The not-so-romantic-as-one-might-think life of the 21st century pianist.

It's a little after 10pm, and I'm here in one of the practice rooms at UNM playing bits and pieces of the 4th Chopin Ballade under tempo. I keep thinking, "why didn't I ever realize I was supposed to phrase it like this before?" It's amazing what preparing for a competition will do to you. I have learned more about phrasing on this piece in the last 12 hours that I've been here than in the last few months I've spent on the piece.

It's not my first competition, but it's my first international competition. I don't know that there's any real difference (MTNA pays more prize money by far, and it's a national competition) except that the word "international" attracts every little hotshot teenager within a few thousand miles to apply. It's the International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival in Fort Collins, Colorado. So far it seems to be well-organized and have a lot of community support (this is the first year for the competition). We'll see. I leave tomorrow for Colorado, and I'll have a day and a half to prepare there before I perform on Saturday. That word "international" also causes some sort of unusual stress to rise up in me... It's not like I'm going to be the shame of the piano world if I don't place. But I suppose I just want to connect with the judges. The networking is far more important to me than winning or losing, for which I feel I can hardly compete with the prodigies that also were accepted. I'm sure they are nervous too; they are probably all practicing right now too.

I haven't done much of anything with Ravel the last few days for obvious reasons. More on that Monday, probably. Wish me luck! And pray.

Well, back to practice. Goodnight.

Taking on Ravel

At Charles' suggestion, it is appropriate that the first posts be about Gaspard de la Nuit.  Having just got back from a very successful trip to perform and study at the 2012 Internationales Klavierfestival Lindlar, I took it into my head that I could learn any piece in the world, whatever I wanted.  Talking with Falko, my piano teacher at the University of New Mexico, Gaspard de la Nuit came up.  Here goes nothing! I bought the Henle edition in Cologne and set to work right away because I didn't have enough to do already with preparing for my first international piano competition, the brand-new International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival in Fort Collins, which takes place in 10 days.  I need to get back to practicing pretty soon, but I wanted to set the stage for learning Gaspard.

It's a composition by Maurice Ravel, about 30 minutes, I believe, written at least in part with the purpose of creating the most difficult piano piece yet.   Balakirev's Islamey, the final revision having been published in 1902, was all the rage in European concert halls during the early years of the 20th century because it was considered (not without good reason) to be the hardest piece for piano.  Ravel published his Gaspard de la Nuit in 1908.  While it's tough to say definitively which pieces are the most technically challenging, you can still say with confidence that piano music doesn't get more difficult than Gaspard. 

It's not performed often, except by teenage virtuosos from China.  Other pieces that are supposed to be "the hardest ever", like Scriabin's 5th Sonata, the first Chopin Etude, or Beethoven's Sonata Appassionata are played much more frequently. I feel like the number of people who attempt a piece and then give up should be taken into account when determining something that is truly difficult. Then you also need to take into account the people who play a piece badly.

Enough of my rambling. These thoughts aren't unique; they're just wasting space on a hard drive somewhere in San Jose.  But I want to lay out an overture to what my learning Gaspard de la Nuit will look like:

• Phase 1 - I'm not so sure about this.  But Argerich learned it in 5 days... so maybe I can learn it in a month or so.
• Phase 2 - Hey! It's just scales and arpeggios! Easy! [where I am now, but only for the next couple of hours]
• Phase 3 - You know, playing a couple of these scales and arpeggios in a row isn't so easy...
• Phase 4 - %#&#@(*&!& RAVEL!!
• Phase 5 - Hey, this isn't so bad. I think I'm getting the hang of this. [this phase totally without warning and lasts only a few days]
• Phase 6 - Wait. This has to be musical? Crap.
• Phase 7 - %#&#@(*&!& RAVEL!! [the final phase]

Usually there is another phase inserted somewhere in this list called the "you know, I really shouldn't have cut so many corners when I started learning this piece" phase.  I don't know when that will come up, but I can guarantee it will.

Phase 1 - passed with ease. Josh-1, Ravel-0
Phase 2 - doing pretty well. I'm at the 2 yard line, 1st down.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, good night and good luck.   We'll be seeing more of each other.