Friday evening was our second concert of the new season. Held at Wayne State University, it was an all-Bartok program that went a long way to cleaning out my head of music rooted in the traditional tonic-dominant relationship. The concert opened with a short talk on Bartok's music, and then was followed by the brief but very intense 3-movement Sonata for Piano. This is a wickedly difficult piece to perform, with big chords, large leaps, and rhythms that almost defy human ability to interpret from the printed score and play in time. Of course just as the music was about to start, my hearing aid battery died. I forgot to bring a spare battery. It has a music setting which isn't too bad for listening and practicing, but last night I had only one ear to hear with. Still sounded pretty amazing.
After a very short intermission to set up the stage came the master's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Two percussion players use 11 different instruments during the piece, which is essentially a quartet. Again it is in three movements, and follows traditional classic forms to a large extent. This is vibrant and very exciting music to listen to, but very difficult to perform. A fine job was done by all concerned! I used to play a lot of Bartok, and have one of his big pieces scheduled for the concert after my upcoming one. Meanwhile, several of the astronomy pieces I have been playing recently by Alexina Louie are heavily influenced by Bartok, as well as Debussy. It was interesting to hear to hear the speaker last night tell how much Debussy's harmony influenced Bartok.
It was a cold a rainy night in Detroit, but restaurants were crowded and there was a lot going on in the big city. We had dinner beforehand nearby, and were home by 10 pm. Concert #3 for us is next Friday night here in Windsor, as my instructor Philip Adamson performs four more Beethoven Sonatas, his fourth concert in his complete cycle of the 32 sonatas. I am very excited! Sometime next week I will bother him again for a few lessons on my up and coming repertoire. My practicing has gone much better this past week, and I am now considerably beyond where I was with the pieces before the trip to New Mexico.
Speaking of that trip, I am finishing up my written journal, and hope to start on the website version early next week. Stay tuned for news of that. In film news, one of Deb's short films took first prize at a festival in Venice! She is currently working on her Youtube channel.
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