🎃 Spooky Season: Halloween Community Recital

Sindre Skarelven Tammy seriously! “A set in A minor”? Very mysterious indeed; the intrigue will haunt me. 😆

Sindre Skarelven Ha! Hmm, maybe, maybe not...! 

Tammy of course, any of the sets of variations on Paganini’s 24th Caprice are in A minor as well, and they would all be somewhat Halloweenesque - more scary than spooky. The mystery continues. We’ll stay tuned! 👻 (And yes, I realize that you have a conflict this Saturday, but I trust that we’ll get a rain check, won’t we?)

Alexander Weymann Darn, how did you guess what I was going to play?! Rain check for sure!

rebecca LAM Wow! It’ll be a veritable feast of Beethoven’s greatest hits! Op. 13, Op. 57, Op. 101 - am I missing anything? Really looking forward to this! 

Vidhya Bashyam Hi Vidhya, great job today (Halloween concert)  I know very little about Scriabin, but these performances really spoke to me!  He has many advocates on ToneBase and I'm starting to understand his music a lot better, thanks to performances like yours and several others.

Vidhya Bashyam Also I didn't get to answer you in the Chat, but my Rach thread is coming soon!  I have about 5-6 Preludes, that are "about as good as they are going to get", so it's getting to be

time to record & post them.

Peter Golemme  Great! I have some Rach in progress too 😊

Peter Golemme I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to your performance. This is one of my most beloved Rachmaninov Préludes; it’s unbelievably grand and dramatic, and it’s beyond me why it’s not played more often. In the hands of a pianist like you, who has played all 24 Rachmaninov Préludes (if memory serves), this promises to be a real treat. I’m sure you know that according to Moiseiwitsch’s account, the piece was inspired by Böcklin’s painting “Die Heimkehr” (and might have been Rachmaninov’s favorite among all his Préludes). 

Alexander Weymann Dear Alexander, thanks so much for these encouraging words. I'm a little nervous about it -- still re-learning it and haven't got it all memorized yet.  But as I've said many times before on these threads, the music tends to speak for itself despite any flaws in the execution, and I know that will be the case here!  Thanks for pointing that out about the painting! I know there was something like that in the background here, but the info was buried somewhere in the liner notes of one of my CDs! Don't ever hesitate to share your knowledge about a piece with me!  My education, such as it is, has been very haphazard; some things I know well, other sometimes very basic things about music, I have not learned yet, and am always willing to hear what others have to say!

To answer your implied Q, YES I have played all 24 Preludes -- which doesn't necessarily mean I've played them WELL! -- in a series of about 8 semesters, 4 per semester (with some repeats & other pieces), of a course called a "Piano Performance Seminar" in the Continuing Ed division of New England Conservatory, from 1996-2001. We played for each other in class and then at the end of each semester performed in a recital in front of an audience of coerced friends and family members!  a great experience.  I have DAT/Cassette recordings of all of them.  Some are OK, some are cringe-worthy.  I'm hoping to re-do the whole cycle here now that I finally have a nice piano in my home and some amazing recording equipment. 

Greatly looking forward to hearing everyone play today!

Peter Golemme Incredible! Can’t wait. And don’t worry about imperfections. Today, I will take the standard instructions at the top of each Community Concert very seriously and present a true work in progress. I thought about bowing out (again) because I am finishing an insane work week with literally zero time to practice, never coming home before 10 pm, but then I decided that I simply won’t let my work schedule dictate whether or not I get to make music. So there. Let’s do this! 

Harriet Kaplan Hi Harriet (from PWR site).  Your performance on that site was superb.  It will go very well! :-)