June 15 - American Matthay Association Lecture/Recital
Give me an exciting topic and two hours of your time, and you never know what you might get! Today's transcription was titled Reminiscence de transcription: a history and defense. Yes, I know it's a cheesy title, but my other options were Paraphrasing on the Piano: it's purpose - past and present and Transcriptions: derangements, reminiscences, phantasmagoria, and more.
We began with a "Musician's Roundtable" that involved many of the greatest musicians from the past 200 years, including Liszt, Busoni, Schnabel, and Wanda Landowska. I am so grateful for all the theatrical readings provided by my audience of unsung thespians. It made for great fun.
The rest of the lecture was filled with poetry readings, complex graphs, and performances of Vivaldi/Bach, Bellini/Liszt, Lully/Godowsky, and Chopin/Sorabji. There was also a brief diversion into the popular realm, with a look at Everybody Loves Somebody.
How did it go? Well, I could have gone on for another three hours. To squash everything in, I barreled through the last half-hour of text like an auctioneer on crack. I apologize to all those who felt a little breathless following the presentation.
The performances went well thanks to a beautiful instrument and performing space; my favorite was the composite performance of pieces by Lully and Lully/Godowsky. The performance of Reminiscence de Norma, however, taught me a valuable lesson regarding cell phones on "vibrate-mode." My energetic little cell phone, situated in my pocket and pressed tightly against my thigh, rang not once, not twice, not three times; no, not even four times; my cell phone rang FIVE times during the 15-minute performance! It was a test in focus I had never expected. I succeeded admirably, although come the fifth call, I did consider pausing to answer the phone.
I'm so disappointed in myself! How could I forget to turn off my cell phone!
On a closing note, I had an awesome time at the American Matthay Association Festival. The lectures, performances, and people were wonderful!
We began with a "Musician's Roundtable" that involved many of the greatest musicians from the past 200 years, including Liszt, Busoni, Schnabel, and Wanda Landowska. I am so grateful for all the theatrical readings provided by my audience of unsung thespians. It made for great fun.
The rest of the lecture was filled with poetry readings, complex graphs, and performances of Vivaldi/Bach, Bellini/Liszt, Lully/Godowsky, and Chopin/Sorabji. There was also a brief diversion into the popular realm, with a look at Everybody Loves Somebody.
How did it go? Well, I could have gone on for another three hours. To squash everything in, I barreled through the last half-hour of text like an auctioneer on crack. I apologize to all those who felt a little breathless following the presentation.
The performances went well thanks to a beautiful instrument and performing space; my favorite was the composite performance of pieces by Lully and Lully/Godowsky. The performance of Reminiscence de Norma, however, taught me a valuable lesson regarding cell phones on "vibrate-mode." My energetic little cell phone, situated in my pocket and pressed tightly against my thigh, rang not once, not twice, not three times; no, not even four times; my cell phone rang FIVE times during the 15-minute performance! It was a test in focus I had never expected. I succeeded admirably, although come the fifth call, I did consider pausing to answer the phone.
I'm so disappointed in myself! How could I forget to turn off my cell phone!
On a closing note, I had an awesome time at the American Matthay Association Festival. The lectures, performances, and people were wonderful!
Labels: cell phone, lecture recital
1 Comments:
Too funny, Greg. The part about the cell phone. I laughed out loud!
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