Спасибо, Чаттер!

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being reunited with Justin Hopkins, bass-baritone (read more about him here). We had worked together a bit through Opera Philadelphia (now almost ten years ago!). 

Justin is in Albuquerque singing Oroveso in Norma (Bellini) for Opera Southwest. Read more about that production here. (I will conduct the performance on 4/11/2018 and I’m over the moon about it. Yes, Druid pun intended).

The program was all-Rachmaninoff - we opened with four songs, and then Mari Tomizuka (pianist) and Emil Miland (cello) played the glorious Cello Sonata. Which is really a piano sonata (or piano concerto, even!) for two people. 

You can hear a short bit of our performance here. We will do a Q+A and these Russian songs again on Tuesday, April 10th at 3:30 PM at UNM, so for those of you on campus or in town, we hope to see you there! 

(The Title means, Thank you, Chatter! - such an important organization and venue in the American Southwest! Visit the site here).  This project has also really inspired me to do daily Russian work. I'm using DuoLingo, so find me if you use it as well! 

Sitzfleisch

Here is a dialogue-journal assignment for my students. I thought some blog-readers would enjoy it.

Sitzen - (German) - verb infinitive, to sit
(das) Fleisch - (German) - noun, meat

Why are we talking about "sitting meat?"

Sitzfleisch is probably originally a Yiddish term, but makes sense in German. It is technically now even an English word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

It literally means "the meat on your butt." And I bring it up today because - it is at this point in the semester - where things get hard. If you don't show up every day and do the work, and organize your practice time, you will not have the proper amount of Sitzfleisch.

Why is a pianist telling singers to sit?

First of all, some of your music really needs to be plunked, sat about, and-or thought about, at a keyboard. And all of it could use seated-focused-at-the-keyboard work.

Here is a photo (I've heard they are worth a thousand words) of my activity this past week in Germany. You can see me on the right, playing the accompaniment. Why I love this picture so much is that is shows my beloved colleague, Tara, at the opposite keyboard, playing HER part.

In the photo, we are working on four arias, two of which we premiered last Friday. These were written by her husband. (These will be performed twice in Albuquerque in November).

These pieces are challenging for both pianist and singer. Rhythmically tricky. Sometimes the accompaniment does not generate the pitches for the vocalist. The texts are in several different languages. And not to mention - having the composer in rehearsals means that there "is no hiding."


- Posted en route

Location:Wilshire Ave NE,Albuquerque,United States

Continuo

"In order to be faithful to the written music, one must be prepared to alter the written notes." (from ON EARLY MUSIC)

What? 

I think it is easier for a classical musician to understand this as "one must know everything so well, and be so free, that one can transcend the score." 

In playing anything in public, but specifically an unrealized continuo part, one must call upon skill sets closer to what jazz musicians use. You have to be at home with form, harmony, sequences, riffs, licks, and gestures. You play as if to say, "Yes, and ..." 

I am an especially lucky girl these days. I have been able to borrow and practice on the collection of harpsichords which UNM has (they have *six* good instruments under lock-and-key in the basement!). 

These instruments tell stories in a way that a modern piano can't. Their uniqueness, and what the instrument will-or-won't hold, regarding tuning. 

I purchased a tuner for my iPhone (on encouragement from my historical performance teacher at Eastman, Paul O'Dette), which will help you tune an instrument within any "meister" or "comma" imaginable. When I do the Bach and Shostakovich project recordings, I will take advantage of this. 

Late November and all of December are two parties for baroque playing for me. Last weekend was another performance at Chatter (same great institution, just a different location) ...

(PHOTO: from my GoPro, playing some wild Biber pieces)

... and December 3-4 will be an off-shoot of "Movable Sol"'s concert series, "Barokk Werke Verzeichniss." (A play on BWV). On that docket are several preludes and fugues from WTC I (I have been doing more WTC II these days, but the WTC I is always wonderful to revisit), a Boccherini gamba sonata, and some works for unaccompanied 'cello.

December 19th will bring a blissful reunion with my wonderful trio back on the East Coast. I will get to perform again Bach's great Harpsichord Concerto in d minor (I last performed this in the winter of 2004. This performance has brought about new practice techniques, much more work and training since then on my technique and on harpsichord, and new scores and editions have come out since I last performed it). 

