Well, it seems that a lot has been going on during the summer.  I did visit Tanglewood to see Yuja perform the Prokofiev 2nd concerto as planned, and it was a great performance.  I really am fond of the piece now.  The structure just seems to be easy to understand, even though the dissonances and filigree in the piece as difficult.  There is a lot of music to be brought out in the concerto.  I spent a couple of days this week trying to learn it, and made some decent progress.  

As usual when learning a new piece, understanding the fingering is key (this is true for me, which is why fingering is such an important topic in my thinking).  I also admire the compositional aspects of it.  

Our next Cobb's Hill Concert is coming up on August 2nd with Rachel and Kyle Orth, who were just at Tanglewood (Rachel performing with the BSO, and Kyle gave a couple of master classes).  The following month, I'm playing a recital with Beethoven's last sonata and Rachmaninoff Preludes.  I'm making some progress on each.  Right now, the work on the sonata is to master all the technical challenges of the first movement, and the memory challenges of the second movement, as there are a lot of little details.  I can tell I am making progress, which is always a good sign.  In the Rachmaninoff, I aim to play at least op. 32, nos. 5-13, so those are the ones I'm working on right now.  I've previously performed the full first opus, op. 23, but some of these are new for this concert, so demand some work.  I think the G Major one, no. 5, is a nice one to start on if I'm not doing the full opus.  One of the challenges is updating technique on ones I've already played, particularly no. 12 in G-sharp minor, since I've played that since the teenage years.  When something is learned, you have to overwrite in your mind all the muscle memory in order to update it.  Learning is like writing is pen, or something like it – you never really “erase” all the old learning, it just gets overwritten.  So, to make the new learning prominent, you may have to go over it many more times for an old piece, so the old stuff doesn't “pop up” at inopportune times.  There are advantages and disadvantages to going over an old piece: the advantage is that you are less likely to have a memory slip, as you have more years of playing it under your belt.  The disadvantage is what I said above – it's harder to overwrite old habits you learned in the piece many years ago than to learn new habits on a new piece, and thus, a blank slate.  According to this, you should never learn any piece until your technique is fully developed; alas, we're in a Catch-22 here, as you can't develop your technique without learning some pieces.  Oh, well…

It's now mid-July, and it has been a busy summer so far!  I just finished performing the Faure C Minor Piano Quartet along with the Mozart G Minor Piano Quartet - actually only about two weeks ago, yet it seems like a couple of months already.  I am looking forward to Kyle Orth and Rachel Arcega Orth performing on the Cobb's Hill Series on the 2nd of August.  And just a month after that is a solo recital, in which I'll perform Rachmaninoff Preludes from opus 32 along with Beethoven's 32nd Sonata.  The two “32”s are coincidental, but I'll roll with it.  

Although I just finished up performing Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in May, and working on it fiercely for the month before that, no matter how much Rachmaninoff you've worked on, it is always challenging.  Working on the Preludes, I'm reminded that there are always passages that fit easily in Rachmaninoff's giant hand that just don't fit as comfortably in mine.  One has to watch out not to get injured in the middle of the hand with wide stretches, and use alternative fingering as necessary.  

Composition wise, I dabble on adding a variation or two here or there to my G Minor variations for piano.  I still have to concoct a good ending to it.  It's hard to live up to the great sets of variations composed by others, but I don't want to copy Brahms and end with a fugue, like in in his Handel Variations.  Over the last couple of weeks, I learned the Bach-Busoni Chaconne to explore an example of variations.  That, too, is a masterpiece, so kind of a daunting example to compare to some of the best variations ever written for the piano.  There's potential in the variations.   But with so much going on, I really need to find the time to just focus on the composition.  It's not enough to have time either – I have to be inspired enough to write something worthwhile.  

Add to that the tinkering with the website, looking for more venues at which to perform, and editing videos, and my days are kind of full.  But I did find time enough to visit Tanglewood last weekend, and will again this weekend.  Last weekend I saw Seong-Jin Cho perform the two Ravel concerti, and this weekend will see Yuja Wang perform Prokofiev second piano concerto.  Should be fun!

I am already planning our third year of the Cobb's Hill Series even though our current and second year just started!  Somehow, I found myself in the role of arts administrator in addition to my other stuff.  

In other news, this website is fairly new and will still be developing.  Please take the time to join the mailing list by typing in your email on the homepage.  

In musical preparation news, I'm practicing for the Faure and Mozart Piano Quartet concert coming up on July 5, 2025 at Warren Hall as part of the series.  There is a link to more information and ticket purchases included on the event page here on this website, but I'll include it here as well: https://barnstableuu.org/concerts/.

Lastly, if you found your way here to the website, check out the contact feature and I encourage you to tell me what led you here (Google search prompted by a recording or a performance, perhaps?).