But that's the easiest part. Just follow YT's recommendations. It knows pretty much what you taste is after a while. I find this a most fantastic feature. Also, subscribe to any channels you've found something good on. Many of these are gold mines. Lastly, be inquisitive and listen to all and anything you have not heard before, *especially* the names you do not know about. Like yesterday I happened on this awesome piece by Pancho Vladigerov's son: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xepw5ug291Y
This is one of the many channels (fyrexia) holding countless surprises.

I recognize that. Every now and then I take a break from preparing recordings and just take random books out to revisit things. It is al;ways very refreshing. It is a pitye that a lot of pieces just fade out of your life once recorded, but one can't keep playing everything. The joy of discovering new things amply compensates.

That's very helpful - thank you. I guess I could look at it as like going on a treasure hunt.

(I didn't know Vladigerov had a son who is also a composer.)

But surely you have a core repertoire?

In my case I find that, maybe due to tecnical deficiencies, I always have something new to find even in the oldest pieces. I believe it is only now I can actually perform some of the music I first learned 20 years ago. Now, if I tell you my playing of Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven has improved by learning Rautavaara you might raise and eyebrow (or even two or three!), but this is just what has happened. Why? Because I had to work on speed and the speed barrier was broken by Rautavaara, making it now child's play to play any of the fast movements. And, because to speed one cannot rely on reading, I had to develop my memory and confidence (which in turn is brought by through memory and conscious use of fingering), so that I can laugh at the idea of making mistakes because they just do not come - as long as I am concentrated.

I believe many of us here fall into the recording trap, where we no longer perform, but record and once it is recorded, we can forget it. After all, we can always go back to the recording, can we not? We are no longer interested in playing: we want to record and to record what has not been recorded before. These days if one wants Ismagilov, Suk or Ishikagawanapanitupitaminovit this is the place to be, but if you fancy Mozart or Schubert...

Sure, I have as much core stuff on the plannning as unknown stuff. It just takes much longer as there is so much to live up to. I keep diligently working on my WTC re-recording for example.

Absolutely, playing modern music hugely increases one's overall abilities and resilience. Personally I can also say that my playing of anything has improved dramatically because of practising lots of Bach.

An interesting conjecture. I think you are right to a certain extent. Discovering and recording something new for the site, has a definite ring to it, more so than providing the umpteenth version of the Moonlight or Raindrop. But I object to the notion that we are not interested in performing. Every recording is also (or should be) a fine performance, even if has seen some post processing within the limits.
I think our site has a healthy balance of core and specialist repertoire but I would urge everybody to try both.

I have never raised three eyebrows!(eww gross)

No, I don’t really have a “core repertoire”. How can I since I’ve made 300, 400, or maybe even 500 recordings? When would I have time to play just a certain amount of pieces in order to maintain them in my fingers? I actually think that’s a little sad, though. I wish I did have a core repertoire. But at the same time, as has been mentioned, we learn more by playing more, so if I had to choose between maintaining a repertoire, or constantly learning new pieces, then I’d choose the latter.

Except now, I seem to be going back and forth regarding whether to find something brand new to explore or if I should take out pieces that I’ve played before and re-learn them. I do understand how you guys say that one can find new aspects about an ‘old’ piece and hence it’s a little like starting fresh and/or working on technique. So I dunno….

And I definitely think that recording is also performing. I still get nervous when I record. True, I’m more nervous in front of a live audience, but at least when you make a mistake in front of people; it’s over and done with. Time marches on and hopefully you’ve played more right notes than wrong, and people will remember the overall music, not just the mistakes. With recording and submitting online, your mistakes can be listened to over and over again….

Bach does a power of good to develop legato and hence not to rely on the pedal. How my Gershwin improved after a Bach Toccata!

Maybe I need to clarify: by performance I did not mean an unedited recording, but playing not for the record alone (for oneself, for friends, at a concert and so on. Perhaps should I say the aim should be not to record but to perform and then maybe record that performance when it is good enough. I surely want to do that to some of the better-known pieces in my repertoire, but they must be so relaxed that not even the presence of a microphone can disturb me.

