[Journal] Brahms g minor piano quartet performance readiness

@Pallas and @Ithaca, thank you, it is very nice to have a remote cheering squad!! Also, next year I'm switching to the spring workshop (flights to Europe are half the price!) so there will be another journal Maybe I'll also be preparing the Arensky trio for next summer (mostly because my violinist friend would love to do another workshop and California is much more affordable, and also it's less likely that they'll let me do a trio here because of economic reasons).

I practiced for maybe another 2.5 hours on the performance piano and I'm about as ready as I'm going to be. Some of the jumps that were "pray for it" before are pretty consistently solid now!

It's close to 9pm and I'm planning to be in bed in the next hour or so, and tomorrow morning I'm setting my alarm for 9am so that I get plenty of rest but can still get breakfast. They have very good coffee here and I've been having a cappuccino every morning. I'm very sensitive to caffeine and normally don't have more than a couple sips of my husband's coffee, but I've been so tired that it's had no effect on me!

This Brahms is the most difficult piece I've ever played. I thought the fourth movement was going to be the killer one when I started but it's actually the first movement. It is so freaking hard!! Each movement is challenging in a different way. I'll be very glad to take a break and work on some easy to moderate pieces for the spring. And hopefully with Dr. Molly's help it will be very efficient! I plan to use her schedule for the Dvořák and just run through the two Beethoven cello sonatas (learning them to play with my friend for fun) once a week and see if they get learned by February.

Pathbreaker I have heard the first movement slower but it's marked allegro so Brahms intended it to go at a decent clip! I have also heard it start slower and then slowly speed up. I probably won't go listen to the Domus recording right away but I'll let you know if I do! The violinist suggested finding a violist and cellist and performing at a house concert but I said no. I don't think I'll ever be ready for a real performance of this piece and after tomorrow it's time to put it behind me, even though it wasn't really "done" (there is page in each of the first and third movements that were just not ready at all, and thankfully we're not performing them). I really appreciate your compliments, especially as someone who knows the piece

Our coach is having us take huge breaths between sections of the Gypsy Rondo which are not marked at all so I guess it's stylistic choice! In the recordings I've heard, they just play it as written with no breaks. He told me to go as fast as possible leading into the Molto Presto at the end and then I'm literally playing as fast as I can go! Today I made so many mistakes because I was tired but he said it doesn't matter, at least it sounds exciting

I don't know if I had mentioned this but our coach is playing the viola part! Having our coach in the group elevates our playing immediately and that's why I'm traveling all the way to Europe to take part in this workshop. There's a section in the first movement where piano and viola play together and I take a little time to add drama in that section and he hears it the exact same way and we're perfectly together! It is so magical. And the violin is supposed to lead at entry points but in the fourth movement she's not giving a good signal and is not in my sightline on the cramped stage platform, so our coach is going to lead. He adds so much direction and momentum to our playing in a way that telling us wouldn't.

Anyway, hopefully my nerves make me play better and not worse tomorrow! I brought my little Zoom video camera and hopefully the recording turns out. I can blur out the faces and share the video when I get home

Day 7: Performance Day!!

I didn't sleep well at all. I was so itchy and had music running through my head all night, the Brahms as well as other stuff. I think maybe it was nerves?

This might be of interest: we did a tour at the castle yesterday and they had a fortepiano that Mozart played regularly during his visits (not at this castle though)! But I took a photo because Mozart played this piano!!

I warmed up for less than an hour late this morning, and we did the run-through and it was ok. 1h20min until the concert starts and we're the last group. I'm also page-turning for the gentleman in the group before us.

Just took a small power nap after we had lunch, not really sleeping but I closed my eyes for a while. At the end of the fourth movement my heart was pounding during the run-through! So at least I don't think I will be tired during the performance, haha.

So much of the piece is in my finger memory now compared to a week ago! It's amazing, I can just play and I'm not thinking too much or struggling. The fourth movement doesn't even seem that hard anymore, which is truly mind boggling to me

People are arriving from next week's group to listen to our final concert! I'm meeting new people and look forward to seeing my friends from last year

Thank you all!

@Rubens I am not a beer drinker but I was told I absolutely had to try the local beer. I said "just a little for taste" and they poured me almost a full cup haha. I was definitely tipsy!!

The coaches all came to tell me how much they loved my playing I told the cello coach I'm done because it's too hard and she said no, I am just starting, I have to keep playing it! Maybe I need to keep it fresh every month and then I'll finally get those two tough pages? I feel like putting it behind me but it's also a shame if I lose it by not playing it anymore!

@Ithaca I will post the performance video once I get home and on my computer where I can figure out the face blurring on YouTube again

Ithaca hear your thoughts on these piano intensives

I love it so much! I came for the first time last year and I plan to come every year (probably spring) while it exists. I met people who have been coming for 15 years or more. I'm making friends (some of whom are excellent musicians) who are passionate about chamber music, but too bad most of them live in Europe.

It really suits my personality to have a serious project where I work really hard, make it the best it can be at a coached workshop, but then also have a final ending point where I can put it behind me and not just work on it indefinitely.

I also like having something to look forward to. I was telling the organizer today that this chamber music workshop adds so much to my life

Future Plans

I was trying to decide last night if I will stress myself out to learn a challenging chamber work in 6 months. I feel like it takes me so long to learn anything new-- I mean getting it so familiar that it's in my finger memory and I don't have to think and it just "plays itself". I did learn the Schumann Piano Quintet to performance level (we didn't perform the third movement, but I learned it) in one semester in college, which seems insane! I must have practiced a lot.

The other thing is that I am sick a lot during the spring with allergies and am tired all the time. I could hardly play for months this spring which is why I felt underprepared with the Brahms.

If I play the "easy" Dvořák piano quartet for next February but sign up for an Arensky trio for next July in California with my friend (we'll have to find a good cellist to make it happen, I know one in Portland but will have to see if she's interested), then I'll only have 6 months until the following February in Europe. And all the quartets and quintets that are high on my list are hard! But if I already know what I want to play, maybe I should just get a head start and start working on both Dvořák quartets. Having 1.5 years of it in my brain is much better than just 6 months!

So when I go home, maybe:

• start on the Dvořák quartet in D major (the easy one) using strict Dr. Molly schedule
• start on the Dvořák quartet in E-flat major (the hard one) by slowly reading through it often
• run through the Beethoven cello sonatas in G minor and A major once a week. They should magically get learned if I read them enough.

I noticed when I was cramming for the Brahms that I started doing good practice techniques like actually paying attention to what I was playing instead of just reading the score and counting on my muscle memory. I would practice separate hands, pay attention to chord sequences, break large phrases into smaller groups to make it mentally easier. And I thought, why didn't I do all this earlier?! But hopefully I can apply these new learnings going forward!

It is really rewarding to see myself becoming a better pianist! I remember my big weakness as a teenager was that I couldn't play a convincing left hand trill. And then one day in my 20's, I could do an ok one. And now I can play a respectable left hand trill. I'm really hoping that everything will just get easier as I keep signing up for difficult works.

I ended up using Microsoft Clipchamp and it was easy to merge the files after a bit of learning curve! I just dragged and dropped the .mov and .wav files in and then moved them both to the left to start at the beginning of both files. And then (learned this the hard way) right-clicked on the video and muted the audio for it. Then exported at 720p. Documenting this for next time!