Beauteous

This beauty here is the Steingraeber 168, the king of small grand pianos, whom I met yesterday in Paris. I had never played on as fine an instrument as this one before and it was love at first touch.

The sound, the feel of it, by Chopin, it's incredible! This piano dances along with the pianist in all the paths and byways of inspiration. With such a marvel under your fingers, you cannot feel but creative.

Just one small snag of five numbers: 47 700 €.

I want, I want, I want! I calculated that I could have it in...20 years. Now I just have to save, save, save...or wait until I win the loto.

As the saleswoman said, we have the right to dream, right?

At the moment, I'm dreaming in C sharp minor.

Chopin Week

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A piece like Chopin's first ballad, you can't play it : you must live it.

Empty the carverns of your being and breathe, breathe the rhythm of the melody.
Break the stiff window pane stuck through your head.
Open the score, brush the self away.
Cleanse the mind from the network of thoughts skating on its surface : only the music matters.
Each note must be felt, each note must be sung. A body is but a string of flesh vibrating and pulsating, ebbing and flowing with the breath, the breath of the melody.

When I play next Saturday, I must rise and leave my self on the bench, carefully folded like a clean handkerchief. I will rise and ripple with panic, I will rise with pounding heart and cotton-feet. But when I sit and touch the piano, I will be a blank flag flapping for one wind, only one wind : the crystal breath of Chopin's ballad.

Schumann, tout simplement

These are the first minutes of the most beautiful sonata in the world...maybe not played like this, but it's beautiful all the same.
It begins very solemn and dark, even painful with the dissonances. The melody lightens up for a few moments, then goes back to its slow, grave tone. After a silence full of questions comes another melody, more vivacious, more anxious too. Allegro, with an urgency that increases as the play unfurls.
Each year I promise myself that I'll work on it properly. I'd better do it (really do it) this summer : because listening to it is bliss, but playing it is the Bliss of all bliss.

An idea of Chopin

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Chopin's First Ballade

...played by a master.

It is so beautiful. The more I listen to it, the more I love it. And I didn't even know it existed.
*hums*
I hear it in my dreams, I hear it when I walk, I sing it all day. But it's going to take a lot of time before the merlin manages to play it a little. I finished p6 today, but, phew ! 1 hour per 1 line. So painfully slow and jammy. And I haven't reached the hectic parts of it yet.
My teacher wants me to play it...by Tuesday. She's gone crazy, but the more I do on my own, the more she'll be able to give advice. If I know it all by heart, it might be enough. Asking for the speed would be too much *winks*.
For now, let's enjoy videos of Masters and delight in Chopin. Dong Hyek Lim plays it magnificently too. I like his interpretation - very delicate. More ballade !

Musical Summer

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I've just come back from the last piano lesson of the year. But there was no smell of farewell and endings on the air. The table was overladen with music scores and CDs - the future shaped by little dots scattered between lines, like seeds. Seeds of music.
This means more music for the summer !
In July, there will be no time for idle slumber.
No, there will meadows of hours for dreams and books and pens and fishes; oceans of days for the piano.


My teacher decided to give me Chopin's first ballad to work upon. She told me I have 10 ten days to roughly set it up. Then I'll go to her house and we'll work together on it. This is so mightily wonderful that hyperboles are needed and all the bouncing battalions of punctuation ! This is to be the more difficult piece of all those I've played so far. It is also so beautiful. Well, hard to find Chopin ugly.

I have secret plans as well. I intend to gorge on Schumann. The Waldszenen. The f# minor sonata (my Klaviersonata *melts*). And Fauré's 1rst Barcarolle. And some contemporary piece.
My other musical fellows have been given work too. Chopin : 1rst and 21rst nocturnes. One or two of Debussy's arabesques. And more. The next piano parties will be 'licious.

Musical summer ahead !

(Let's just hope the shadows of Jam and apathy won't strike again...)

Musico'holics

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Is there a man's heart that is not swirling with threads of music ? Is there a land inhabited by men where no melody has ever been heard ?
Music is as much part of man as reason, speech, laugh or Oreo cookies. Oh yes.
We are musico'holic, all of us !

Next Thursday is the day when music is celebrated in France. The 21th of June. Music and summer solstice : how fitting to honor in one day the giver of life and the gardian of our souls.
But tonight was no official celebration, but my teacher's piano party. A cherished moment of happiness and sharing.

The decoration was beautiful. My teacher is a complete artist.

The younger ones began to play this year. Some of them are really good - my teacher knows how to reveal the musician who lies dormant in each child. Then it was us, the "teenagers" (les ados). We feel nervous and all when we're waiting for our turn, and at the same time, there is joy in listening to our friends performing. We wince when their fingers slip on the wrong key, we smile when a melody is beautifully drawn. Hélène played magnificently one of my favorite pieces : Schumann's "papillons" (that would be "Butterflies" in English). So delicate ! Now each time I see her, I will ask her to play it. Schumann ! There is something in his music which calls to me like a magnet.

I didn't play too badly, but, damn it ! I want to play the prelude properly (Rachmaninov, Op.23, N°5). I want people to feel through the music the white expanse of snow, the knights riding to battle, the hooves of their horses pounding on the ice (ta tidada ta ti - ta- da...), then the vision of golden dunes, slowly fading and overpowered by the knights' rythmic race through snow and russian night...who themselves fade away in the distance and poum. Silence.

But I still have loads of work to do to reach that point yet. Will you hit the right keys, oh fingers ?

Anyway, it was good. An excellent evening. But they all went away so quickly. It's all finished too soon. Too soon, top Spoon, like everything in life.

Hello ! That's twisted me turning white under the strong lamps.

Criticism

When you play, you tend to hear what you want to hear, and not always what you're playing. So yesterday, I recorded a few bits of the Mozart, so I could criticize better what I was doing.
Some things, I already knew : I do not know the piece well enough, so mistakes and hesitations are aplenty. But for some other things, I didn't know I played like a ...barbarian ? For in my head, I was hearing what I wanted to play, not what I was actually doing. Realizing this helps a lot. My ears need to learn to listen *wink*
I hesitated before uploading those bits on the net, but then, why not ? It can be interesting to listen to a piece which is not yet ready to be played, to hear mistakes and musical clumsiness. It helps thinking about the piece.

The first bit :
I've always got a problem with the tempo and rythm, and you'll notice the heaviness at certain moments of the right hand (looks like it's bouncing).


The second bit :
There are a few (musically) clumsy details. And I agree, the last chord is just a little bit too heavy...*clears throat*


The third bit :
It's ok. I should be less gentle with certain chords, though.


The fourth bit :
Two part here. I had to cut the second one, because the camera doesn't have a long memory. Speaking of this second part...It's more than clumsy. It should be more...witty, lighter ?


Fifth bit :
There's still work to be done. In the fast part, the left hand melody is not loud enough.


The sixth bit :
This is the end. Phew ! Now if you stick the bits together, you'll have a Mozart Patchwork, with its mistakes and all. You can think about what is wrong, what sounds clumsy and train your musical sensibility !