Week 2: Fully immersed in Grieg's musical landscape
Hello and welcome to the WEEK TWO Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between May 29-June 5 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
1. Now that you have picked your piece, and have started practicing. Let us know what you are most enjoying about this immersion into Grieg's world!
2. What is most difficult?
3. OPTIONAL: post a video showing your practice (even if you might be practicing sight-reading it!)
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I adore that picture! :-)
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OK, here is 2/3rds of Grieg "Gade", opus 57-2. Main challenge is bringing out the two voices while keeping everything else in the background. And tempo, of course - it is marked allegro, not andante! Then we have one of Grieg's famous ascending increases in tension, followed by the gradual descent through some chromatic harmonies back to where we started. Left to do is the final section that changes key briefly and then a coda.
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Sam Smith What a beautiful piece & great start! You negotiated the chromatic changes so well. Thank you.
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Sam Smith sounds beautiful! Thanks for sharing this piece. Looking forward to hearing the rest of it!
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Sam Smith Beautiful playing. I look forward to hearing you play all of it!
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Sam Smith Beautiful playing! You have created such a nice mood. Looking forward to the rest.
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Sam Smith Beautiful! You are bringing out the melodies so nicely!
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Sam Smith You totally nail the lovely lyricism of this piece. I got goosebumps (in a good way)!
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Sam Smith Sounds great, with character!
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Sam Smith the rich cantabile sound you manage to create really brings out the character of the pieces so well!
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Sam Smith magical piece! Very nice
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I am enjoying the great variety of these little pieces. I am trying to imagine what might have been going through Grieg's head as he composed them. While playing "Summer Evening" Op 71 No2, I am imagining a sultry summer evening, Things going slowly because of the heat and humidity, then a pop up summer storm (the sixteenth notes) arrives, quickly, and leaves quickly. By the end, all is calm. Here is where it is right now:
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Jennifer Mehta Sounds great! You are making so much progress with all your pieces!
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Jennifer Mehta Lovely playing! Great imagery you’re portraying! Loving the chromatic work (summer storm), and then the calmness again.
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Jennifer Mehta the sultry summer evening vibes are coming right through. Nice playing, Jennifer! I'm trying to learn Op 71 no 1 and can see how the pieces would fit beautifully in sequence.
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Natalie Peh thank Natalie! What a great observation of how the pieces link together. I really look forward to hearing your piece!
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Jennifer Mehta You are definitely painting a lovely, vivid musical picture. Great work!
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Jennifer Mehta Sounds great, lovely and delicate playing, Jennifer!
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Jennifer Mehta beautiful. Those sixteenth notes really add to the poetry and color of the piece in your hands.
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For your amusement, here's a rather haphazard 26-minute practice session from today, complete with me occasionally muttering about stuff. Piece still needs work. Getting it up to the marked speed, while keeping everything even, will be tough.
Also, I probably should've done some warmups at the beginning. Puck is a terrible piece to play cold.
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Marc M Thanks for sharing! Very interesting to look at your practice. Wrist action is very important in this piece! Well done!
I’m interested in the naming of this piece, and I have know idea why this piece this translated/called “Puck”. Or what that means. Do you know what “Puck” means? The Norwegian title “Småtroll” means “little trolls”. The related piece “March of the Dwarfs” has the Norwegian title “Trolltog” meaning “Troll train”, So the title “March of the trolls” would be more correct there in my ears, and we can clearly see the relationship between these two pieces. I read that Grieg was participating in the translations, but it was more difficult with some of the pieces! -
Sindre Skarelven Thank you! I'm still trying to get the wrist action right (raising, lowering, supinating and pronating at the rights times)...it's tricky for me in this piece. While learning this piece I'm also going through the Tonebase Taubman videos with Robert Durso to see what I can apply from those. It's great stuff, and maybe my playing will look a bit different by the end of the challenge.
I'm also not sure why it's called "Puck" in English editions. I found the beginning of an article in Pianist Magazine that said it's a mystery, but might be a reference to Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Clearly the meaning is different from "Small Troll", so I wonder if Grieg approved of it. From a couple articles I've read, it seems he was a Shakespeare fan, so it's possible.
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Marc M Thank you, Marc! It seems as a plausible explanation!
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Sindre Skarelven Puck is known as a mischievous spirit (the word “puckish” means playful in a mischievous manner) and in some English dialects means “goblin.” Perhaps it was the closest they could come to “little trolls.”
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Marc M Nice to see your learning process! Sounding great! I love seeing how everyone’s pieces come together during these challenges.
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