What Are You Learning?, ...and how's it going? Options

[suei]

Keeping up with Bach's Prelude in C and Beethoven's Fur Elise.

Learning
Schumann's First Lost, which is coming along nicely.
Chopin's Prelude in A, which is coming along slowly.

Einaudi's Le Onde, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) A bit too adventurous for me at the moment but I love this piece.

[Invidia]

I'm re visiting Debussy's Clair de Lune ( again!!) and am absolutely determined to master the fast runs...this time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

I can play it all through now with all notes in place...just need alot of patience and practise I suppose now.

It depends on just how fast you play this, un poco piu mosso is'nt the same as allegro molto... but it does seem that the majority of pianists who i've heard playing Clair de Lune race off at breakneck speed here. Gordon Fergus Thompson, something of a Debussy specialist, plays it very slowly, in fact the piece clocks in almost two minutes longer than the average time taken. I would say that he goes a bit too slowly, but many go too quickly.
...

I also think most people take it too fast. (I thought Gordon F-T's was OK though) I also don't like stupid amounts of rubato applied to the earlier Debussys, but I think that may be a personal preference rather than a criticism of wrong style.

I like to play this almost as slow as Fergus-Thompson - I think it is just that much more magical and contemplative.

(I also have the slightly macabre thought that if I am ever braindead and on life support, this is what I want them to switch me off to)

The best performance of Clair de lune I have ever come across is Weissenbergs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BtiHVE7Og

The middle part could be seen as "breakneck" speed, but he plays it so beautifully- he's totally in control of the music, which is something that is lost when most pianists speed things up- even professionals.

[corenfa]

...
The best performance of Clair de lune I have ever come across is Weissenbergs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BtiHVE7Og

The middle part could be seen as "breakneck" speed, but he plays it so beautifully- he's totally in control of the music, which is something that is lost when most pianists speed things up- even professionals.

Thanks for posting that - I think that's a lovely recording! I do see what you mean about how he's in control of the speed.

[saxophile]

I'm learning Kabalevsky's Sonatina in C major. Or trying to.

It's not going well... yesterday evening I had to stop in case I did the piano (or myself) an injury out of sheer frustration. Stupid fingers won't do what they're told - and certainly won't do it fast enough. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[Chopinzee]

...
The best performance of Clair de lune I have ever come across is Weissenbergs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BtiHVE7Og

The middle part could be seen as "breakneck" speed, but he plays it so beautifully- he's totally in control of the music, which is something that is lost when most pianists speed things up- even professionals.

Thanks for posting that - I think that's a lovely recording! I do see what you mean about how he's in control of the speed.

Yes it sounds good, though i'm in an internet cafe, and only one speaker in the headphones works. And someone is talking loudly to a neighbouring screen with a ''webcam'', in a language i can't identify, and now he's laughing... evidently it's much more fun to disturb other folk trying to listen to Clair de Lune with dodgy headphones than go outside and make a phone call. Now he's making a hissing noise, now sneezing. I'm off.

[corenfa]

Tried an experiment today which I can't repeat too often because it might actually result in physical damage. Tried to play the Debussy Toccata at full speed (about crotchet = 144), to get an idea of the type of movement involved.

It was interesting to find that I actually need a lot more arm strength - finger flexibility alone isn't going to do it for this. The arm movements required are very fast and I realise that my puny arms aren't strong enough to move that fast and stay in control.

Of course I was tensing up everywhere because I didn't have the control, which is why I can't repeat this experiment again for a while- but I now have a better idea of the sort of movement I need to be aiming for in very fast passages.

No idea if this is applicable to anyone else, it's just what seems to work for my physiology.

Chopin Op. 53 Polonaise is coming along. I still can't play any more than 1.5 pages of it, but the consecutive octaves in both hands are progressing. Still can't play it at speed. It'll be a year or more, but I am seeing progress and that is the important thing.

Am slightly obsessed with the C# major Fugue from WTC book 1.

[Tassimo]

I'm currently learning Chopin's Grande valse brillante in E-flat major Op. 1. 3 pages out of 10 learnt. Love playing Chopin's waltzes... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piano.gif)

Ooooo....me too, but for the violin. Lovely, isn't it? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Mad Tom]

My hands are well again. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The two dislocated fingers are 99.9% back to their former condition ... they no longer feel "odd"

Recent bout of Dermatitis (pompholyx) abated. Finally enough of the sore bits have healed to let me play normally.

So it is back to the mainstays of the recital repertoire I am building ... the works of the the composers that I really, really love: Scarlatti, Haydn, Liszt, Brahms, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Martinu, ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ... with odds and ends from a half dozen others (Grieg, Medtner, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Piazzolla, etc. )

I was brought up on Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy [EDIT: and almost forgot ... Chopin] but don't have any burning desire to master very many of their compositions these days.

[corenfa]

My hands are well again. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The two dislocated fingers are 99.9% back to their former condition ... they no longer feel "odd"

Recent bout of Dermatitis (pompholyx) abated. Finally enough of the sore bits have healed to let me play normally.

So it is back to the mainstays of the recital repertoire I am building ... the works of the the composers that I really, really love: Scarlatti, Haydn, Liszt, Brahms, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Martinu, ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ... with odds and ends from a half dozen others (Grieg, Medtner, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Piazzolla, etc. )

I was brought up on Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy, but don't have any burning desire to master very many of their compositions these days.

Yay to health! I've had pompholyx, as has my mum, and it was pretty awful. My mum says that this stuff helps her.

I was also brought up on Bach Mozart and Debussy, and have really got into Bach lately - Mozart somewhat less so. Keep meaning to do more Beethoven and Brahms but other things get in the way, like my job. Boo hiss.

[jod]

At last the Bach, Beethoven and Debussy are sounding like pieces of music and although not memorised the motor memory is guiding my hands in the right directions.

(Bach Capriccio Partita in c minor, Beethoven Rondo, Sonata no 8 op 13 in c minor (Pathetique), Debussy Valse Romantique)

Not perfect, but definitely in the right direction.

[mel2]

Practising is a bit haywire at the moment; with the LTCL on hold until the winter I'm working on other things. Beethoven Tempest (might also try Les Adieux) because old B usually beats me in the end and I'm determined to wallop one of the sonatas into submission one day.
The Skriabin etude is a good one for octave stretches and am currently having a ball with the Primo part of Schubert Fantasia in Fmin. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) Fortunately my duet friend also seems to like it; I might have had to put out a general alert on here for someone to play it with me otherwise.

[corenfa]

Brahms horn trio, yay!!

Crashed my way through Chopin Op. 53. That piece always makes me happy even if I can barely play it.

[jod]

Where are you mel as the secondo part is fab and as a soprano I much prefer playing secondo to primo as I'm not playing the tune. (I learnt it years ago and will almost certainly play it much better now than I did then!)

[mel2]

Where are you mel as the secondo part is fab and as a soprano I much prefer playing secondo to primo as I'm not playing the tune. (I learnt it years ago and will almost certainly play it much better now than I did then!)

East Yorks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Never mind - will have to bear it in mind if there is a midlands forum event sometime - never been to one yet!

[Benjy]

Brahms horn trio, yay!!

Noted (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'll get to work on the horn part!