But it is returning to the repertoire pieces that one realises how one has progressed and that does a power of good to confidence and makes you wonder how that easy passage in that sonata ever made your knees jerk.

But surely once you master a piece it remains with you. Once you learn the Pathetique you do not forget it, even if you do not play it for ten years.

Monca, would you like to record a famous piece that has never been printed, recorded or performed in public?

I don't agree with this. I've learned the Pathetique many years ago, but I know I couldn't sit down now and play it without spending time on it again. And then there's my hard work on Granados' Goyescas no. 2. I learned it twice and had it memorized good and tight, but I haven't played it since last June and I'm sure I can't remember all of it today. At least I don't think so. Maybe I'll try it tonight.



Ohhh good....a riddle! Ummmm....if the piece has never been printed, recorded, or performed, then it can't be famous...?

Nice playing!

I especially enjoyed the shaping of the lines in the Cancion section, particularly once you really got into it around 0:20.

One little thing about the Danza rhythm -- the second note in the repeating pattern (the first thing in the RH, probably beat 1-and) is often a little early on the beat. It's still a good performance but it would have a more driving feel, more of a groove, if it were steady.

Regarding playing old pieces -- I go back and forth, myself. I get more excited about learning new pieces than reviewing old ones. But my work requires a lot of repertoire and I'm not going to learn 30 new pieces for every dance class and 3 new pieces for every church service, so of necessity I do play a lot of review. I often end up finding that I really enjoy the old pieces though, and some of the pieces that I most love to play are pieces that I learned more than 10 years ago. And some spots that used to be technique nightmares aren't anymore, which makes them easier and more fun.

You think you cannot remember it, but if a piece is learned well, it all comes back in two or three runthroughs and, of course, if the style of the composer is very clear to you, any new piece by the same hand is much easier, as you already know what to expect. I find that careful analysis of a piece before helps in learning it.

Famously unkown!

Just as any full-time musician! How many of them have a set number of pieces in their repertoire and only now and then learn a new one.

It is the same here regarding old pieces, as long, of course, that I enjoyed them to start with and did n ot learn them because of a course syllabus.

Thank you for listening, Heather. And I'm happy you said what you said about the beat. Mompou can be quite quirky (two q words in a row... ). I've been listening to him play his own music for a while now and he takes a lot of liberties with the beat. A lot of pushing and pulling, or one hand coming down before the other hand, etc. Maybe some of that is rubbing off on me...(I hope).

Regarding music: I just heard some Grieg lyric pieces on the radio and it's made me want to get back to Grieg. The pieces aren't new to our site, but we don't have many versions, and I've never played any from this particular book before, so I'm feeling a little happy again - at least for a little while....

@Richard - I'll try my Goyescas tonight....

Very enjoyable recording - nice contrast between the melancholy of the first section and the lively dance following. I don't know the piece, but nothing jumps out as incongruous or problematic, and the playing comes across as precise and with conviction.



I'm not sure you really have to keep playing and maintaining pieces that would be considered "core repertoire". I've played a lot of piano music in my life (maybe not as much as you or Chris, but practically all the Beethoven sonatas, for example): while I wouldn't consider much of what I've learnt to be either polished or ready, if hypothetically somebody said to me "you can play at venue x next week" immodest though it may seem, I would feel confident with certain pieces within my repertoire, even though I've not practiced them for months, in some cases years. That's basically because I've spent so much time studying and thinking about them that I have very clearly defined views on interpretation and any technical issues have already been previously surmounted, so re-conquering them is a much simpler matter of reminding my fingers what to do.

Just as I said, or hoped I had, but you put it better, Andrew!

Thank you for listening/commenting, Andrew.



I guess I'll just never be that way. I can pull out old material, but I have to practice it HARD again to get into performing condition.