Something tells me I'm going to be on a Vivaldi kick for a while.
Concerto for Mandolin in C Major RV425
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Shapeless
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Tue 15 Jun, 2010 02:08 pm
I was going through some of the earlier pages of the thread and noticed that the YouTube clip I provided for Prokofieff's Toccata on p. 1 has since been removed. For fun I'm posting another one here. It's not the best performance available on YouTube (a couple of flubbed notes here and there) but the clip provides a good view of the performer's hands, which is half the fun of this monstrously cool piece.
Nice! How long have you been playing? I'm mostly self taught but decided to take formal lessons last fall. That resulted in me having to try to forget almost everything I ever taught myself so I could do it right. Now I'm back into self-teach mode for the summer, at least.
Nice! How long have you been playing? I'm mostly self taught but decided to take formal lessons last fall. That resulted in me having to try to forget almost everything I ever taught myself so I could do it right. Now I'm back into self-teach mode for the summer, at least.
I've been messing around with the piano for a few years now...but playing more seriously lately, as I bought a very nice grand piano back in December for dirt cheap off of craigslist. Prior to that, it was a Yamaha keyboard, which was not very inspiring. So...seriously playing, I'd say maybe a year or so.
Been thinking about starting up private lessons, but I'm thinking that I kind of like just working at my own pace and on my own material right now. But I know that having the benefit of weekly input from someone experienced would probably help me improve much more quickly. What do you think?
I probably saved myself from developing carpel tunnel syndrome. My hand position was all wrong. Other than that, the guy I was taking lessons from knew I didn't plan on paying him forever and he was cool with that. He just watched me play and gave me technique pointers so that I could play better and not hurt myself. I took lessons for 6 months and he set me up with a schedule that I could follow on my own for at least three months more before progressing to the point that I'd need more lessons.
Yea, I've got a lot of his recordings. I think Horowitz has probably recorded more "definitive" interpretations of classical piano pieces than any other recent pianist...his expression and his use of dynamics, especially his soft passages are unmatched, when it comes to romantic-era pieces. I like his Mozart too. Beethoven is the one main composer that he doesn't seem to play convincingly.
I know that Schumann's "Traumerei" from his kinderszenen ("children's scenes") was already posted somewhere (not sure if it was a Horowitz performance), but Horowitz frequently played it as his encore. Here he plays it again, while in the sunset of his own life and performing career, perhaps more beautifully than ever, as an older man might do when playing a piece that is meant to evoke scenes from childhood:
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Pangloss
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Tue 15 Jun, 2010 05:30 pm
Just one more Horowitz vid for now...the recording quality is sub par, but he's in his prime, performing Chopin's first ballade:
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Shapeless
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Thu 17 Jun, 2010 09:07 am
My favorite of the Horowitz clips on YouTube: the Variation on the Theme from Carmen.
I've remarked on it before, but it always amazes me how much Horowitz violates every rule of posture and technique piano teachers typically ingrain in their students. He sits close, low, hunched, fingers flat, wrists and forearms bent at all sorts of forbidden angles. It makes me cringe, but for his body it seemed to work just fine.
Horowitz didn't ever endorse any specific type of posture or technique, and he claimed to not waste his time using technique-specific drills like Hanon's, because he said that everything should be done musically. It was all about the end result for him.
Yes, he had an admirably romanticized view of technique, one that served him well. He was fortunate to have been born with that musicality. On the other hand, a close buddy of mine didn't discover until it was too late, when he severely wrecked both of his arms, that he was not one of the chosen ones permitted to dismiss technique in pursuit of Art!
Michael Harrison From Ancient Worlds: I. Quest for the Rose Michael Harrison, piano. http://www.wqxr.org/q2/
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Thomas
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Thu 15 Jul, 2010 12:48 am
I feel I should pull for one of my favorite pianists---perhaps the most intense I know, both emotionally and intellectually. His name is Vladimir Sofronitsky (1901-1961). Americans aren't nearly paying him the attention he deserves, probably for two reasons. First, he's long dead. Second, he has spent all his life in Soviet Russia. I don't think they ever let him travel to the West. But thanks to YouTube, here he is, playing Schumann's Fantasia in C op. 17.
If you only have time for one movement, I suggest the third, an adagio. Sofronitsky is playing it less brilliantly than modern pianists, which I consider a plus. Instead he is focussing on making it sound as if he's improvising, and on finding nuances and shadows in every bar of the score. It's quite an experience.
