Romantic Music Challenge — Kickoff Stream

Claudia Great to see you here Claudia! So you held onto your resolution. Liebe grüsse. 

Sedef CANKOCAK You've inspired me. Playing two instruments is a challenge, but we'll manage. Best regards!

David H. A. Fitch hi David, this is the first of five sessions that will culminate in the February performance session. So I think Tuesday, January 13 is actually the correct date.  (disclaimer: I say this as a fellow Tone base participant, who has taken part in some of these live stream workshops before,, not anyone who has any actual authority here!)

Peter Golemme Re-reading the challenge terms I see that you want us to focus on a single piece or excerpt, so I'll go with the Schumann Intermezzo.  I'm still hoping this Kickoff Stream will be recorded so that I can check in on it later. 

Peter Golemme This should be recorded - I've only known them not to be recorded when there were technical difficulties. I'm in a piano lesson during this livestream, so I, too, hope to catch it later!

Peter Golemme I love Faschingsschwank aus Wien (it has a double 's' on my copy) but somehow I always seem to run out of energy towards the end of the first movement, glorious though it is!

Angela Fogg Hi Angela, yes it most definitely has 2 s's -- that was just me thinking I remembered my German well enough to spell it from memory!  Apologies to the German speakers out there!

As I understand it , It's a combination of two words --"Faschings" generally referring to "Carnival" (it' seems to be the plural form of the word,  used in general to signify the seasonal carnivals that preceded Lent ),  and then "Schwank", which can mean, among other things,  a type of farcical character piece or play put on during Carnival.   

My Kalmus edition translates it as "Carnival Jest from Vienna".  The Jest in question apparently being that a quote from "La Marseille" pops out of the middle of the first movement, written at a time when performing that song was banned in Vienne.  Some find an additional joke buried in the structure (Is it a 5 mvt. Sonata, or a series of character pieces like . . . . . . Carnival!), and some find it a general evocation of the merriment and whimsicality of an actual Carnival festival.

It's understandable that you might run out of steam trying to play through the first movement.  I feel like it's something of a whirlwind, not necessarily to be played at breakneck speed but with a sense of chaos, excitement, and whimsy that you migh find in , well, a carnival. It's like a procession or an impromptu parade of people,  carts, children, animals, etc., , spinning around, bumping into and bouncing off each other, not necessarily in a state of frenzy but definitely a state of excitement.

The Intermezzo is a complete change of pace, very concentrated, intense, focused and dramatic.  it's over far too soon, and we're back to a propulsive Finale that brings the Carnival to its conclusion.

The piece was one of the very last pieces assigned to me by my beloved teacher in the 70's., Miklos Schwalb. I never finished it as i shortly thereafter headed acress the country to graduate school in California (not for music). My window of having time and opportunity to practice regularly had closed, and by the time I returned to Boston in 1982 he had passed away.  This is the first I have revisited it since then.  Maybe I can use this challenge as a first step towards learning and finishing the entire piece as a tribute to him.

Angela Fogg I also want to let you know how much I enjoyed your chopin Nocturne at the December 29 concert, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you might do with your Schumann pieces here!

Angela Fogg I forgot to mention that if the session is still going I will join after I finish tomorrow at 7.45pm.

Mirian Sanches Congratulations for that choice! It's an incredibly beautiful piece of music and I won't ever stop playing it just for fun on whatever piano comes under my fingers.

Peter Lemken, clavierhaus How did you learn it so quickly?

Karen Sam you ask a good question of this person - how he leaned the piece so quickly (notes)- I am so slow at that stage of note learning Sigh. Need a crash course or good book on that subject.

Karen Sam Vicki R   It needs to be said that four days only get you so far - the first recording more or less sounds like sight reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMCNJst-UmE

Lots of wrong notes, wrong tempi and tempo correlations, but I like to use the opportunity of the studio of documenting progress and maybe spot errors before they become too much of a habit already. 

I knew the piece from Zhukov's wonderful recording and had hoped to win some others from the clavio.de forum to join a one year collaborative challenge to practice, record and publish the whole cycle in 2026. Alas, I am still a loner, so I had and have some ambition to get at least a number of the pieces under my belt.

What helped me immensely in grasping the gist of a piece is following the score while listening to a recording. I started this very early, simply out of curiosity for new music. As it turned, it helped in recognize patterns which then could be translated to movements at the piano. It also helped me to improve my reading of the bass clef and remote keys.

Oh, and I followed the "Richter rule" i.e. only move on to page 2 when you somehow know what you are doing on page 1 :-)

Vicki R Have you watched any of the relevant Tonebase videos? For example, “Unlocking Your Piece.” I haven’t had time.