I am so glad it's over. I never have to play the piano ever again (unless I have failed one component, and I hope I haven't).
Everything went OK, can't say it was fantastic, nor was it abysmal. Bach was nice, Mozart first movement a bit too fast, but not as much as in the competition, second movement bored even me to tears, but it was in time (does that compensate for anything?), third movement was OK, a few too many mistakes than I would be happy with, Chopin was OK but for the mistakes, Gershwin was great as usual.
The Viva Voce was disarmingly simple, and I think I stressed myself out about it so much that I couldn't see the wood from the trees and said some totally stupid things before calming down and saying things in sentences. The sight-reading (it's called a Quick Study- yeah right) was fine... until it came to performing it. I played it through twice reasonably well in the 5 minutes preparation time, but when the real thing came, I screwed up the rhythm in the canon in a jazz style (who ever heard of that?), and everything sort of fell to bits after that. But hopefully I did well enough to warrant a pass.
It doesn't help to wake up the next morning with a headache from the celebratory drink or few (brother: "it's called a hangover"), and then realise that I actually did know how to play that jazz bass rhythm. In fact, I had played a whole piece with that rhythm throughout it. Makes you want to find a wall and knock your head against it, except that it would hurt. Oh, and then survive on Coke the whole day so that it will corrode my insides. Just joking- Coke is just about the only substance that can keep me going when I'm knackered. "Must be holy chips or something" (Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite- the ultimate cool person's movie). Actually it's probably the caffeine and the copious quantities of sugar. Hey, that's a nice bit of alliteration there. Tehe.
Oh well, at least it's over. And I can start studying again. And perhaps clear up the war zone that is my bedroom. You don't know how relieved I am. Where's a wall when you need one?!
Showing posts with label Mozart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mozart. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
He Loves and She Loves
I had my piano competition/festival recital today and yesterday. I played my Bach Prelude and Fugue on Friday, and the rest of my programme on Saturday (today). I hate recitals and playing in public.
The Bach Prelude was horrible. I put in rubato (variations in speed), which I had never done before, but felt I had to do because everyone else did. This resulted in an uneven, and decidedly un -serene performance. The Fugue was orright, could have had better clarity between voices, but it was rather bland and void of expression to compensate for the rather bipolar excesses of the Prelude. All the other performers played with a great deal of pedal (which I vehemently disagree with when playing Bach- thankfully at least my brain didn't tell me to put it in) and rubato, some to the other extreme from me, making it sound like a bad Romantic piece. Which the adjudicator liked. It's probably quite clear what I think. Needless to say I didn't win...
The other performance went a bit better. The Mozart first movement was played too fast, but I carried it off (it sounds better that way anyway, although I got told off (deservedly, I must confess) by my teacher for not playing within my capabilities at the time resulting in some mistakes that weren't there before. Second movement was orright, third was super, albeit with mistakes. Chopin was beautiful, also albeit with mistakes. I love the theme in the Nocturne, but it always seemed to me the contrasting B section, with its conrapuntal textures and its almost unrestrained fury, seemed a bit too contrasting. But the adjudicator liked it. And the Gershwin, he loved, and I loved. It was beautiful.
So I didn't get 1st prize. But I still got a prize, which was nice. The most important thing I got out of it was knowing that I hated public performances, and that I would never do it again. The stage fright is terrible. My hands shake noticeably, I start biting my nails, I run to the toilet several times, even though I don't need to go. When I am up there, I forget where I am, and have to stop to find my place on the score (even though, since I am playing from the score and not from memory, I should know exactly where I am), I mistime my page turns. It's horrible. I have never been a great public speaker, and I am no better as a performer. The neurotic in me comes out and it doesn't bode well for me at all. After my piano teacher's end of year concert, I will not perform in any more competitions or concerts or anything public unless there is some good reason for doing so. I hate it. I get nightmares from it.
Ugh.
The Bach Prelude was horrible. I put in rubato (variations in speed), which I had never done before, but felt I had to do because everyone else did. This resulted in an uneven, and decidedly un -serene performance. The Fugue was orright, could have had better clarity between voices, but it was rather bland and void of expression to compensate for the rather bipolar excesses of the Prelude. All the other performers played with a great deal of pedal (which I vehemently disagree with when playing Bach- thankfully at least my brain didn't tell me to put it in) and rubato, some to the other extreme from me, making it sound like a bad Romantic piece. Which the adjudicator liked. It's probably quite clear what I think. Needless to say I didn't win...
The other performance went a bit better. The Mozart first movement was played too fast, but I carried it off (it sounds better that way anyway, although I got told off (deservedly, I must confess) by my teacher for not playing within my capabilities at the time resulting in some mistakes that weren't there before. Second movement was orright, third was super, albeit with mistakes. Chopin was beautiful, also albeit with mistakes. I love the theme in the Nocturne, but it always seemed to me the contrasting B section, with its conrapuntal textures and its almost unrestrained fury, seemed a bit too contrasting. But the adjudicator liked it. And the Gershwin, he loved, and I loved. It was beautiful.
So I didn't get 1st prize. But I still got a prize, which was nice. The most important thing I got out of it was knowing that I hated public performances, and that I would never do it again. The stage fright is terrible. My hands shake noticeably, I start biting my nails, I run to the toilet several times, even though I don't need to go. When I am up there, I forget where I am, and have to stop to find my place on the score (even though, since I am playing from the score and not from memory, I should know exactly where I am), I mistime my page turns. It's horrible. I have never been a great public speaker, and I am no better as a performer. The neurotic in me comes out and it doesn't bode well for me at all. After my piano teacher's end of year concert, I will not perform in any more competitions or concerts or anything public unless there is some good reason for doing so. I hate it. I get nightmares from it.
