I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Glorious! at the Arts Club, with the incredible Nicola Cavendish as Florence Foster Jenkins.

This brought back many funny memories of accompanying amateur musicians at the piano. I would play for weddings, and someone in the family would like to perform. Sometimes it was really fun, other times not!

At one wedding, the groom brought his violin and we performed the Meditation from “Thais”, without any rehearsal. For me it was the most satisfying kind of playing, I got lost in the music.
Another time, a singer made an early entrance after a piano interlude. She also didn’t get her pitch. I had to scramble, changing pages in my score, then pounded out the melody…it took us many bars to get back in synch. It would have been less painful if she had moved the mike away from her mouth until she got her pitch!!

In the play Glorious! it is great fun to laugh at the bad singing! But I also liked the affectionate tone of the play.
It is becoming more common for arm-chair critics to critique performances with a nasty and dismissive tone. There are performers I enjoy more than others, but I admire every one who gives the world their music.

Here is Florence Foster Jenkins, Enjoy!

The Arabesque in architecture is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms, often based on plant and animal shapes. These design elements were the foundation of the Art Nouveau movement, from 1880-1914.

The Arabesque #1 by Debussy, written in 1888, was very much influenced by the idea that thought could be expressed by the line and the arabesque. It is interesting to note that this piece is built entirely on small decorative, repeating motifs which often build into long sweeping lines. This is an early piece, Debussy later took the abstraction of short motifs much further.

When I learn a new piece, there is always a challenge to get it “into” my hands , my head, my being. Playing a familiar piece, (for me one is Debussy’s 1st Arabesque) I am able to get the best sound from the piano, and my coordination flows with the phrases. Even after working on a new piece for months, I still am playing “notes”, don’t have the satisfying sensation of sinking in and becoming one with the keyboard.

To play a piece properly, a player needs to have the sensation of “painting” the sounds. To do this, there needs to be a deep knowledge of all aspects of the piece.
There needs to be a long period (at least several months) of practice without the score. Take a break with the piece once it is memorized, don’t play it or look at the score for a week. Then, play it through without looking at the score, any places needing work will be obvious!
Play the piece through 4 or 5 times, aiming for perfect note accuracy. Use the metronome, no pedal, and no score. Playing the piece should feel so automatic that you are not thinking of getting the notes, you are just feeling the pulse. The metronone helps with this.
Go back to the score and correct sections with wrong notes.
Practice with the score once the notes are mastered by memory, watching every one of the composer’s markings.
Perform the piece often! Perform for friends and just for yourself. Think of performing and practicing as 2 separate ways of playing. When performing, have fun with the music.

This is one of my warm-up pieces. I put the metronome on to an easy quarter note beat and play it through 4 or 5 times. I switch the metronome to one to a bar once I feel settled. This piece has so many places where you can stumble. lose your place, or lose the pulse!
Here I am, this is after the warm up!

What I find fascinating with this piece is that it starts and ends with satirical themes that are twisted versions of pianist’s exercises. The percussive themes satirize Clementi’s instructional pieces, but then they are transformed into something different. Is the music affectionately portraying a child pounding away at notes, or suggesting a nostalgia for lost days? Sometimes the music can be interpreted either contrasting way!

Here is a Wikipedia link explaining the Title of the piece

I have difficulty playing the beginning of the piece, it is so exposed - you have to jump right in! Often the first page is not as flowing as the rest of the piece, it is hard to get the pulse going. Maybe that’s because I am thinking too much about the line, my playing needs to be more percussive with this piece, especially at the beginning.
Having the piece going through my mind, I am analyzing phrases being in 1 or in 4 or in 16.

A very satisfying piece to play.

Just got back from a lazy summmer vacation and had a chance to read Blair Tindall’s Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music
Blair Tindall was a professional Oboe player in the New York City classical music scene. This book is her story, which amounts to a brutal expose of the classical music world.

Looking back on the times I played in restaurants and bars, I realize that none of the managers knew what they wanted live music to accomplish for their business, musicians are usually pushed to the sidelines.

After more than 20 years of training and professional performing, how can musicians be so underpaid and unappreciated?
Mozart in the Jungle is required reading for all musicians!
(You will never be able to enjoy Itzak Perlman’s music after reading this book…)


classical music profession