Wednesday, April 22. 2009
… , at least in things musical, is something that I’ve been doing nearly all of my life. I seem to remember that my first ‘performance’ as it were was on a ukulele at the age of eight, and that was around the time I was crazy enough to answer ‘Yes’ when my mother asked if I wanted to learn the piano.
I’ve come a long way since then of course, my first piano was one which we brought out from England with us because we couldn’t sell it there, and in fact we kept it in our garage of all places because we couldn’t fit it in the house. Now of course I have the Stuart sitting in my music room and certainly I would suggest that that is an improvement over my humble beginnings in this regard – albeit some 50 years or so afterwards.
I have mentioned before that the Stuart piano is so clear and precise that it emphasises everything I do wrong, and I must admit that I do quite a few things wrong when I play. Whilst I can get away with this to an extent when I record my playing, in the sense that I can go back and correct things, strictly speaking I can’t do that when I perform in public. Since I have begun to get back into such performances, it is clear that I need to really focus on that aspect of my playing and that is what I have been doing over the last few days.
I plan another fundraising concert in the beginning of July, and so I have set myself the target of really trying to eliminate as many errors, glitches and uncertainties as I can. This will have an important bearing on my recordings going forward.
In order to really set a standard, I’ve been recording my playing on video. Obviously, in video recording WYSIWYG with a vengeance and any little imperfections, particularly on this piano, become glaringly obvious.
So I’ve been recording myself in glorious high-definition 1080p using my son’s video recorder. At the same time, I’ve recorded the audio on my digital recording setup in CD quality sound. I then replaced the video sound (which is actually quite good from this camera) with this audio. It’s a bit tricky to get the synchronisation right, and when I play the rendered file back on my computer it looks as though the sound is coming out very slightly ahead of the video, but it turns out that this is because my graphics card cannot handle 1080p + the audio that well. I have made a DVD of what I have done so far, and the synchronisation is exactly right. Of course the sound is very good, and overall I must admit I’ve done a good job on the pieces so far.
But I have a long way to go before I’m really happy with the outcomes, but at least I’ve made a start in the right direction and this will only push me harder over the coming weeks, and hopefully higher as well.
It’s beginning to sound as though I really am serious about this, finally. Confidence is good thing to have, and I must admit after many years I’m beginning to get it back again.
Saturday, April 18. 2009
… for the last couple of weeks on the Stuart front, hence my lack of activity on this blog – I gave myself a bit of a break from serious Stuarting after my recital. Easter was a busy period, not the least because David was organising the music for the Easter vigil mass close to where we live and consequently there were copious rehearsals, arranging, practicising and other organisational tasks etc to be done, all of which took up much time and effort on both our behalfs.
Nonetheless, it went off very well and all of the musicians and choir did a sterling job under the circumstances. I played keyboard and organ, and considering I’ve been doing these things for while now I was able to adjust quickly when soloists didn’t quite come in at the right time …
Especially one time when the hymn stopped but the soloist kept going with the next verse – these little things do test you at times. In fact, I picked it up very quickly and no-one really noticed any difference!
On the Stuart front, I need to get back and do what I planned to do before and refine the recordings that I’ve made over the last couple of months, as well as developing a bit more repertoire for future recitals. I would like to explore some Schumann and Brahms, two composers I haven’t really got my teeth into for a while now, and there is some very interesting music from the former Soviet republics that I will look at as well.
It really is a question of time – how much of it, to be precise. I’m probably going to need to improve my time management in order to get everything done that I need to – and that is not going to be easy for someone of my limited organisational skills.
One thing I have found is that having to focus on performing again has really sharpened my mind and made me concentrate much more on the sounds I am hearing. When you play only for yourself, you tend to hear what you want to hear, but when other people are involved, for some reason or other you need to consider very carefully what your audience is hearing and that adds an extra dimension to your interpretation, which cannot be a bad thing. As I said previously, I’m much more relaxed sitting at the piano now, and my task is to carry that into any recordings or recitals I do in the future.
Fortunately, the piano makes that much easier than you would think.
Saturday, April 4. 2009
… in that I hosted a marvellous group of people for a lunch and recital which once again raised a good deal of money for the Bo Children’s Hospital project.
Three of my students played, each very well given the pressures that are on any performance in front of an audience, and for my own part I felt somewhat more relaxed and confident about what I was playing that I did last time. I played a variety of music dating from 1530 to the present day, in a variety of styles, moods and sounds, and overall was able, once again, to demonstrate to full range of effects and musicality that this piano allows me to do. Much of what I did was tailored to the piano in a number of ways, and the sounds I produced could not, in all honesty, have been produced on any other piano other than a Stuart.
Food-wise, everyone brought a plate of something and, added into what we prepared ourselves, the resultant quantity of food was still too much for us all, whilst the quality was quite exceptional.
I plan to expand these occasions not so much in terms of the number of people involved (although there were a number who would have liked to come but had other commitments) but certainly more events and variety of music, always however with a focus on the Stuart piano. I would like to think that I can put on at least another three before the end of the year, and I’m confident that the support is there for me to do that.
Speaking of which, the sound was, as usual, quite superb. The instrument, as I have said many times now, has really settled into a groove and is a real pleasure to play, and from what I was told, a real pleasure to listen to.
It is certainly gratifying from my perspective that I’m still, after all these years, able to perform to quite a reasonable musical (if not technical!) standard. Somewhat surprisingly, my eyesight did not seem to be so much of a problem this time – suggesting that my brain has finally come to what is left of its senses and has accepted the fact that my left eye has now been superceded.
And about time, too…
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