Tag Archives: Andersen No.4

Day 26 – October 26th – Dark evenings

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The clocks changed today, and I was reminded of just how dark it gets in English winters when the sun set at 5:30pm. Looking on the bright side: it’s now lighter for my morning run, and as yet nowhere near as cold or dark as the year I spent in Helsinki!

I wonder whether my scales might be suffering from happening the hour after Practice Book 6 exercises? These last two days, with the exercises at a faster tempo, the hour of scales has felt sluggish and below par. The exercises, though, have felt good. Tomorrow we switch back to the Moyse interval exercises.

I spent a lot of time today on Andersen Op. 15 No. 4 – it’s hard! There are three things I’ve been trying to focus on:

– A really clear staccato, but always expressivo as Trevor says it should be.

– Internal dynamics, so making sure that the low notes are equally as loud (and resonant) as the higher ones. As a result, the lower ones have a bit more oomph in the staccato, while the higher ones are shorted with a bit more ping.

– Large-scale dynamics, played fully and as if it were my last ever performance (c.f. Davies book from yesterday). Fitting this in with the other two points is tricky.

Despite my work, I’m quite prepared to be asked to present this study next week as well, and in some ways would quite like another week to really get working properly.

Day 24 – October 24th – Canterbury

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Trevor being a great tour guide.

Trevor being a great tour guide.

This morning we had a group excursion to Canterbury to visit the cathedral, do a bit of shopping and re-acquaint ourselves with a bit of civilisation. The cathedral is stunning, a great sprawling building that just seems to keep going and going. As with most large English churches, the ‘choir’ cuts the interior in half, and so it’s hard to appreciate the sheer size when walking around inside. However, the space behind the choir was enormous, as was the crypt underneath, and we spent a good two hours looking round. Trevor proved to be a good guide, telling us bits and pieces of history mixed in with stories of his musical work with the cathedral and choir.

Afterwards, we were let loose for a while to amuse ourselves. I took the opportunity to buy some jeans (the two pairs that traveled round Europe with

me are starting to look a little sad) and heels (so that I’m not going to see the London Symphony Orchestra next week wearing hiking boots!), and to wander longingly round the food department of M&S.

Back to practice in the afternoon. I was rather tired today after a couple of late nights, and it was really interesting to see what did and didn’t go well considering that:

– First hour, playing tunes, Taffanel and Gaubert No. 4 and Reichert No. 2 was good in terms of memory, though my lips didn’t feel terribly responsive.

View of the cathedral from a little back-street.

View of the cathedral from a little back-street.

– Second hour, playing the advanced technical exercises on page 12 of Trevor’s Practice Book 6 was great – I playing A, B, C and D at crotchet = 112, and just about survived Q! Other exercises that followed were ok.

Then my Grandma rang for a chat, which was a lovely surprise!

– Third hour, playing scales, was rather hit-and-miss. At the tempos I outlined on Wednesday, some went really well (arpeggios felt fantastic) and some were awful. My lips were not at all happy with high notes.

– Fourth hour, working on Andersen Op. 15 No. 4 was a bit of a fight against fatigue. I had a really clear idea of what I wanted to do musically, and so spent a lot of the time playing everything really slowly, with beautifully clear staccatos and (hopefully) good dynamic relationships between all the notes despite horrendous leaps!

I also took the time this afternoon to read an article by Alex Ross on the opening night of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer at the Met, and it’s definitely worth a look. I’m totally for this opera being performed – it’s really important to engage with relevant material through such a powerful medium. It would seem that some people want opera to stay firmly in the realm of fantasy, but I don’t understand why. As with theatre and film, music and opera that gets people talking and thinking is exactly what we need.

Now time for an early night!