https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/simone-dinnerstein-at-dewing-recital-hall-a-crusade-for-a-better-piano/ Simone Dinnerstein, Pianist Friday, Jan.31, 2014 DEWING RECITAL HALL Mills College Oakland, California *** It's sad that what's most memorable about a concert is a piano not performing satisfactorily for a gifted, invited performer. Simone Dinnerstein, known for her self-funded Goldberg Variations CD that catapulted her into the media spotlight, leading to IMG Artists… Continue reading Simone Dinnerstein at Dewing Recital Hall: A Crusade for a better piano
Tag: Robert Schumann
Piano Instruction: Spinning Long Melodic lines in Romantic era music (Videos)
I'm about to fly off to a Skype lesson in UK, but while grounded here in Berkeley, I want to share epiphanies about spinning long melodic lines in the Romantic era genre. Using Schumann's supposedly less complex "Melody" from his Album for the Young, I found myself exploring physical motions that needed to be synthesized… Continue reading Piano Instruction: Spinning Long Melodic lines in Romantic era music (Videos)
Shaping a melodic line through chord blocking (Schumann Little Etude no. 14)
To block out sonorities that spring from spun out, undulating broken chords, can provide a peak learning experience. In a baby-step advance, especially, where finding a melodic thread, may consist of a one-hand alone approach at first, the pleasure to follow, comes with cushions of harmony. One of my adult students, just launched her journey… Continue reading Shaping a melodic line through chord blocking (Schumann Little Etude no. 14)
A fusion of art and music in The Magic Link: Piano Albums by Schumann and Tchaikovsky
Rada Bukhman, pianist, teacher, and fine artist, brings a wealth of talent to her latest undertaking. Her "infinite love affair between music and fine art" is the springboard for a journey through the related compositions of Robert Schumann and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Both composers produced colorful albums for the young that have a remarkable affinity… Continue reading A fusion of art and music in The Magic Link: Piano Albums by Schumann and Tchaikovsky
Comparing tempos and interpretation, Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15, no. 1
"Of Foreign Lands and People," is the lyrical opener to Schumann's Kinderszenen, Op. 15 ("Scenes from Childhood,") but the composer's metronome marking, 108 to the quarter, makes it a challenge to spin poetic lines, though Seymour Bernstein rises to the occasion in his memorable reading. http://youtu.be/7Ao7DHfCNvY Seymour's comments: "Concerning Metronome indications, I personally never observe… Continue reading Comparing tempos and interpretation, Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15, no. 1
Intermediate Level Piano Repertoire: Album for the Young by Robert Schumann
I took a musical journey down memory lane yesterday, rekindling scenes of childhood as I read through a set of "old" Romantic era compositions. These weren't Robert Schumann's illustrious KINDERSZENEN, but colorful character pieces wrapped into the composer's Album for the Young Op. 68. (As I've said time and again, why give students arrangements of… Continue reading Intermediate Level Piano Repertoire: Album for the Young by Robert Schumann
Piano Instruction, Don’t wake the “Sleeping Child,” Schumann Kinderszenen, Op. 15 No. 12
Often contemplative, lyrical pieces like lullabies, are bigger challenges to play than lightning bolt fast and furious etudes, final sonata movements etc. "Sleeping Child" is its own poster child for fostering relaxed breaths, flowing musical poetry, and bigger energies beyond the fingers. It's essentially a task not to wake the baby, with obtrusive, unwanted accents.… Continue reading Piano Instruction, Don’t wake the “Sleeping Child,” Schumann Kinderszenen, Op. 15 No. 12
Capturing the first sunrise in our practicing and performing
I always ponder the process of learning a new piece and how I want to experience and re-experience a freshness that seems to come with my earliest exposure to the printed page. As I set out my fingering, isolate lines or voices, in a Bach Three Part invention, for example, or even within the Adagio… Continue reading Capturing the first sunrise in our practicing and performing
Two musical Eulogies for Newtown’s fallen
Two musical offerings are grief-filled expressions of enduring loss in Newtown, Connecticut.
Piano Technique: Exploring contrasting emotions when practicing a piece (as Daniil Trifonov, pianist, recommended in his videotaped interview)
I put into "practice" one of Trifonov's recommendations, as I mentored a second year piano student this evening. We started the lesson by playing "happy" and then "angry" consecutive staccato thirds. ("Hopping" from Dozen a Day) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaGlz5pKDZI Eventually after completing our scale and other technical routines, we applied the emotion shifts to the opening of… Continue reading Piano Technique: Exploring contrasting emotions when practicing a piece (as Daniil Trifonov, pianist, recommended in his videotaped interview)
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