Author Archives: Ryan Libel
Another Week, Another Lesson
Teacher brought back the bow tool for yesterday’s lesson – as I did last week, I worked with it for about half the time, then we removed it and tried to maintain the improvements to my hold. I noticed after using it during last week’s lesson that I did maintain more of a focus on […]
Bow Work
Last week’s lesson brought a bow tool – Teacher fixed a green rubbery thing over the frog and screw of my bow that is meant to support a proper hand position. I played with it for about half the time, then she removed it and I continued, trying to maintain the improvements the device had […]
Progress
Three months into playing it, I’ve now worked all the way through the third movement of this Vivaldi concerto. It’s been a lot of fun, and remains challenging. I don’t think I’ll spend quite as long polishing this one before moving onto the next piece as I did the first movement – Teacher and I […]
Aspiring to Vivaldi
The third movement of the Vivaldi Concerto is coming along. While my progress is not as slow as it was as I learned the first movement, which was a huge level up from previous pieces, it too presents exceptional challenges. There’s work in second position, third position, and even a shift in between third and […]
CSO’s Upcoming Season
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-2019 catalog arrived, along with a letter suggesting that due to my attendance habits I would benefit financially from a subscription. When I received the same catalogue last year, I considered subscribing for this current season, but in the end didn’t. That reluctance caused me to miss out on this past […]
Mitsuko Uchida’s Schubert Sonatas
Sunday matinees at Symphony Center are becoming a bit of a weakness of mine. This past weekend’s event was a recital by the legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Recently, I’ve been investigating classical Viennese composer Franz Schubert, and coincidentally Dame Uchida was doing an all-Schubert program – three sonatas for solo piano. It was the combination […]
Violin Grasshopper
I’m acquainted with a seven-year-old who has been playing the violin for a few months. I’ve talked about my passion for the violin with him and his dad on several occasions – once I even helped them through a broken string crisis. So we’re kind of violin buddies. On Thursday, his dad asked me if […]
Transcendent Etudes
Daniil Trifonov won the Grammy in the best classical solo album category this year for his two-disc recording of some of Liszt’s magnificent etudes for piano entitled Transcendental. I was fortunate enough to see the young Russian play at Symphony Center last year, and, knowing nothing about him, instantly became a fan – his technique […]
The Minnesota Orchestra at Symphony Center
The first time I became aware of the Minnesota Orchestra and its long-time conductor Osmo Vanska was upon receiving its 2006 Grammy-nominated recording of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as a birthday gift from my father-in-law a few years ago. The Minneapolis-based Orchestra’s recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies are considered extraordinary. Indeed, the group has numerous Grammy nominations […]
The Mortal 80s
We hosted a dinner party last night, and as we often have for gatherings of our contemporaries, we chose music from the 1980s as the soundtrack – peppy, yet nostalgic. I think Google Play picked a list it called “80s to sing along with” or some such. None of us were singers, but at multiple […]
Ryan Libel 