Live Streaming a National Chopin Piano Competition–Final Round, Sunday, March 1

The brave new universe of Internet technology allows a global-wide audience to gaze at, and listen to accomplished young pianists vying for top prizes. With a mouse click, the latest competitive milieu in Florida minus swaying palm trees and ocean breezes, is beamed at high frequency into our living rooms. A feast of Chopin's music…

J.S. Bach’s ethereal Prelude in F minor, BWV 881 (contour and voices)

A kindred musician friend and Baroque scholar residing on the East Coast tipped me off that my "first love" reading of Bach's Prelude in F minor a few months back, was just the very top layer of a more in depth relationship to come. And as time bore out, she was right because my earliest…

Studying J.S. Bach: What many piano students overlook

In the course of learning keyboard works by J.S. Bach, many students are riveted to the top most line, often ignoring alto, tenor and bass voices. The Prelude in F minor, BWV 881, is a case in point. While sobbing thirds in the treble are attention grabbers, there's more to the composition than meets the…

Early stage learning, and ways of knowing a new piano piece

One of my adult students has embarked upon studying Tchaikovsky's "German Song," Op. 39, and in her initial baby-step exposure to the composition, she has already explored multiple ways of "knowing" the work. http://youtu.be/ocd8Ci0Ny_E http://youtu.be/iEfP45vQIqs 1) Setting a fingering for each hand, and counting beats through each measure in a sub-divided way (within a slow…

Andras Schiff in recital at S.F. Davies Hall (Feb. 15, 2015)

Pianist, Andras Schiff delivered an uneven performance at San Francisco's Davies Hall yesterday afternoon. Those who expected the pianist to play his signature Bach program were pleasantly surprised by Schiff's insertions of self-imposed Baroque style ornaments in Mozart's "Drawing Room" Sonata, K. 545.(in particular) As whimsical as it might have seemed, the "improvisation" was out…

Thoughts on learning Mozart Sonata No. 12 in F, K. 332 (first movement)

After my review of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Drawing Room" Sonata K. 545 in C, Allegro, I discovered by comparison that the opening movement of K. 332 in F Major, had a more complex mosaic. In the short space of its nearly three page exposition, K. 332's multiple themes weave through markedly contrasting sections. *A Sturm…

Piano Rack Extender: Adapt-A-Stand

My latest studio accouterment is an import from Clear Lake, Iowa. (Pianoman Products is owned by a piano tuner.) For me, it's Good-bye to 4 page limit/slipping and sliding sheet music, or self-made cardboard creations with monster clips . Using Adapt-A-Stand I can now stretch to six pages and scan from left to right without…

A Big New York Debut Recital for Pianist, Marianna Prjevalskaya

After many international victories and a stash of prizes, honors and recital appearances flowing out of them, Marianna Prjevalskaya, will make her debut in New York City's cultural limelight. EVENT DETAILS "MARIANNA PRJEVALSKAYA, 2013 GOLD MEDALIST OF CINCINNATI WORLD PIANO COMPETITION, PERFORMS her debut recital at CARNEGIE HALL. (Weill Recital Hall) "The event, presented by…

Tempo Rubato and Chopin Waltz in A minor No. 19, Op. Posthumous

Tempo Rubato as defined in Wikipedia: "Tempo rubato (free in the presentation, Italian for: stolen time) is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor." I think of it in…

Piano Technique: The Rotating Thumb

With all the cyber forum posts about thumbs up, thumbs down, early or late, advanced or delayed, the ROTATIONAL dimension of the shortest, and most problematic finger is often overlooked, and because of miss-directed attention, the clunky thumb brigade marches relentlessly through countless arpeggios and scales. But change is possible! During the course of this…