Posts about my personal relationship to the piano
My first piano teacher was Ann D. Gainey. This is the story of how we met, how she introduced me to music, and how she became a part of our family. Nearly a half a century ago, in 1967, I was in second grade at Rock Springs Elementary School in Atlanta. My older brother went to …
It is becoming my summer tradition to learn something fun at the piano. Last summer, it was the Chopin Barcarolle; this summer, it was Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse.
Last month I decided that it was time to play something from that early 20th century modern period. I chose Bartók’s “Fourteen bagatelles”, but just couldn’t make great progress: different music requires different kinds of mental energy. So a week or two ago I put the Bartók down and picked up Schubert.
I’m playing Federico Mompou’s Musica callada (“Silent music”) these days. The music is beautiful and strange. I was attracted to this music by its title, which immediately put me in mind of Cage’s string quartet.
Time to post another playlist of what’s been reverberating around here (both externally and internally). Here’s what’s been going on in September/October.
For years I fantasized about playing the Chopin Barcarolle. Now I have and am ridiculously pleased with myself. (video)
Sviatoslav Richter’s Rachmaninoff has so much more of a sense of ease than mine. Where does that come from? How do I cultivate that?
I’ve been on a blogging hiatus, very busy with other things, but still practicing.
Looking at the somewhat sparse blog postings lately, it looks like I’m just plowing through For Bunita Marcus and not much else. Not true!
Over the weekend I played through Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s organ Prelude and Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552, known as “St. Anne”. It was addictively fun to play.
