Fresh Starts: September Community Concert

Sam Smith Wow, I love that piece! I am looking forward to hearing you play it. 

Do you use a sostenuto pedal? There was a ragtime player on YouTube who brilliantly demonstrated the usefulness of the sostenuto pedal.

https://youtu.be/s1cVBPqQpgg?is=RO02pMO6-Hq4DUN5

Larry K Don't expect too much! I do the best I can with it. I have used the sostenuto on other pieces, but not this - will have to look into it. 

Sam Smith At one point, I looked at the first page and said, nope. You’re clearly ahead of me, lol.

Sam Smith Do you know this recording? I saw Marc-André Hamelin play a few months ago. He was impressive. He didn’t play any of the rags but he played the Ives Concord Sonata.

When my wife heard the Graceful Ghost Rag, she said she hoped I would play it. Sure, honey, I’ll get right on it.

I find it so wonderful that the piece sounds like it was written in the 1920s but was written in 1970. Our house is from 1925, my piano is from 2020.

Larry K yes me as well. I first heard it on Tonebase having never heard of William Bolcom before! Great piece!

Larry K Yes, I have that CD and have listened to it many times. So many to choose from - all very difficult. I really think the "Graceful Ghost" may be the most approachable.

Sam Smith I was quite disappointed to receive my Yamaha (D)YUS5 and realize that it didn’t have a sostenuto pedal, that it has been repurposed to turn the piano into digital practice mode with a stop bar to prevent the hammers from hitting the strings, something I never use.

I didn’t feel I could complain as I had ordered the (D)YUS1 and Yamaha couldn’t make their delivery during Covid so they offered the (D)YUS5, a much better piano.

Anyway, it takes incredibly good reflexes to hold notes with the sostenuto pedal, and perhaps I would never develop that level of skill.

Sam Smith I can’t wait to hear this! 🤩

Priya Viseskul I love all the Schubert Impromptus, what a wonderful piece! Looking forward to hearing it.

Ken Radford I like simplicity and minimalism in piano music. Is that what you mean? 

I had worked up an idea to record a piece entitled “The Family” by Max Richter from his Blue Notebooks. 

https://youtu.be/9eEFHMvgcqc?is=6BlVl2Au8mvybh7k

I heard an interview with Richter in which he said he tried to produce “a maximum intensity with a minimum material.” Is that what your composition teacher is asking of you? 

Here is that interview,

https://youtu.be/Ym-uzQgBIZ8?is=-Z05RQbVyKYpGQRN

Anyway, I passed my idea by an old classical guitar duo partner and she said that there was nothing going on musically in that piece, which kind of hurt, to be honest. Is that true?
So, minimalism can easily evoke strong criticism, maybe much more so than maximalism. 

With minimalism, there is so little material that every note must be perfect, something that is difficult to achieve.

Anyway, I decided that I couldn’t convincingly play something so simple at my level.
My new teacher has sent me back to play about the simplest Minuet by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang and a violinist. It works as a good etude for the classical style.

Is there shame in playing simple music? I think not but it seems so sometimes.

Larry K I totally concur with the “maximum intensity with a minimum material” concept, and there is absolutely no shame in keeping it simple. My teacher keeps telling me that keeping it simple is very challenging, and that it is the way to go.
There is no accounting for taste of course, and if people want to compose and/or play complicated stuff, good for them. I have a confession to make though - I have a goal to be able to improvise fugue by 2032, so mixing in a bit of complexity seems to be in my destiny.

Max is obviously a very talented musician and his go-to synth is a Minimoog Model D. By coincidence I bought one of these in the late ‘70s and used it throughout my professional career in a rock band. Shame on me for selling it in the ‘90s.

Ken Radford 

I think simple is difficult. There is nowhere to hide.

You can buy a reissue of that synth. I know, it would cost you a lot but it is available. Look at Reverb.

I almost sold my Yamaha DYUS5 piano to my teacher, the one who kept canceling lessons, lol. I woke up one morning and decided to back out of the deal. I am glad I did.

It would probably cost me almost double what I paid for it just six years ago to buy a new one.

I didn’t realize you played in a professional rock band. Anybody I know?

In New York, I knew a bass player who had played with Public Image Limited. He dropped out of that crazy scene. We ran in a running club together. He was one cool dude.
 

Larry K Nobody you would have heard of. We were always on the brink of “making it” but never did. I have a live recording of an instrumental piece I wrote in the ‘80s and my Minimoog comes through loud and clear. I will share if you’d like to hear it.

Ken Radford Sure, I’d like to hear it!