(It’s quite a sight to see one very long table as the panel. It’s easily the biggest panel for which I’ve ever played).
The requirements for the preliminary round are:
one selection of Schubert
two other selections, which must be originally set and composed in German (so Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs would qualify)
The panel reserves the right to hear 1-3 selections, or parts of any selection offered. As per normal audition protocol, they can ask for anything and stop you at any time.
One of the partners that I had for this audition is a treasure to me. We entered the DMA together: we took classes together, and we have worked together for the past three years. We’ve done two degree recitals together. We also performed at each other’s recent weddings! And most recently, we studied for, braved, and passed the written comprehensives together!
For this audition, we also had a series of wonderful language sessions with some of the collaborative and language professors at Eastman. We’re not taking classes full-time (we’re both just finishing up this semester), and so we had the time to really invest into the rehearsal process in a way that was not distracted by the many demands put onto a doctoral student. I practiced and polished these three pieces with a great deal of care, as did my partner.
My mindset during the audition was very clear, actually. Instead of being intimidated by the large panel, I realized, "These musicians love music, they want us to be in the best possible shape. They want to advance us!" I focused on having my accompaniment be clear and light, with the motive of the Trout being clear, gleaming, and magical. For the Brahms, Auf dem Kirchhofe, I wanted my wind at the beginning to evoke a blizzard in Vienna's Central Cemetery.
Schubert is one my Rosetta Stone composers. I mean this in the original way that we know the Rosetta Stone, meaning a valuable crux of bridging the gap of understanding from one thing to another. Schubert has always proved a style that I could delve into deeply, without feeling stylistically constrained. I’ve always appreciated and loved his Beethovenian drama, with Mozartean form and Italianate melodic gifts. And something who produced over 600 of anything while dealing with terminal illness and a short lifespan is a force to be reckoned with!
The repertoire of Schubert that I’ve studied has always brought joy. I played the big Sonata in A Minor at Oberlin. I studied and performed the Impromptu in f minor in England with my high school and post-Oberlin teacher, Sandra Carlock. That opportunity brought a performance of Schubert on instruments that were contemporary to the great composer! I played this impromptu on a Fritz … if I can find photos, I will share them for sure … Other opportunities to play the B-flat Major Trio, the Trout Quintet, Arpeggione Sonata, and countless lieder have always been happy.
Schubert is tricky, too. The articulations are not easy. The texture can be spare, and therefore, treacherously exposed. But the decision-making-minefield of this music is always worth every minute in the practice room.
I had the opportunity to visit Schubert’s birth and death houses in Vienna in 2012. I did both in the same day, which was poetic in and of itself. To encompass any life in a single day, much less this one … it was really special. Both places had artifacts that you’d expect: preserved papers, instruments, lithographs, portraits, instruments.
What got me were the glasses. In every likeness that you will see of Schubert, he wears very modest, round glasses. I love them. I love him for wearing them. When I was studying with my first piano teacher, Ailene Nase, she would have all of the great lionized Western composers’ portraits on the wall. Schubert was easy to find, because of the glasses.
The Death-House in particular had an arresting, quieting feel. It was awe-inspiring to be walking the halls where he composed Die Schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise. The spirit of a man dying of syphillis, aching to write lieder and read Fennimore Cooper still lingers.
It is as if his Doppelgänger is still in all of us, asking us to carry on his voice, and his music.
PHOTOS: taken by me at the Geburtshaus and Sterbhaus, summer of 2012, Vienna.
