What are you playing now?

[George K]

Bach is hard.

[jon-nyc]

I hear you. I’ve barely attempted him.

Rachmaninoff is hard too. And I’ve spent years with his music.

[George K]

@jon-nyc as a kid, I learned the C#minor prelude (I forget the Op and #). I had under my fingers pretty well.

I looked a the G minor a few days ago. The arpeggios in the B section are doable, and, as a matter of fact, so are the A and C sections, if I don't hurry (or, as my teacher says, "snowball.").

I'm working on Bach's Italian Concerto, and as much as I love the music, I find it so frustrating that "muscle memory," doesn't work. You have to really KNOW what Bach was doing.

For example here...

Look at what he does...

In the bass clef, he ascends in the key of F major.

In the treble clef, he ascends starting on the D.

So many patterns...

[Horace]

Been working on the 9th two part invention today. Would like to get it into my fingers and then live with it for a few years.

[George K]

@Horace said in What are you playing now?:

Been working on the 9th two part invention today.

The inventions are fun...and frustrating. I have the Bd under my fingers. The A-minor works - sometimes.

I always found the F major fun, and tricky.

[LuFins Dad]

Spider Solitaire… I have beat ever single Daily Challenge this month!

Oh… You meant Music…

[Horace]

@George-K said in What are you playing now?:

@Horace said in What are you playing now?:

Been working on the 9th two part invention today.

The inventions are fun...and frustrating. I have the Bd under my fingers. The A-minor works - sometimes.

I always found the F major fun, and tricky.

A Minor was always one of my favorites. But something about 9 is drawing me in. I never found a three part invention that I really liked, oddly.

[kluurs]

I've been trying to get my hands back in shape and playing WTC Bk1 c-minor prelude along with the last movement of Beethoven op 57. Why play Hanon when one can work on these and get a great workout?

[George K]

@kluurs said in What are you playing now?:

I've been trying to get my hands back in shape and playing WTC Bk1 c-minor prelude along with the last movement of Beethoven op 57. Why play Hanon when one can work on these and get a great workout?

I had a conversation with Mark J. about this. His teacher always said not to bother with Hanon and other exercises.

If you can play the pieces that you mentioned, you’re going to get all the exercise that you need!

[Horace]

Bach outsmarted all the copy editors with the ninth invention. I have three different editions and the accidentals don’t agree between any two of them.

[jon-nyc]

@Horace Awesome. All missed notes can be justified with one text or another.

[mark]

Speaking of Bach, I am revisiting the English Suites. Currently reading the Gavotte II from Suite 6 BWV 811.

Fun little piece.

[Horace]

I resurrected the Goldberg Aria, and was watching this:

Link to video

I was struck by how his piano sounds. I mean by how not really great his piano sounds. Maybe it's just my subjective opinion. But I do notice that real pianists don't care as much about the piano as we dilettantes. Denk's piano would drive me nuts. My wife randomly met a piano professor at Rice who we've been out with a couple times. She thinks the whole fascination with this or that instrument is useless. She didn't know how big her Boston grand at home was. But she rolls her eyes when anybody thinks anything is the piano's fault. Unless it's not in tune.

Then there's Glenn Gould's immortally bad piano:

Link to video

[George K]

Continuing work on the Pathetique. I'm about ⅔ of the way through the 3rd movement. It goes quickly because the rondo theme is repeated so many times!

[Copper]

Beethoven or Billy Joel?

[Jon]

Working on two Schubert Impromptus from Op 90

[Horace]

Finished the f minor invention, and living with it every day as an ongoing project. Now working on the c# minor fugue from WTC1, an all time favorite of mine. The last entrance of the main subject at 4:59 is my favorite moment in the keyboard repertoire.

Link to video

[George K]

@Horace said in What are you playing now?:

Finished the f minor invention, and living with it every day as an ongoing project

Remember JazzyD from the 1st incarnation of the Coffee Room?

[kluurs]

The Chopin Scherzo #2 (op 31) is coming along there are 4 pages that need work to bring them up to something approaching tempo. It will take a few more weeks to get it solid. I'm also making progress on the Rachmaninov Liebesleid which I've been working on bringing back into repertoire. It also will need some time.

[George K]

Started working on this about 2 weeks ago. Exposition is about 75% under my fingers.

Link to video