Sunday, May 20, 2012

Where are my 'tatatoes'?

I did my first piano recital, that is, in public, today along with the other students of my teacher.  I played Prelude 1 in C by Bach from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier.  I ran into several rough spots but, overall, did not embarrass myself (too) badly in front of all these grade school kids and their families.  On the surface the piece may not look so difficult to play, but to play it well is not a simple matter.  It's like trying to achieve the precision quality of Glenn Gould and the hypnotic quality of Philip Glass, while at the same time to sound as serene as possible, in short, it is a very tall, or next to an impossible order.  My teacher, to help me get into an even rhythm, used to count aloud while I played, "one tatato, two tatato, three tatato, four tatato, one ..."  They got so drummed into my head that lately I dreamed about them at night.  Here is the video of my recital; for the professional pianists out there, my advice is to skip this to save the suffering of your ears.  



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