Recommended Listening #6

For no particular reason except that I was listening to the radio late last night and I realized how much I liked this piece of music, this week’s recommendation is the Romance from the Gadfly Suite by Dmitri Shostakovitch. (No links today; I’m feeling lazy.) A wonderful piece of music; I heard the Perlman recording. (I would give his first name, except you already know it and I have no clue how to spell it. I mean, seriously: Itzach? Itzock? Itsach? Itsock?)

In mildly related news, I took my Grade 2 Theory exam today. I’m almost sure I got every answer right, but I’m still awaiting with decided trepidation the release of my marks. If I get anything worse than 90, my teacher will not be pleased. (Last time I got an 89; it was the worst grade any student of hers had ever got on a theory exam. She’s somewhat of a perfectionist, as you can well imagine.)

Rachmaninov had big hands

Rachmaninov had big hands, apparently. As evidenced in this video of a comedy duo performing his Prelude in C# minor.

I got the sheet music for this piece once and tried playing it. You don’t really need to have huge hands to play it, but big hands probably helps. Anyway, there are things far more difficult in it than the distance between the notes: the key signature, for instance. Were it only a matter of having big hands, I would be able to play this piece. They probably picked this one, however, because it’s so well known.

Recommended Listening #5

This week’s music:

Prelude in B Minor, Op.28, No.6, by Frederic Chopin.

I’m learning this piece right now for my Grade 8 exam, so I am, of course, biased. I do think it’s beautiful, though. I haven’t heard this particular recording yet (except for the preview on iTunes), but I really like the way this guy plays, so I think it’s a good choice.

Recommended Listening #4

This week’s music:

Moment Musical no.3 in F minor, by Franz Schubert

A plethora of different recordings are available on iTunes. There are basically two ways to play this piece, though: slow and sappy (like Horowitz does) or fast and hard.

Recommended Listening #3

This week’s music:

Polonaise in A-flat Major, op. 53, by Frederic Chopin

If you go to YouTube, you can listen to a number of great pianists, including Horowitz and Rubenstein, play this piece. My personal favorite recording, however, is the one found on Evgeny Kissin’s new album, The Essential Evgeny Kissin (iTunes Link). I prefer his pedalling to that of Horowitz.

Recommended Listening #4

This week’s music:

The Entertainer, by Scott Joplin

Recommended Listening #3

This week’s music:

Prelude in C# Minor

from Preludes, by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Recommended Listening #2

This week’s music:

The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

from Preludes, by Claude Debussy.

Recommended Listening #1

This week’s music:

Movement 3 (O Waly, Waly)

from Suite for Strings, by John Rutter.