Monthly Archives: March 2017
A Daniil Trifonov Matinee
Daniil Trifonov is a world-class concert pianist, born in Russia in 1991. As a child, he was educated in Moscow at the Gnessin School of Music under Tatiana Zelikman, and he has continued studies in performance and composition in the US with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of music. He has been captivating audiences […]
Taste of Ravel
I’ve been digging into the music of Maurice Ravel a bit more in anticipation of a Perlman recital we’re attending toward the end of April. In addition to works by Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Schumann, Perlman will play Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in G Major. The piece is clearly influenced by Jazz, […]
Memorization and the Play-Through
Getting to the spot in a new piece of music where I can play it through without stopping is always a thrill. After yesterday’s lesson I am much closer on this newest piece – we worked through the remaining section of the Third Movement of Seitz’s Fifth Concerto, a flowing stretch of slurred sixteenth notes […]
Piu Mosso
Teacher holds my hand and wiggles it – the vibrato project progresses. Looser, looser, looser. The instrument still wiggles too, a little bit. But not like it used to. “Pinkies are the worst,” Teacher says. I don’t need to agree verbally – the tiny appendage really doesn’t wiggle at all for me. Well, it might […]
Doubling Down
I’ve been wading through this exceptionally difficult series of double stops (playing notes on different strings simultaneously, creating chords) in Seitz 5’s Third Movement for weeks now. I just counted – the uninterrupted series of double stops goes on for 25 measures! The past couple of days I do feel like I’ve broken through a […]
Carmen at the Lyric
I am no student of Carmen, the classic French 1875 Georges Bizet opera, nor of opera in general, but I very much enjoyed my first excursion to Chicago’s Lyric Opera House on Friday night to see the current production. The title role is undoubtedly both a burden and a feather in the cap – living […]
Ryan Libel 