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.