I did it...gonna go play at Carnegie Hall.
Playing Scriabin's Prelude for Left Hand Alone on January 18th.
Woo!
Join the club homie!!! Woah. This is really big, congrats. Also I didn't know you were a pianist!
Now here are some coinky-dinks. 1) Is it in Weill? I hope it is. I've had the opportunity to play there twice, and both were the greatest performance experiences I've ever had. The piano is loud and fuckin euphoric but the keys are a little "sturdy," careful doing any sort of flurrying movements or notes might not sound. 2) I was just working on that piece– by the way, holy fuck is that a difficult piece! How the hell are you pulling that off? I demand some sort of video, seriously, wtf. I was working on it with a family friend who asked for my help in learning it. She lost her right arm under collapsing debris during the big Earthquake in Armenia. She didn't touch the piano for 25 years since, despite already being a committed professional musician. After 25 years, her boyfriend buys her a keyboard out of the blue, and hires me to help her learn again. She can't even read notes anymore (out of trauma, or just time) and has apparently "blocked everything" from her memory regarding the piano. Yet she requests that we work on that Scriabin. I'm astounded and terrified, so I print it out and take it to her. In 2 hours, she's gotten to the Nocturne section but still can't name a note. Just some crazy, crazy shit, and this was yesterday, so I don't know if "it's a small world" cuts it with your post. Anyway, lots of luck and please deliver us a video! And be weary of sticky keys, the sound and everything else will be perfect. This has been inspiring for me btw, thank you.
1) Yes it's in Weill. Good to hear that the piano is fuckin euphoric but um...the loudness will present itself as a...challenge, shall we say. Quiet piece demands quite the level of exactness and it's very hard to play on loud pianos. 2) I'm not playing the Nocturne, though I'll be learning it over winter vacation :) Honestly, I got the piece itself pretty easy, and while I will be the first person to admit that my technique sucks (no really, it does. Had a teacher from SFCM for the first 8 years of my piano playing and still my technique sucks) but apparently I'm musical enough to outweigh those flaws. It's all in the feeling :P I'll try and post a video of the submission I made to the competition that put me there.
About the loudness, don't worry! The hall may appear packed or even cramped when it's full, but somehow the acoustic space is vast and sound really travels. What I meant was that you can play very, very delicately (as you may need to) and it will still be audible for everyone in the back. I say that because I personally used to panic a bit about playing too softly or loudly during performances, whatever. The nocturne requires twice the patience, good luck ;)
Just got to actually hear it– sounds awesome! It's gonna sound great at Carnegie– that pause in the middle was perfect by the way, caught my attention just as I started writing this. Good luck (for the 5th time)!
This is the best I could find on YouTube. I'm playing the first piece, which ends at about 2:34. This recording is of Sokolov, who's a pretty marvelous Russian pianist. The tuning is weird, so for anyone with perfect pitch it might annoy you, but it's probably the highest quality decent recording on YT.
(pst, klein, just so you know– the answer is always Horowitz, unless Argerich or Arrau already have dibs. If none are applicable, the answer is Richter.) hope that helps. edit: If you're un-sober, it's Gould.
For the record: Piano music was forbidden in my house growing up. The radio was changed whenever a piano came on the classical station. I learned the oboe. "An ill wind that nobody blows good" as WC Fields put it. I traded my oboe for a Roland RS-505 when I was 17. It was not a good synth, but fuckin' A it was a synth. I'd still like a decent piano but I don't want to move with one right now. Every now and then I putz around and pretend I'm going to learn; the fact that I have the chops of a noodler that picked it up at 17 is a deep embarrassment for me. My mother bought a piano as soon as I moved out. Of course.
If I ever get my hands on a synth that can record loops, I'm quitting life and becoming Bon Iver. Not that one doesn't exist, I'm just too broke to even want to find out what it would cost me. My friend has a $600 Gaia and it probably sucks but he drools over it all day long. Last thing before I pass out on my laptop, in case you ever put yourself to task on it: If you ever feel like getting back on (key)board, try studying your circle of fifths and corresponding the paper to the keys, by playing the starting (root) note, the corresponding triad, and then the scale. Not so you can play the scale, but so that you can memorize how to navigate the keyboard just by picking any key. That's all you need to create your own music, and fuck around with your keyboard. Instead of trying to learn a song, I challenge you to study and learn these three things, with time, and the circle of fifths as your guide. 1) What a key (major and minor), a chord (the triad), and a scale (including the tone of any interval– a third, a fifth, etc. between the root and the given note in your scale)– actually mean. 2) How a major and (harmonic) minor scale looks, and how you can write one out (or play it!) just by being given the key, i.e. the root note. This will teach you how to be able to play the piano, i.e. make something up on the spot, by maneuvering around using the notes of your given key's scale. 3) How to handle the influx of groupies all up on your stuff once you tear up some funky-funk on that synth. This also works for strings!
You are now required to list your favorite recording of this piece as I've never heard of it and I want your best take.
seconded.
No shit? That's amazing! Please, if you can, share with us how it goes. How does one prepare for something like that?
Congrats demure, if there are any recordings of the performance please share!