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I attended a lovely holiday pot-luck/piano gathering last night.

Five people performed on the hostess' Petrof grand. As a visual artist, I love the way music annotation can take on its own interesting graphic patterns. The hostess performed Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" (translates as "water play") and I thought the music looked exactly like a long suspension bridge from a distance. Gawd, what an awesome piece -- glissandoes on the BLACK keys, ouch!!! Anyone else familiar with this piece? She managed to play despite a paper cut. Her husband wiped the blood off the piano keys when she was done. What a trooper she was!

Other pieces performed last night included:

Impressoes Seresteriras/Villa Lobos

8 Variations on a Theme from the opera Soliman II / Beethoven

Mazurka and Nocturne "Separation" / Glinka

Passpied / Debussy

Etude #1 from Trois Nouvelles Etudes / Chopin

Northern Flight / Byrne

June Barcarolle, Op. 37 / Tchaikovsky

Poem, Op 32, No. 1 / Scriabin

Barcarolle, Op. 60 / Chopin

Then there was Lasagne with salad and garlic bread.

Served with Dessert:

Joplin: Solace and Heliotrope Bouquet

Silver Bells

Georgia on My Mind (who wrote that???)


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Happy Holidays!

Joy




[ December 03, 2001: Message edited by: Joy ]

I've never tackled "Jeux d'eau." I am aware that it is one of the most taxing pieces for both performer and piano. David Burton on the other board has commented several times that only really good pianos in fine regulation will allow one to play this successfully.

I tried playing Jeux d'Eau, without much success... I made it through to about the 5th or 6th page, just before the glissando... I didn't have enough determination to continue... plus my piano's action is quite bad... and the piano has to be perfectly in tune for the harmonies to sound they way they should... If I remember correctly, Brendan has this piece in his repertoire?

If you like Jeux d'Eau, you might like a number of other Ravel pieces as well, like the three from Gaspard de la Nuit...

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: magnezium ]

Joy,
It sounds like a lovely time, Food, Music and Friends what more could one ask for! I agree with MacDuff's comment that "Jeux d'eau" can be most taxing....though it is awesome when performed propely(IMHO). As for your question "Georgia on my mind (who wrote this?)" Not sure if you were kidding around or not but the answer is Words by Stuart Gorrell and Music By Hoagy Carmichael. Ok I admit I stray from the classics every now and then.

I'm very envious! We've never been invited to anything like that.

Hoagy Carmichael!!! Eureka!

EVeryone at the party was stumped. So glad the mystery is now solved.

Oh, it was performed by a Russian emigrŽ. His own arrangement, very bluesy -- he got down!

He said all his friends back in Russia would play the forbidden music called jazz behind closed doors. Then he got into "Georgia,", with a dreamy look on his face. This same guy performed the Glinka and Tchaikovsky pieces earlier.

Joy

Sounds like a wonderful evening Joy.
Jeaux d'eau is a beautiful piece. One of my many favorites (after all who can have just one fav?). I have a disaster tale to tell about Mary and 'Jeaux d'eau'. She was in a competition 3 years ago with Jeaux d'eau as one of the pieces. At the prelim, she had to perform in a small room that was used as a teaching studio. I was outside the closed door straining my ears to listen. When she came out, I ask her what happened to the glissando since I didn't hear anything when she came to that section. She said "mom I bombed it, the Steinway in there has such a heavy action that I couldn't make the glissando sound." When her piano teacher asked us how the prelim went, we related the story and all of us thought that was it. To our surprise we got a call to say that she made it to the final that evening. She did use the piece again that year in other competitiions.
Happy Holidays everyone,
N.P.

It's very hard, but is really satisying to play once you get it in your fingers, which is the biggest problem because it takes so long to settle.

If the action is hard on the piano, I do the gliss as a scale. I think Ravel had an affinity for black note glisses - there's one in Ondine and Une Barque also.

Joy, the evening sounds like a real joy! I'm envious.

"Jingle keys, jingle keys,
jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to play,
with a room full of other pianists!"

Ha.

Anyway, I have a video of a Martha Argerich concert in which she plays Jeux d'eau and it's fabulous. I love the piece. I've heard "Georgia On My Mind" sung by Willie Nelson--nice version.

On the subject of black note glissandi, according to Charles Rosen, his teacher Moritz Rosenthal could play octave glissandi on the black notes. He used them, for instance, at the end of the Black Key Etude. It's painful just to think about, though not as painful as this:



Ouch. And also, gross.

Way cool evening Joy! I enjoy hearing about those gatherings.

I have to agree however that "blood on the keys" seems a bit over the top. Hope the cut heals fast!

By the way, who was there? Anyone else from the forum?

Dan

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: Dan ]

Speaking of the glissandi in Ondine, when my teacher plays this piece, he takes the white key glissando as a scale and plays the black key glissando normally. But it's also possible to take the black key glissando as a scale if the action on the piano is too tight. Also interesting is the fact that in both glissandi parts of them are played with the left hand. The only other place I've seen a glissando for the L.H. is in Charles Griffes' "Nightfall" from his Roman Sketches.

Jerry

Hi Dan. No one from our Forum group this time. Interestingly enough, I met the hostess through a newspaper ad about two years ago. She put up her 1-year old Petrof upright for sale, so Max and I went to look at it. We all liked each other right away and kept in touch. It's probably a good thing we didn't purchase it, since she now uses it to teach her 36 very young students -- all boys! The Petrof grand she keeps all to herself.

Later on, she referred Max to her own piano teacher, who was also at the pot-luck. He played the Villa-Lobos, Byrne, Chopin Bacarolle and the Joplin pieces. He was so funny after the Bacarolle. When the applause died down, he said in a small voice "Can we eat now?"

Piano people are a charmed group. I love seeing old and new friends here. Hi y'all! Piano gatherings are really special. I hope everyone who reads these Forums will get to partake in their own informal gathering -- or start one of their own. I think there's plenty of people interested here.

Hey Penny, where are those photos from the last LA Get Together? I'll be glad to help in the scanning if you like. Just email me.

Joy

I just got done listening to it on the Classical Archives. Its a magnificant piece! And judgeing from how it sounds, (and how it looks on the sheet music. I went over it on the Sheet Music Archive) it looks and sounds like a very difficult piece.

Jeux d'eau is a wonderful piece. In fact, it was the first piece by Ravel that I learned with my teacher years ago. I still enjoy pulling it off the shelf to play it from time to time. My favorite recordings are by Argerich, Abbey Simon, and Jean Yves Thibaudet. Learning it really whetted my appetite for his other piano works such as Valses nobles et sentimentale and Le Tombeau de Couperin. Of course, the "Mount Everest" of his works is Gaspard de la Nuit. I found the first 2 movements to be playable, but the last, Scarbo, is fiendishly difficult. I doubt I'll ever be able to play it up to tempo! At least it's movitation to keep practicing........

I might get to study with Abbey Simon this summer at Brevard!! That is if I get in....I'm hoping!!

I heard Abbey Simon in recital many years ago at Miami University in Ohio. I don't recall the entire program, but he did play the "Appassionata" as well as the Liszt "Don Juan" Fantasy. Both performances were superb. One of his encores was the Chopin Op. 10, No.8, etude in F. It was a scintillating display of pianism that I remember to this day. One other thing I remember was how warm the auditorium was with no air conditioning going. He perspired profusely throughout the program. I admired how he could keep playing so well under such circumstances. If you have a chance to study with him, Amy, go for it! He's a great pianist.

Jgoo, where are the classical archives?

The classical archives are at www.classicalarchives.com. This is probably the most comprehensive sight on classical music files.