The first student was the 2012 MTNA-Kawai Junior Competition winner. Katrina Jia, age 12, is a student of Fei Xu in Chandler, AZ. She played the Schumann ARABESKE, op. 18.
Peter shared a quote from Ingrid Clarfield, who said something like if you play long notes and cut them off, people say you have no sense of timing. If you play it exactly right, people will say it is too mechanical. If you play it just slightly too long, then people think you are very musical and a genius!
Dr Mack - in true Dr Mack fashion - is now sitting at the piano, and placing hands onto the piano and asking the student (and also the audience of piano teachers) to guess which style of piece he would have been playing with that preparation. The audience, of course, was in stitches as he continued to ask style of piece, fast-slow, period, composer, name of piece, key, opus number... All without playing a single note. Of course, he did this as a preparation of showing the young pianist how she could begin her piece a little bit differently to capture the mood. Sheer genius.
More ideas: if you have a theme that comes back many times, you can plan to do something slightly different each time. Perhaps use different voicing or perhaps change the sense of timing. Dr. Mack: "What's your favorite thing to eat?" Ice cream. So you go out for ice cream and you have the happy smile. Then the next day, you go out for ice cream again and you have a big happy smile. Then the next day, the same. Then again and again. After several days of this, even ice cream will probably seem "old." When you have sections that repeat, you might want to change them after a few times.
Peter is soooo encouraging for the students with whom he works. With this first student, he continues to tell her how beautifully she plays at every chance.
The second performer is now on stage. Her name is Megan Lee and she is a student of Sean Schulze at Cleveland Institute of Music. Megan, who is a sophomore in high school, was the 2013 MTNA-Yamaha Senior Piano Competition Winner. She is performing the entire Sonata, op. 78 by Beethoven.
As Peter works with her on the opening slow phrase, he talks about every note being so beautiful. When you play each note so beautifully, it's more difficult to play a long line. There is a beautiful pearl with each note. "If instead you gave me a beautiful pearl necklace, all would make much more sense." Problem: how to unify lots of beautiful, beautiful notes. Unify the notes with your body. Peter demonstrated playing the same phrase by moving the body "in" toward the most intense moment. Now the student is at the piano and he has her start further "back" and have her move in very slowly as she plays, with a goal of going forward the most intense moment. The importance here is connecting a string of beautiful notes together into a longer phrase.
Dr Mack is asking the performer what is most amazing about THIS sonata. Beethoven was the "ultimate recycler." He takes a little theme and uses it over and over in many movements throughout a piece. As he demonstrates, he takes a little motif from the Pathetique to show how Beethoven recycles it throughout the piece. When you are working on a Beethoven Sonata,
"This is Beethoven playing the Apple-banana game!" I say apple, you say banana, then they went back and forth. Eventually, Peter threw in a watermelon, which was a SURPRISE. "Why was it a surprise? Because I had set up apple, banana." If we have had lofty Beethoven, he sets up a pattern and then he breaks it. The breaking of the pattern gives us the interest to impel the music forward.
How do you prepare a surprise FORTE? You play much quieter before it, so that the audience is "straining to listen."
This is one of the keys to interpreting Beethoven: whenever you can hear him setting up a pattern, that's lovely. When he breaks the pattern, make sure YOU break the pattern. Know where you break it and "play it so we go 'woo.' "
Peter played an example of the Waldstein Sonata and then slowed down the rhythm and it became Climb Every Mountain! "I'm going to ruin Beethoven for you." LOL! He noted how Beethoven borrowed from broadway. Lol.
Beethoven wrote a set of variations on RULE BRITANNIA. There is a clip from that tune in this op 78. Dr Mack stated he doesn't think this is a coincidence!
Look for patterns, look for breaking those patterns, then have so much fun with it!
Working with the third performer, Peter is focusing on RHYTHM and using a concept he calls the "leg metronome." After the student played an excerpt, Dr Mack said, "and what did you do that was so great?" Isn't he wonderful with students at getting them to realize what they just did!?
He is stressing how particular Ravel was regarding rhythm. He wrote exactly what he intended!
Ravel also unifies his pieces with repeated notes.
Regarding the LH theme: "this is as if ravel were saying, I know you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, but here's another house."
He is recommending an app called SPEAK BEAT, which is a metronome with a voice. The voice is irritating. You can choose the voice... Bernadette, David, etc. LOL!
I'm not able to stay for the final few minutes of the MC, but it was simply a stunning demonstration of great teaching.
No comments:
Post a Comment