My next recital approaches. The past 9 months have been rather turbulent, leading up to a change in piano teachers. The summer has been a time of transition and putting away things in the past. The first step was adding a Bach piece to the recital. Even the start of this semester was a challenge to move forward to new ground, as I often felt I was still in a cage.
The selection of repertoire is again more challenging that I intended it to be. Firstly, this recital requires way more stamina physically and mentally from me. There is also a juxtaposition of the tragicomic in Bach's Capriccio with the tragic/heroic of Schubert's last sonata, both sharing the same key. My strong point at the piano is color but somehow Debussy wasn't quite working out. Since Estampes was not fully a choice of mine, it has been difficult overcoming a mental/emotional block. I discovered the extent of this "block" when I couldn't write program notes because I knew almost nothing of this set. Those of you that know me, will recognize this is rather strange. I usually thoroughly research all my recital pieces. The other twist is that the first two pieces in this set deal with exoticism and eroticism. Need I say more about how difficult this is? I'm glad I found this out 3 weeks before the recital.
It has been good to be able to look back on my past two years and what it has taught me. Being regimented at the piano for two years was rather unpleasant but perhaps now the voice in me will finally want to be heard. I listened to the recording of my first DMA recital. Sadly, I do not recognize that pianist although I know her well.
It certainly forced me to look for other outlets to be creative: dance & Chinese history. As I said to Ken Robinson after his lecture, "Hi, I'm a music student here. Welcome to my prison." I am much less self-conscious now, although I am generally not a shy person. There will hopefully be pleasant surprises for everyone, me included. I can't wait to get on stage!
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