Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin Prelude, No. 15, Op. 28 in D flat - "Raindrop"

Taught my student Karla this prelude today. I was so glad she enjoyed learning and playing it. And when I came home it rained (it was supposed to snow). This prelude played itself in my head. I recalled that Karla played it so beautifully. Sometimes a young person could understand "cantabile" effortlessly. ha!

Belief

When you believe something, it eventually becomes true.
So, beware of what you believe.

And that is why you gotta learn to believe in yourself.

If you believe you don't worth anything, your self value will eventually fade away.
If you believe you are special, for yourself and people around, it will stay true eventually.

Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin Nocturne Op 48 No 1 in C minor

Breathtaking...

Ravel Piano Concerto for Left Hand

Can't really get the cadenza part out of my head after listening to it yesterday at Lincoln Center performed by NYPhil under David Robertson's baton. This is an exciting and beautiful composition. Worth mentioning is, it is a non-traditional one movement piano concerto where it has dramatic contrasting effect compare to usual-light-hearted temperament of most piano concerti.

As usual, you can find that there are "chord-sweeping" sessions dominating the piano part in Ravel's works. One thing special about this is Ravel combined his unique style of harmony with some jazzy effect. You can enjoy the visual excitement when you watch it live. But without listening live it radiates same excitement.

Here is a version by Richter. Part II is very exciting as it is building up to the climax (cadenza). You can feel the gradual inclination of the intensity and yes it is so excitng.
Part I

2-Sided Learnings

Have you ever realized the importance of two-sided learning? It is ths same philosophy with the balance of ying and the yang. Whenever you learn something from a practise session, it has to be something good as much as something bad. That means, you have to pay attention to something that needs improvement as much as something that is beatiful that you want to keep and make it better.

It is by this two-sided learning, that you can lay a firm basic ground work on your preparation for performance.

There are a lot of times where a pianist tries so hard to fix the problem that s/he forgets to preserve his/her passion in playing that piece. The passion is the beautiful perception of the piece. On the other hand, there are pianists who enjoy the beauty of a piece so much that s/he ignores the gaps or the missing parts that need improvements. So, 2-sided learning is very basic and important. Of course, both keeping the good and improving the shortcomings need effort. Thus putting equal effort will give you a better peace of mind in the process of crafting a performance.