Here's to continuo until the end of the semester ... 

(more) Chatter

It was funny to get a New Mexico-related work email about a month ago, actually as I was traveling back from Yellowstone (I was still in Montana). I was so pleased to be asked to play with two prominent string players in the ABQ area within about a month from the contact. 

The repertoire was: two sets of pieces by the Boulanger sisters, and the Dvořák "Dumky" trio. The "Dumky" had been on my "not that excited to play this piece" list for a long time, *but* the invitation was important because it involved not only terrific players, but also a concert series which I really enjoy in Albuquerque. (You can read about that series again in this post).

Part of the tricky, interpretative challenge with "Dumky" are the many tempo changes and transitions. I never realized this before, but my disdain for the work had probably come from a "bad" (read: uninspired, uninformed, unresearched) performance that I had heard at some point. I can't remember if the performance was live or a recording at this point, either. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I agreed to the performance, and once I say "yes," it's "yes" all the way.

Through a number of rehearsals, we worked out who led which transitions, what the audience was to listen for, which places to take (how much) time, and so forth. 

What was fun for me was to remember and imagine many wonderful experiences I've been lucky to have in Eastern Europe. Specifically, in the Czech Republic and Hungary. The experiences of combining parties, pálinka, and too much dancing and enough instruction to be dangerous. Those were, in some ways, "dumka" moments.

The idea of the "Dumka" is that it is a slow lament, which gradually works its way into a more festive, active dance. The "Trio," vaguely following a Sonata Allegro form, more accurately is in six "Dumky" - one leading into the next. 

I am so grateful to new colleagues James and Megan (you can read about them here) for the opportunity to collaborate, and for the transformative experience of making me love this work. 

PHOTO: From the concert. 

What's all the "Chatter" about?

Yesterday was an important “debut” for me in Albuquerque. There is a unique, 50-weeks-per-year series in town, which has a tremendous following and is an institution of the highest creativity (with a little bit of “crunchiness”). 

It’s called “ChatterABQ." You can view the website here.

The organization and events which it sponsored used to be called “Church of Beethoven.” It is a one-hour event, every Sunday morning at 10:30AM. Tickets are sold on-line and also at the door (though a special guest, who I had invited yesterday, said he got the last ticket!). Performers are booked months in advance and the repertoire ranges from Bach Cantatas to Pärt or Schnittke or world-premieres. For the price of a ticket, you are treated to about an hour of music, some poetry, and two minutes of silence. The venue which hosts this, the Kosmos Art Gallery in Albuquerque, is an old warehouse which has been re-purposed as a performance venue and artists’ loft. 

The ticket also includes some pretty fantastic coffee and biscotti-pastries-croissants, of your choice. You just have to get there early to get your “free” coffee and get a good seat!

Joel Becktell, cellist and baroque cellist, had invited me to participate in a concert with him back in August, when I came to another event at Chatter. After this event, we came up with the program in the parking lot of the gallery. The past weeks have been spent working through the Schnittke First Sonata (1978) and the Bach Third Gamba Sonata, in g minor. 

I have long loved the process of analyzing music, either for the first time, or examining something again under close lens when it has been “put away” for a while. I most recently performed the g minor Gamba Sonata with Wendy Richman (a long-time friend from Oberlin, Eastman, and who is now on the faculty of University of Alabama). It was wonderful to take out the old Bärenreiter part and re-work it, thinking about different possibilities of cross-phrasing, hemiolas, tendency tones, and evaded cadences. Ah, J.S. Bach, how you continue to make me swoon ...

The Schnittke was another matter, as yesterday was its first performance for me. The piece is a bit of a “bête noire” - as Joel puts it. There are pacing decisions, texture challenges, not to mention the technical demands put upon both players. 

The audience responded in exactly the way I hoped they would. Ears have to get acclimated to the relative quiet sounds of a five-string baroque cello with a harpsichord. They were “with” us in the Bach in that way! I could especially tell during the arioso slow movement. The Schnittke brought about an entirely different reaction, including audible real-time gasps at the shocking climax of the middle movement.

I am so grateful to this institution for what it does in promoting live music, poetry, and a community who relishes both in such an “espresso” way.

PHOTOS: Aziza Murray from ChatterABQ, 2/8/15.