Ugh.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
What Causes That?
I better explain myself and what I'm doing (not that I'm entirely clear myself).
I live in New Zealand, and have done so for more than half of my life. I have also spent some time in South East Asia. I study not music, but law and accounting, and I'm just finishing off my final papers right now (yippee!).
That's actually not entirely true, I am studying for a DipABRSM in piano performance, but have never done music at university. My exam is in about a month's time, and it's quite scary to think that 11 months of hard work will culminate in an hour-long 'exam'. I finished Grade 8 years ago, and had always wanted to do a diploma, if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I could actually play well if I tried harder (I'm a last minute crammer when it comes to study, and that doesn't tend to work too well with piano exams and concerts). It also means that I am more able to find work as a piano teacher if I get sick of my desk job. And also, it adds to my superiority complex (and believe me, it's big). The thing is, lots of people get to Grade 8 in piano or whatever, and then they stop and never go near a piano again, which is a great pity. And I don't want to be like that. My performance for that is in about a month's time, and I'm playing in a couple of competitions in the time leading up to that. So it's all go from here...
And I love Gershwin!!! He is a genius... Aside from Gershwin, I also love musicals, JS Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Darius Milhaud, and Glenn Gould (another great "GG"). But that's stuff to talk about another day.
How did I get hooked into Gershwin? It's a long story... I was watching The Les Mis 10th anniversary concert, and I was listening to Ruthie Henshall as Fantine sing "I Dreamed A Dream", and I thought she had a very nice voice so I went on a big search for music by her. She had recorded a Gershwin CD called "Love Is Here To Stay"(which is sadly out of print, I would dearly love to get it), and a couple of others (which I have). BUT I found she was in the cast recording of the London production for "Crazy For You", a musical loosely based on Gershwin's "Girl Crazy" with a whole lot of other Gershwin music tossed in (like the Concerto in F, third movement, and The Man I Love as a bridge between scene changes). And that was the beginning of the craze...
Fast forward a year or so, when it came to choosing the programme for my diploma, I saw that Gershwin's piano transcriptions of "The Man I Love" and "I Got Rhythm" were on the list, and I had to play it... To be honest, I had only heard "The Man I Love" only a couple of times and thought it was orright, and I figured it was worth it to be able to play "I Got Rhythm", but now I really like "The Man I Love", even more than "I Got Rhythm". But they are both up there in my Gershwin top 10.
Aside from that, I'm also playing JS Bach's Prelude and Fugue in F minor BWV 857, Mozart's piano sonata in C major K309, and Chopin's Nocturne in E major Op 62, No 2. It's such nice music *sigh*. Which reminds me, I better go practise before my lesson.
I live in New Zealand, and have done so for more than half of my life. I have also spent some time in South East Asia. I study not music, but law and accounting, and I'm just finishing off my final papers right now (yippee!).
That's actually not entirely true, I am studying for a DipABRSM in piano performance, but have never done music at university. My exam is in about a month's time, and it's quite scary to think that 11 months of hard work will culminate in an hour-long 'exam'. I finished Grade 8 years ago, and had always wanted to do a diploma, if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I could actually play well if I tried harder (I'm a last minute crammer when it comes to study, and that doesn't tend to work too well with piano exams and concerts). It also means that I am more able to find work as a piano teacher if I get sick of my desk job. And also, it adds to my superiority complex (and believe me, it's big). The thing is, lots of people get to Grade 8 in piano or whatever, and then they stop and never go near a piano again, which is a great pity. And I don't want to be like that. My performance for that is in about a month's time, and I'm playing in a couple of competitions in the time leading up to that. So it's all go from here...
And I love Gershwin!!! He is a genius... Aside from Gershwin, I also love musicals, JS Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Darius Milhaud, and Glenn Gould (another great "GG"). But that's stuff to talk about another day.
How did I get hooked into Gershwin? It's a long story... I was watching The Les Mis 10th anniversary concert, and I was listening to Ruthie Henshall as Fantine sing "I Dreamed A Dream", and I thought she had a very nice voice so I went on a big search for music by her. She had recorded a Gershwin CD called "Love Is Here To Stay"(which is sadly out of print, I would dearly love to get it), and a couple of others (which I have). BUT I found she was in the cast recording of the London production for "Crazy For You", a musical loosely based on Gershwin's "Girl Crazy" with a whole lot of other Gershwin music tossed in (like the Concerto in F, third movement, and The Man I Love as a bridge between scene changes). And that was the beginning of the craze...
Fast forward a year or so, when it came to choosing the programme for my diploma, I saw that Gershwin's piano transcriptions of "The Man I Love" and "I Got Rhythm" were on the list, and I had to play it... To be honest, I had only heard "The Man I Love" only a couple of times and thought it was orright, and I figured it was worth it to be able to play "I Got Rhythm", but now I really like "The Man I Love", even more than "I Got Rhythm". But they are both up there in my Gershwin top 10.
Aside from that, I'm also playing JS Bach's Prelude and Fugue in F minor BWV 857, Mozart's piano sonata in C major K309, and Chopin's Nocturne in E major Op 62, No 2. It's such nice music *sigh*. Which reminds me, I better go practise before my lesson.
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