Week 1 - The Opening Pattern and Finding the Melody

Hazel Wow, amazing! Your post begs the question, did you get into the Royal Scottish Academy of Music? 

Your trip sounds terrific! Which cities have you visited? Are you walking the whole trip, lol. 

Supposedly, Bach walked 400km/250miles to hear Buxtehude.

Larry K Hi, yes I did pass the audition. This week I have heard music by Bach and his ancestors in Eisenach, Trio sonatas in Mulhausen, the St John passion in Weimar and off to Kothen Castle tomorrow to hear the Brandenburg concertos and finally Leipzig for Keyboard works played by Mahan Esfahani and the B minor mass in the Nikolaikirche. It’s the trip of a lifetime for a Bach lovers!

Hazel Wonderful, congratulations! 

Your trip sounds awesome! Is this an organized trip that goes there every year?

I have heard Mahan play on a few occasions. He studied with Zuzana Růžičková. My piano teacher in New York, also a harpsichordist, had a chance to study with her but turned her down because she wanted to get as far away from Russia as possible. She later came to see that as a mistake but one can never know for sure. 

Larry K Hi, I’m back now so no excuse not to practice. It was an organised holiday although it doesn’t take place every year. If you Google “The Bach Journey” I’m sure details are available.  Mahan was great as was Solomon’s Knot who sang the entire B minor Mass from memory.  Truly inspired I will now start this challenge.

Hazel Welcome back! It sounds like a great trip. 

Here is a link to a website from a travel company,

https://www.martinrandall.com/en-us/tours/the-bach-journey

Is that the one you used? 

We are off to France and Malta at the end of the week. My wife is French so we can’t go to Europe without visiting the relatives.

I have a friend in Germany, someone I’ve known since the 1980s, and hope to get back there someday.

I want to squeeze an alto or soprano recorder into my tiny carry-on suitcase but I face resistance from my travel coordinator. 

How was the recorder playing in the Brandenburgs? Did you hear some of the Brandenburgs?

Kerstin Hi Kersten, nice to see you here in this challenge.  I've already told you how much I liked your versions of the C Minor & D Major from Book 2 in the Recital program you posted. I'm sure your version of this one is going to reveal some new things to me also!

Peter Golemme Hi Peter, sorry but I have to quit. 🥲 Yesterday I had my lesson and my teacher gave me a lot of other pieces to prepair. So I need to focus on these ones. But I am happy you learn it. Bach is always great. I am working on Partita 2. 

Have fun🙋‍♀️

Kerstin I think there is no shame in working on just the pieces assigned to you by your teacher. I think it is admirable. 

I am doing the same. It would be different if I were given permission to work on other pieces but I haven’t sought that permission.

Every lesson, I get a page of handwritten instructions on what to work on for the next week.

Larry K Thanks for your kind words. I am working on my Bach Partita 2, Schubert sonata D784, Rach preludes op.23/6+32/12 and Hindemith sonata 2. What pieces are you playing? 🌟

Kerstin Haha, I would rather not mention my current pieces, but, ok, they were written by Mozart, and his father Leopold, when Wolfgang was 6, lol. So, K1-5, K.3 currently.

After 6-8 years of lessons, my new teacher has taken me back to the fundamentals, 2-3 note slurs, detached playing, playing into the black keys more, and moving back from the piano.

I don’t understand why previous teachers didn’t make me move back from the piano.

I had thought that I was an intermediate player, tackling Clementi, and Chopin’s Op. 17 No. 4 Mazurka, but who knows now.

There is something to be learned from pieces at every level. If one cannot play the simple pieces well, what business does one have playing more advanced pieces? Answer: None.

My, you are advanced! Is Hindemith on the piano as daunting as Hindemith on the viola? I studied the violin for a decade. I don’t miss that sound in my left ear.

What is your background as far as teachers and years of study?

Kerstin sorry to hear you won’t be participating here Kerstin but I see that you’ve got your hands full with some really interesting repertoire! I’ve worked on both those Rach Preludes in the past, in case you ever want to compare notes.  I’m working on 2 others right now which I’m hoping to be able record and post if I can ever get over the hump of doing more than just surviving them through to the end!

