"Small" notes in Chopin Barcarolle

Mark Alexander "Never" is a long time ;)

Mark Alexander 

I feel your pain, old man.  I'll turn 78 in September.
And brain fades and memory slips notwithstanding, I hacked through the Barcarolle in the recital at the Tonebase L.A. Intensive last month with total disregard for the suffering I inflicted on others.
It's a beautiful piece, and I'm pleased when I get a few beautiful moments.
"Don't let's ask for the moon... " 

As for learning new pieces, yes time is definitely a constraint I also feel.  I've learned a few new pieces in the past few years.  But in the past few weeks I was starting to work on a new Rachmaninoff prelude, but then reconsidered and decided that with much less time and energy I can bring back a different Rachmaninoff prelude and a Brahms Intermezzo that I last played 15 years ago.  I'm lucky that I only work at my paying job 25-30 hours a week, but still time is limited.  And my brain is definitely mushier than once upon a time.

Some years back, Josh Wright posted a video advising against avoiding "repertoire museums". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH7bHgyW4Fc
For someone his age, and no doubt for most of the students he teaches, this makes sense.  But for me at this age, anything I'm going to put the energy into trying to learn will probably be something I think is worth keeping.  But I'll still spend some time reading through pieces that I'll never wind up actually playing.

And welcome to your 70s!

Jane Fleming Thank you so much Jane for posting the link to the 'museum' piece. I returned to studying intensely 4 years ago, after a 50 year hiatus - I inherited the Steinway piano I had trained on, and had to make a decision. I am 73, and the work is exciting, new ( thanks to being accompanied by a brilliant teacher). I often find myself vacillating between new rep and old 'Lovers'. So I have a combination and am continuing dialogue on this with my teacher. Sometimes, I take his advice of leaning into rep, sometimes I reluctantly return to an old friend - he is patient about it. And I have found out, the hard way, the reasons leaning against and the challenges of reincarnation. It's not absolute - but there is so much wisdom in the advice.  

Mark Alexander 

Your experience with the end of Lilacs, Mark, is why for the past 20 years I've made it a practice to begin any new piece (including the Barcarolle) at the end of the last page, then learn my way backwards from there.
Benefits include:

• If the end is too hard for me to learn, I can re-evaluate whether I want to just work on easier sections of the piece or to drop it altogether.
• When I play the piece after it's learned, I get more confident rather than less as I play through the pages from beginning to end.

Your house concert is impressive, much more than I could ever have pulled off.  For that matter, the recitals at the L.A. Tonebase Intensive and at last summer's Tonebase "piano camp" were the first times I'd played for more than 3 people since about 1960.

I understand (and obviously share) the passion to learn to play the Barcarolle.  But you're lucky also to have a range of beautiful pieces you can bring back much more easily than learning new ones.
If you haven't read it, you might enjoy Charles Cooke's "Playing the Piano for Pleasure", with a lot of suggestions for those of us who will be forever amateurs. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616082305

Cheers!

NANCY M 

How lucky you are to have a brilliant teacher, Nancy!  And a beautiful piano.
Other than a handful of lessons at the two Tonebase events I've attended, I haven't had a teacher since 1963.  And one of my top motivations for attending both of those events was to be able to take a break from my electronic piano with headphones and to play on acoustic instrument for a change.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about your reaction to the 'museum pieces' video - are you finding your "reluctant" return to an old friend seems like a mistake or the other way around?  It's obviously a personal matter, and one's feelings about it may certainly ebb and flow over time.
I've only learned five "from scratch new" pieces since I've been in my 70s, by what I tried to count today.  But I've re-learned several from decades past, and play them better now than I did then.
I mentioned earlier in this thread that last week I was starting to read through a Rachmaninoff prelude I've never played but have for now decided to resurrect two different pieces instead.  And I'm seriously tempted to re-learn Beethoven's Op. 111, that I had memorized 30-plus years ago.  Maybe I'm old enough to play it now ;)  

We each have our unknown allotted time and our known energies and resources to allocate as best seems fit.  It sounds as if you're an attentive observer of yours, and I'm sure you'll enjoy and find satisfaction in the process.

Best wishes!

Jane Fleming Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate the connection.  Your confusion  to my comment about returning to old friends and lovers is valid - as it's not dichotomous - it's ambivalent  and has pros and cons, like most everything. I don't have full clarity on which is the right way to go because I'm too in the thick of preparing pieces- some are new, some are my dinosaurs, for sharing with others in informal classes. I trust my teacher, and although he leans towards suggesting I study 'new', he has accepted and is intensely supporting my work on the old. So I'm doing both. As with so much intense learning, I won't really know if I've made the right choices in doing both until its behind me. In the meantime, my focus is to enjoy the challenges of learning in the present, build new capabilities and revive old ones, and to refocus my somewhat neurotic anxieties  and impatience with my current capacity. It's about the music.