After the Fall

So here's the danger in playing grueling music: It's so grueling that you don't have much left for the next piece.

I decided that my Berio Lied performance would highlight the dynamic contrasts as much as humanly possible. My softs were pretty damned soft...For those of you who've heard me go "morty f-soft", think even a little softer. The air system in the Theater was a significant opponent. The louds were fairly loud, but Berio just didn't write the piece too far into the loud spectrum of dynamics. Of course, this kind of extremely soft playing takes its toll on the lips.

Cue the Cavallini. I was pretty well screwed. No stamina at all. I just kind of barrelled through it with very little style and not a whole lot of accuracy, especially in the last little ride-out. The first 2 minutes were fairly acceptable, but it was a downhill roll from there. Not horrible, but certainly not controlled.

Oh well...That's what happens when you play two difficult pieces for the first time...Something always goes wrong. You just do your best and crash on through things. No point in getting all worked up over it. I may be doing the Cavallini next week for a public school benefit. Not sure...I'm a little behind on my emails. I'll check into it tomorrow. It's not as if I don't have it kind of under my fingers.

Regarding yesterdays orchestra concert: I really only have one thing to cover: Lowell Lieberman. Good composer. Check him out. The 3rd Piano Concerto is a good piece (a few small flaws), but it's a good work by an imaginative, skilled composer. Flute players already know his wonderful Sonata for Flute and Piano. I'm looking forward to getting to know his Clarinet Quintet (w/ piano and string trio). Jeffrey Biegel did an outstanding job of performing this weekend as well.

A plus: Both guys were real sweethearts who acted like perfect gentlemen the entire time (although they both had reason not to at times).