Larry K No worry about your level. I love all piano lovers. 😊I am from East Germany and I have studied piano in Leipzig (HTM) in the late 80s. After 3 years I stopped, because of depressions, stage fright and burn out. I moved to Munich to get my life under control. I didn’t play very much in the next 30 years. I restarted in 2021 after I had listened to the Chopin competition. It was so inspiring. I found a teacher here in Munich for 1,5h years, but he was not good enough. He sometimes devalued me. I didn’t like it. Then I had 1 year with Greg Niemczuk (Polish pianist) one lesson a month. He prepaired me to play Chopin sonata 3 in a master class with Jarred Dunn. And now I have Jarred the second year as my teacher. He is the best teacher, that I ever had. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟Now you now my life. 😅

Peter Golemme Yes, Rachmaninow also takes his time. 🔥

Kerstin Thank you for that description of your study. A good teacher makes a tremendous difference.

Andre Watts said a teacher was worth their weight in gold.

I hope to become a decent intermediate player with ten more years of weekly lessons and daily practice.

I studied violin for ten years with a teacher and then classical guitar for another ten years, also with a teacher.

Then, I decided I had to learn the keyboard before it was too late.

Perhaps I will have twenty more years at the piano bench. Time grows short. 

I also started recorder lessons with a teacher who is in his 80s. I play soprano, alto, and bass recorder at my lessons. Soon, I will add a tenor. It’s easier to play just one musical line. It’s fun to play music from the 16th century and before. 

Larry K 👍

Some years ago I had some violin lessons. I love this instrument. But then I decided to focus on piano. 

Kerstin So awesome!.. I have seen some lessons on YT from Greg!  about a year ago and thought they were great!.. Good to know about what you said. Jarred is amazing - several sessions here on TB. 

You have a very good level for spectacular teachers!

Thank you again for playing that Beethoven Sonata and sending me a recording. I found it too difficult to progress so have now taken much simpler pieces. Bach Invention in C major :-) ( slow but steady progress )

Kerstin I loved the violin for many years but I moved to New York, lost my teacher, and was too busy trying to make a living to keep up with lessons. I am sad about it but enjoyed my decade of study. 
 

On the violin, everyone has intonation problems, even professionals. 

Peter William That’s great with your Bach. 👍 Yes, Greg is a wonderful person and a great teacher especially for Chopin. I will see him on Friday. I go for his concert to Leipzig. 😇

Kerstin This is an interesting life story.  It is somewhat similar to mine in that there was this big hole also in the middle separating the beginning in my youth and the eventual return to music now.  My somewhat sketchy return was late 2024/early 2025 but honestly 2026 is really the year now that the cobwebs have started to disappear and I feel I'm starting to regain ground and even make some headway. 

Your programs are always very impressive and contain many of the works I aspire to eventually learn as well.  You have a lot of momentum going for you now.  I think the only two pieces that you have / or are working on that I can manage today are Chopin's G-major Prelude which I think I heard you play last year and now Rachmaninov's Prelude in E-flat major that you listed above.

The Op. 23, No 6 of Rachmaninov represents to me the first score that I really took seriously in the last year in that it is the first time ever I had to write in the fingerings (mostly LH) under virtually every note - beginning to end.  Seriously, it was a lot of work to do this but it helped keep me focused in the earliest stages as the LH is quite convoluted / tricky in places.  I still change / edit some fingerings occasionally as I grow with the piece and understand better ways to get around. 

What a wonderful little Prelude it is though.  If I remember, Rachmaninov composed this in an afternoon sometime around the time that one of his daughters was born.  I look forward to hearing you share your new program eventually when your are ready!

Doug Oh yes, everybody has its own life story. It’s so interesting and now we are all here. You are right with left hand in Rach op.23/6.Basically I have a fingering for every note in the score! 🤣Lets see. It should be ready in January for a little workshop/master class. 🌟

Kerstin You have me listening to Schubert 784, played here by Radu Lupu,

https://youtu.be/6A6AgtJH2Kk?is=yir78x039QyRTvjD

Wow! 

And that Hindemith Sonata 2. Could he add more accidentals? Haha.

Larry K Yes, I have listened to Radu. My favourite recording is Sokolov. Maybe sometimes too much rubato, but he brings out the darkness in this piece. And Hindemith: I am on the second movement and fight with all these flats and sharps. 🤣

Kerstin We are both working on underrated Schubert sonatas in A! Yours is much harder, though (and mine is in A major, not A minor).