Wednesday, January 30, 2013

it might drive me mad



OK, this is the Chopin piece I am trying to master -- or even just make it sound passable.  I might have to give up, it's just too hard.  The first part and the last part are doable, even though they are in four sharps, which is never easy... But the whole middle section is killing me, I  think I might just have to give up and move on to something else.

The pianist in this video is Valentina Lisitsa, and she is amazing.  If you are in Europe, you probably can't see it, and it might go away for the rest of you too, so give it a listen now if you are able.  It's really quite beautiful.

(If you get an ad at the beginning, skip out of it)

2 comments:

Jon said...

I tried to figure out which section would be the hardest to play, but I don't know much about playing piano. 2:17-2:24?

Howard said...

You are exactly right, Jon, 2:17 to 2:24 is the hardest part, but really it starts to become impossible (?) starting around 1:52. The whole thing would be somewhat easier if it were in flats instead of sharps, but the sharps keep flipping back to natural, often within the same measure... and it takes some manual dexterity that I might not have anymore.