Re-addressing my classical past (part 1 of 3)
| 9/8/1999 - Also did my first "pseudo-classical" concert in really over 11 years. I've been sort of battling "classical demons" for some time now, ever since I left Indiana University with my B.mus in Classical Piano. As I've recounted before, my teacher was definitely uncompromisingly "old school"; he had little tolerance for someone who was interested in the dreaded "j" word - jazz. My experience was so unpleasant, in fact, that he in a sense sort of "chased me" into jazz (or at least away from classical music); and I'd stayed away since then, ie. for the past 11 years, until this concert this past July. To make the situation more "symbolic", the concert was with my actual first piano teacher, Dina Namer, with whom I studied from the age of 6 (when I could barely sit still for the hour lesson and, in fact, often had to leave the lesson 3 times to go to the bathroom!) til 18, when I went away to college to study at Indiana. And to top it off, this first classical performance in years was in my hometown of Ottawa, AND was being recorded by CBC radio, for eventual national broadcast.
I think I regarded this concert, then, as a way of exorcising demons; of re-addressing classical music, but this time on my own terms; with myself being the one this time who decided my feelings on the genre. We focused on 20th century duo piano repertoire: Milhaud's often-played Scaramouche; Stravinsky's very neo-classic Sonata for 2 pianos; Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; a piece by Hovhaness which we (both!) improvised on, and a new work I wrote with this occasion in mind entitled "Round and Round Variations" (a version of this piece, called "Round and Round", also appears on my new solo album).
The first thing which was interesting to me was the sheer amount of rehearsal required; I had forgotten about that particular type of discipline involved (the jazz world certainly requires preparation, but it's not so much about mastering my instrument technically anymore as it is about inputting as many different influences aurally as possible, and about psychologically always working to harness "the moment" when I play). It was nice because my former teacher Dina and I, who have kept in touch these past several years, both really got to come to terms, in a way, with the past, and to deal with each other's genres in some way, so that we could in a sense find some "common musical ground". Along these lines, I deliberately wrote in my original piece a section for her to improvise on, sort of an "ad lib" cadenza; I was very surprised when she dived right in like she had been improvising for years. I also wrote the bulk of the piece in a driving 7/4 time a la the last mvt. of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata no. 7 by which it is inspired, except that the piece was really a sort of "disguised blues", with essentially "written out extemporizations" for Dina to "blow" on. I later heard that she was quite nervous about such sections, about getting the rhythm just right, and that she worked very hard to make sure she nailed things, which she certainly did, at the concert. | | |
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