After (a) getting obsessed with Ravel’s La valse after hearing it in the car the other day and (b) watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers in The gay divorcee last night, today’s freestyle play was an all-dance affair:
- Chopin: Various mazurkas and waltzes. The mazurkas are so incredible — it’s hard to stop playing them one after another. Frances says that they are like Beethoven’s bagatelles: there’s something private about them, a view into Chopin’s very personal world.
- Bartók: Six dances in Bulgarian rhythm (Mikrokosmos, Nos. 148-153).
- Satie: Je te veux and Poudre d’or. These are two of Satie’s cabaret waltzes. Much easier to dance to than the Bartók, but then again I’ve never been to Bulgaria.
- Satie: Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté (Three distinguished waltzes of a jaded dandy). I wound up playing each of these twice, because I couldn’t read the little running texts while I was reading the music. I’d play each one through (they are dedicated to his figure, his monocle, and his legs), then I’d read the text, laugh out loud, then play it again with the text in mind. I’m happy to say that I was able to play the last one per Satie’s instructions: sans perdre connaissance (without losing consciousness).