[Journal] Brahms g minor piano quartet performance readiness

Workshop: Day 1

I went in to practice and my wrists were feeling it even at the beginning. My favorite practice room old Bösendorfer is a little more clapped out than I remember and definitely out of tune but it's ok. But then I played through the whole thing and my wrists felt better as they warmed up. It's easier to play than my piano at home.

We ran through the whole thing during our rehearsal and our coach suggested picking which movement(s) we wanted to play at the final concert today so that I can focus on them at my lesson tomorrow. Since this workshop session has fewer groups than usual, we decided to do two movements. He thought the 4th movement was a good candidate (it's upbeat and fun!) and then we decided on the 2nd movement for contrast (also that happens to be the movement I can play the cleanest).

I totally bombed the hard part of the first movement, twice! Once we reached the part with octave jumps I think I got shifted by a note or something and then it was just a mess. He said let's do it again and then a similar thing happened. So I'm glad we're not playing it. And the 3rd movement still has some tricky stuff I'm working through with octaves jumping around a bit in both hands. The "military section" was better than it was a week ago but definitely not solid; it really needs to be semi-memorized. They took it at a much slower place in that section than how I was practicing, which really helped!

I had not practiced much with metronome which was ok for most parts but the Trio in the second movement is very tricky with how the strings interact with the piano and I am not playing the triplets at a precise tempo. Need to practice it with metronome tomorrow morning before our rehearsal and my lesson!

Also the cellist asked me during one section if I had ever seen Menahem Pressler play and that he always has his head to the side looking at the strings, and could I memorize it and do that, and I said no This is an amateur workshop! It was so ridiculous.

Going to bed super early and then plan to get up early for breakfast and to go practice early.

Workshop: Day 2

We worked on the 1st and 3rd movements today during rehearsal and will focus on the final concert movements for the rest of the week. Since I keep bombing the hard part of the 1st movement, the coach asked me to just play the left hand. I also dropped out my left hand in the military section of the 3rd movement. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I wasn't able to show up fully prepared but c'est la vie.

We also played the second movement twice today, after I practiced the Trio with metronome this morning as advised by the coach. The interactions between piano and strings don't make musical sense and you just have to trust yourself and keep going and count the rests properly and then somehow it all ends up in the right place!

I had my piano lesson on the 2nd and 4th movements and it was really great! I got musical, technical, and pedaling advice. I never learned about half or quarter pedal and instinctively sometimes do light pedal but it's not really a conscious thing. He advised me to shift my foot back a little to have better control over pedaling lightly.

Turns out the piano coach is one of the top concert pianists in this country and he gave us a "little concert"! I thought maybe he'd play some Chopin or something but then he played Rhapsody in Blue as a piano solo for us. What a massive piece! It was fabulous. There are two other pianists here and one is an English guy who sounds really great from what I hear through the windows. He's playing Dvořák's second piano quartet which is a wonderful piece and is at the top of my piano quartet wishlist. It looks very challenging, though.

In the evening, I met up with the cellist from my group last summer and we ran through Beethoven cello sonata No.2 and the first and second movements of No.3. I've only prepared the second one for a couple of weeks years ago to read with someone, and last year I was sight reading it with her. Somehow having it sit in my head for the last year made it magically better! I wasn't playing all the notes but I really did quite a decent job faking my way through it. I think maybe I should learn both of these sonatas. Even if I run through them once a week, if I keep getting better eventually I'll be able to play them properly. I used to think the Rondo of the second sonata would take a lot of effort to learn, but now I don't anymore?? I'm amazed. I think I've become a better pianist!

I hope I don't get overambitious with all my plans Though there's a big difference between "fun commitments" and "official commitments" and as long as I don't overdo the official ones I'll be ok!

Rubens Do you know how much I love harpsichords?

I think you should buy one. Surely one is available somewhere closer than Portland?

Edit: I'm already trying to figure out how I can fit one in my basement​ haha!