poco piano: senior recital

I had my senior recital last night. It was kind of a big deal to play for my family and friends after such a long time of not having public performances. As my degree recital it was my culmination of studies as a pianist in this program. It was about a 90 minute program since my Bach Partita is around 27 mins and the Schubert Fantasy is about 25 mins while the last piece, Davidsbundlertanze is about 32 mins.

Since I was playing a large program with pieces that had a lot of background story, I spoke a little bit before each piece to give it some context and connect with my audience a bit more. I recognized almost everyone in the audience and I was so grateful to see everyone there. I will post my recital sometime on here once I get my recordings.

Here is my little blurb before my 2nd and 3rd piece:

Wanderer Fantasy

This next piece I’m about to play is one of the most virtuosic pieces that Schubert ever wrote, It’s so hard to play that Schubert himself couldn’t play it! The name, wanderer fantasy originates from a song he wrote, Der Wanderer, which he quotes in the slow movement. The verse this music is from is

““The sun seems so cold to me here, /

The flowers have faded, the life old, /

And what they say has an empty sound; /

I am a stranger everywhere.”

The music he quotes here actually inspires the whole piece as all the ideas stem from this music which unfolds outwards into this grand fantasy. The Wanderer Fantasy is a 4 movement work that is played continuously, it starts with a quasi-sonata allegro movement and melds in an adagio set of variations which turns into a fun scherzo that sets up for a thunderous fugal finale.

Thank you all for coming, I would just like to say thank you to my teacher, professor greene. And a big thank you to my parents who have supported me with love for many many years.

Davidsbundertanze

So this last piece is this big German word , dances of the league of David. The league of David is a musical society that consists of real and imagined characters, such as his wife, Clara Schumann and his two personalities, Florestan and Eusebius. Each of these 18 character pieces is a musical dialogue between Florestan and Eusebius, Florestan representing the side of Schumann that is extroverted and impetous, and Eusebius which represents Schumann as the introverted poet.  He quotes Clara’s music at very beginning as she is the main source of inspiration for this piece. The music burns of love for Clara and narrates the struggle of the trying to marry her.

I leave you with the epigraph he wrote before the piece.
In each and every age
joy and sorrow are mingled:
Remain pious in joy,
and be ready for sorrow with courage.