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Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

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Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#41

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

komali2 wrote: post #38
jerf wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classical music is supposed to be intense, albeit not necessarily in the "techno" sort of way. You really ought to play it fairly loudly (obviously not to the ear-damaging levels), and the recording needs to have a lot of dynamic range on it to capture it correctly. Classical music played and recorded correctly will use some intensity cues rarely used by modern music like dynamic range. Where I think it tends to fall…

Do you have any recommendations for modern, classically trained musicians?

He's not a Juliard grad, but I think "Nosaj Thing" fits this definition really well. He makes electronic music with classical sensibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dlg1moFsss

Also now producing for Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper.

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#42

Post by leephillips »

jerf wrote: post #17
donquichotte wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is intense, and I don't listen to classical music regularly.

Classical music is supposed to be intense, albeit not necessarily in the "techno" sort of way. You really ought to play it fairly loudly (obviously not to the ear-damaging levels), and the recording needs to have a lot of dynamic range on it to capture it correctly. Classical music played and recorded correctly will use some intensity cues rarely used by modern music like dynamic range. Where I think it tends to fall…

Also, this music is very familiar to us. Imagine hearing it for the first time, with an audience who, like you, has never heard anything like it. Beethoven was radical, his music sounding strange and extreme to many listeners. You might want to hear the movement again.

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#43

Post by raincom »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #23
edejong wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long piece, so she's probably afraid she'll forget a passage later on.

It's super impressive that people can play music like that form memory, I mean there's got to be thousands or tens of thousands of notes in there.

Actually, music was the only thing Clive Wearing can play, and he was suffering from retrograde amnesia--he could not remember his past at all. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/24/the-abyss

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#44

Post by scott_s »

edejong wrote: post #4

The classical example of expecting another piece is when Maria Joao Pires performed in Amsterdam and only during the orchestra introduction figured out her mistake. See her reaction on Youtube [1]. As opposed to the article above, she hadn't performed this piece in over a year. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS64pb0XnbI

The conductor reminds me of a coach giving a pep talk to one of his best players after a botched play: I know you got this, I have faith in you.

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#45

Post by dperfect »

dorkwood wrote: post #2

The article initially makes it sound like the pianist was caught completely off-guard when the band started playing a different song to what he had rehearsed. If you read further, however, you discover that the pianist had actually prepared to play both songs, but that their order had been switched, which is a significantly less dramatic story.

From the article:

> he soon felt at ease in the Rachmaninoff, which he had prepared but did not expect to come until after the Tchaikovsky, in the final round of the competition [emphasis added]

It's a bit ambiguous, but it sounds like he had prepared to play it in another round of the competition, not in the same performance. There's a significant difference between having practiced a song and being fully (and mentally) prepared to play it in a specific performance.

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#46

Post by edbaskerville »

bcatanzaro wrote: post #40
jerf wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classical music is supposed to be intense, albeit not necessarily in the "techno" sort of way. You really ought to play it fairly loudly (obviously not to the ear-damaging levels), and the recording needs to have a lot of dynamic range on it to capture it correctly. Classical music played and recorded correctly will use some intensity cues rarely used by modern music like dynamic range. Where I think it tends to fall…

I agree with a lot of this, but I can't let the comment that chamber music is "designed to be flat and unobtrusive" stand. Of course there is a lot of boring chamber music, as there is of any kind of music. But chamber music is vast and contains some of the purest and most passionate music ever written. A very few examples of some great chamber music (I've linked to some fun parts): Beethoven String Quartet #10 (The…

Frequent player of chamber music here.

By dissing chamber music in that way, GP was falling prey to an unfortunate Hollywood stereotype that usually involves rich people and this piece of music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSV8NnA3B74

But what about this one, also by Mozart, also performed by the Hagen Quartet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBMpD5ldrWU

So Mozart had a lot of emotional range, even in a period where sharp dissonances and tangled counterpoint were out of fashion.

A group of us chamber musicians has had a lot of success playing for people that don't usually listen to classical music simply by doing it in intimate bars and cafes. (Primarily, the Revolution Cafe in the Mission District of San Francisco.)

The fact that the music is long doesn't matter at all if you find people where they are and play with emotional conviction.

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#47

Post by schoen »

edbaskerville wrote: post #46
bcatanzaro wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with a lot of this, but I can't let the comment that chamber music is "designed to be flat and unobtrusive" stand. Of course there is a lot of boring chamber music, as there is of any kind of music. But chamber music is vast and contains some of the purest and most passionate music ever written. A very few examples of some great chamber music (I've linked to some fun parts): Beethoven String Quartet #10 (The…

Frequent player of chamber music here. By dissing chamber music in that way, GP was falling prey to an unfortunate Hollywood stereotype that usually involves rich people and this piece of music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSV8NnA3B74 But what about this one, also by Mozart, also performed by the Hagen Quartet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBMpD5ldrWU So Mozart had a lot of emotional range, even in a period wh…

Can you tell me when you'll be playing at Revolution Cafe or the name of your group?

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#48

Post by jfengel »

jerf wrote: post #17
donquichotte wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is intense, and I don't listen to classical music regularly.

Classical music is supposed to be intense, albeit not necessarily in the "techno" sort of way. You really ought to play it fairly loudly (obviously not to the ear-damaging levels), and the recording needs to have a lot of dynamic range on it to capture it correctly. Classical music played and recorded correctly will use some intensity cues rarely used by modern music like dynamic range. Where I think it tends to fall…

I do much the same in a different medium. I direct Shakespeare, and one of the first things I do is take out a lot of redundancy in the script.

That's a different kind of redundancy, since it's not just repeating the same words. But writers of the period tended to emphasize things for an audience who wasn't always paying attention: theaters were noisy and busy.

Shakespeare also tended to expound on themes in a way modern audiences enjoy less. Not every word Shakespeare wrote was gold, and audiences use to the timing of movies prefer that you move the plot along in two hours rather than three to four.

I can tighten focus on themes that are important to me, and cut out things like jokes that aren't funny any more or references that are lost. Audiences greatly enjoy the result, without having to be extensively taught to like Elizabethan theater.

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#49

Post by jlawson »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #23
edejong wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long piece, so she's probably afraid she'll forget a passage later on.

It's super impressive that people can play music like that form memory, I mean there's got to be thousands or tens of thousands of notes in there.

You can remember music like that too. Take any song you've listened to many times - I'm pretty sure if someone changed one note, or one word, you'd notice immediately.

Of course, actually playing those notes while you remember them is harder...

Re: Anxiety nightmare comes true for pianist at competition

#50

Post by bcatanzaro »

schoen wrote: post #47
edbaskerville wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frequent player of chamber music here. By dissing chamber music in that way, GP was falling prey to an unfortunate Hollywood stereotype that usually involves rich people and this piece of music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSV8NnA3B74 But what about this one, also by Mozart, also performed by the Hagen Quartet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBMpD5ldrWU So Mozart had a lot of emotional range, even in a period wh…

Can you tell me when you'll be playing at Revolution Cafe or the name of your group?

Yes, I want to know this too! Would be fun to come watch you!
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