Sviatoslav Richter plays Ravel "Pavane"

Maurice Ravel - "Pavane pour une Infante Defunte" Live recording, 1954

The Joy and Sorrow of Love

Originally composed by Kreisler, rearranged by Rachmaninoff for piano. Performed by Rachmaninoff.

Kreisler/Rachmaninoff, Liebesfreud (The Joy of Love)


Kreisler/Rachmaninoff, Liebesleid (The Sorrow of Love)

Quote

"Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead... You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin."
-- Kathleen Norris, Writer

Inspiration from the legendary violinist, Niccolò Paganini's Violin Caprice 24

I think in our lives we do certain things everyday. It is the same everyday. But sometimes we don't realize the we can do the same thing differently. That is how you keep your creativity juice flowing.
In piano works, composers exercise their creativity by improvising on a theme. And detailed written-out improvisations on the same theme are always named "Theme and Variations"

Here is a theme originally composed by Paganini in his Violin Caprice 24. Amazing enough, he was able to exploit and improvise every aspect of the theme in each of the variation.

Can't get it out of my head after listening to the theme of Caprice 24. I guess the theme had also stucked in in the heads of Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff that they have to experiment with it and write it all out. Ha! Enjoy!

Jascha Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No. 24, accompaniment part composed by Schummann. Thrilled by the double-stops.


Female violinist version (Hilary Hahn). Amazing double-stop.



LISZT's arrangement has darker color. Franz Liszt is an equivalence to Niccolo Paganini in piano world. This arrangement was performed by Daniil Tsvetkov, an amazing pianist with beautiful long fingers.


Brahms' arrangement is more romantic and has thicker texture.


Rachmaninoff's arrangement (Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini) has some mysterious, jazz flavor and has more tone color with orchestra sound. Performed by Stephen Hough with amazingly imaginative interpretation. If you watch the movie "Groundhog Day", you will recognize the reversed theme in the final variation.






Life is the same thing. We can do the same thing same way or differently and usually it turns out amazing. So, be resilient and practical. That will lead you to being creative, and you will have fun all the way through.

Van Cliburn plays Liszt Un Sospiro

Powerful sound

Seeing that other pianists have very fast and crispy chord attack sounds, sometimes we mistake that as using a lot of energy. Actually, the loud sound, the sharp sound, or the crisp decisive sound doesn't come from more energy. It is indeed coming from a different angle of attack as well as the speed at attacking the keyboard. The angle is a bit more vertical, the speed is faster. But, NOT more energy is applied. Also, the arm muscle needs to be relaxed. A tensed arm is like an arm with a lot of burden. Imagine a person can never run fast with a lot of burden. To be fast, you need to mentally imagine/choreograph a smooth path for your arms+hands movement. Relate your sound to your physical sensation (hand movement/touch of keyboard/feel of distance). Also a clever way of intensifying the sound without spending more energy is actually by using your arm weight. You can try dropping your arm weight at a certain angle and speed to achieve the desired dynamic of the sound. It is a fun experiment to do at piano to explore the correlation between speed and loudness of the piano sound. Then you will realize it would be wise to adjust certain habits so that you are using speed but NOT more energy for loud sound. That way you make yourself more "energy-efficient" in performing music.

Nutcracker Suite

A composition by Tchaikovsky arranged by Pletnev. For students who love Tchaikovsky. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Performed by Korean Pianist, Mee-Hyun Ahn
1. March
2. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
3. Trepak Dance
4. In the Christmas Tree
5. Chinese Dance (Tea)
6. Pas De deux: Intrada

She is very musical and confident. She is a real artist :)

Yundi Li

Beautiful uplifting piano music. Good energy can be gained by listening to good beautiful music. Treat yourself to good music. Sit back, enjoy, and you'll see there, life is so beautiful with music.

Martha Argerich,Ravel Jeux d'eau

originally telecast july 31,1977

Let the water wash away all your bad fiery energy, calm your mind, and restore your pureness.

Power Boost

Turn up your volume and have a Power Boost. Note that the repeated notes needs both fast hand action as well as piano with good hammer strikes :)
Performed by Argerich & Freire - Rachmaninov's Suite for 2 Pianos - Tarantella

Take a deep breath

Ondine is another water piece introduced by Vita M blog after Chopin's Barcarolle. It is one of the character pieces from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, a set of 3 compositions inspired by French poet, Aloysius Bertrand's poems. There are a lot of water-like sound arrangements since this is about a water ghost "Ondine" who tried to seduce men into her water and drown them. As usual, you will find technical parts for piansits in Ravel's composition. In "Ondine", the challenging part is the repeated right hand chords that are supposed to be repeated in "micro-seconds" and the challange to maintain the softness and even-ness of the chords. Water has been a very popular extra-musical reference for many composers. ( Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, etc. ) This is probably because water resembles elegant, smooth, fluidity, zen-like quality of piano sound. A piece about water is always an incredible composition.

The original poem, Ondine:
" Ecoute ! - Ecoute ! - C'est moi, c'est Ondine qui
frôle de ces gouttes d'eau les losanges sonores de ta
fenêtre illuminée par les mornes rayons de la lune ;
et voici, en robe de moire, la dame châtelaine qui
contemple à son balcon la belle nuit étoilée et le beau
lac endormi.

" Chaque flot est un ondin qui nage dans le courant,
chaque courant est un sentier qui serpente vers mon palais,
et mon palais est bâti fluide, au fond du lac, dans le
triangle du feu, de la terre et de l'air.

" Ecoute ! - Ecoute ! - Mon père bat l'eau coassante
d'une branche d'aulne verte, et mes soeurs caressent de
leurs bras d'écume les fraîches îles d'herbes, de nénu-
phars et de glaïeuls, ou se moquent du saule caduc et
barbu qui pêche à la ligne ! "

*

Sa chanson murmurée, elle me supplia de recevoir son
anneau à mon doigt pour être l'époux d'une Ondine, et
de visiter avec elle son palais pour être le roi des lacs.

Et comme je lui répondais que j'aimais une mortelle,
boudeuse et dépitée, elle pleura quelques larmes, poussa
un éclat de rire, et s'évanouit en giboulées qui ruisse-
lèrent blanches le long de mes vitraux bleus.


Translation:

"Ecoute! - Ecoute! - THIS IS me, this is Ondine that brushes of these drops of water the sonorous losanges
of your window illuminated by the gloomy rays of the moon; and here, in dress of makes shimmer, the lady
châtelaine that contemplates to his balcony the beautiful night étoilée and the beautiful lake gone to sleep.

"Every wave is a water sprite that swims in the current, every current is a path that winds towards my palace,
and my palace is built fluid, at the far end of the lake, in the fire triangle, earth and air.

"Ecoute! - Ecoute! - My father beats water croaking of a branch of green alder, and my sisters caress of
their arms of foam the fresh islands of grasses, of nénu- phars and of gladiolas, or make fun of of the null
and bearded willow that fishes to the line! "

*

His murmured song, she implored me to receive his ring to my finger to be the spouse of an Ondine, and to
visit with her his palace to be the lake king.

And as I replied for him that I liked a mortal one, sulker and upset, she cried some tears, pushed a laugh
brightness, and faints in sudden showers that ruisse- white lèrent alongside my blue vitraux.

Performed by Martha Argerich.

Schedule for a Piano Lesson at TEN PIANO STUDIO