the musical properties of the composition in mind, the listener never notices. Quite the contrary, it will sound natural and musically logical. However, a mechanically strict tempo may sound a-musical. For further reading on the fascinating subject of tempo, I highly recommend the book Shaping Time: Music, the Brain and Performance by David Epstein. It's a lengthy book, and a hard read in places, but nevertheless revealing study of our perception of time. It goes a long way to prove what I've already felt for a number of years - that the metronome is of only limited usefulness in “curing” time problems.
Anyway, having establised general metronome ranges (and I promise to give you those in an upcoming blog) I then went through each of the movements, start to finish, not stopping to correct anything. This allowed me a chance to diagnose where I was in terms of progress in learning and memorization. I used the tempi in metronome range I had chosen for each movement. Obviously, this was of most interest in the third movement, which is the fastest. Immediately after playing each movement, I went back and worked out difficult or insecure spots. I did this on both Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday, things were flowing much better. So here is my progress so far.
1. all three movements are memorized
2. if push came to shove, I could give a 'performance' of the sonata today. It would be rough in spots, but about where it needs to be in terms of continuity.
3. the next week's practice will consist of
a. identifying 'rough' or 'trouble' spots
b. striving for musical continuity
So I'm looking for a balance between working details in the piece - concentrating on those places where things aren't going as well as I'd like, and playing the movments as a whole, looking for overall shape, listening of clarity of line, and direction of idea. I'll also start paying more strict attention to dynamics, and those pesky Beethovenesque subito pianos that dot his works like quite land-mines.