rogerch I have tickets for Ludovico Einaudi's October 2 show at Carnegie Hall in New York
Oh cool! Iāve never had the chance to see him live. Do you remember Monica from PW? She saw him performance few times and met him once, if memory serves. She was actually my introduction to Einaudi. I remember how much she raved about his concerts.
I've been playing through a book of Einaudi pieces to get more familiar with the music for the show.
Nice! Which book?
Also, if your book has Nuvole Bianche in it, listen to video linked above, which is a live version, and read along with the score. The score is a note-for-note perfect representation of the version that you hear Einaudi play in the original recording. But in the live version, itās almost like heās not even playing the left hand part, itās interesting. I tried to imitate that the other day at the piano, it did not work. Iāll just stick with playing all the notes. š
My sense is that Einaudi's music is deceptively simple. The notes are relatively accessible, but I perceive a wealth of detail in how he plays
Yes, ādeceptively simplyā is my take as well. The notes are easy enough, but just playing them as they are (or seem to be) on the page produces something rather flat. His playing is full of breath for one thing, so hearing the melody talk and pause helps. Another thing is to notice how he voices melody notes, this is esp. important in a piece like Nuvole Bianche, which has long stretches where both hands have continuous eighth notes. The other thing I notice about a lot of Einaudi pieces is that the beat or pulse often seems to go across two measures instead of oneā¦ I feel like thereās a music theory term for this but Iām not remembering it. Hereās an example from a piece Iām prepping right now to play with a friend.
Notice the four Fs (eighth notes) the the treble clef in the first two measures, to me it sounds like that could be written (and should be played) as if those were four quarter notes in one measure (and then maybe not in cut time but just in 4/4). Someone might say thatās just mathematics, that the way itās written doesnāt change anything, but I think it changes everything. Itās sort of like thinking about why itās written as two measures but sounds like one and then incorporating that into how itās practiced and played.
Maybe this is just a belabored way of saying that a key technique to playing Einaudi is to find the pulse with your ear to the music, not with your eye on the page.
and it's going to be hard for me to do any of these pieces justice. If an Einaudi piece is chosen I'll give it a shot but it may be a stretch!
Having heard/seen your wonderful videos, I do not believe this. š