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You are all typing too fast - I just can't follow...
But Maryrose I just saw this :

Is it really true ?? This is great news, you are very lucky, but you have to be prepared to all kind of questions from the rest of us... I really hope you are sleeping, and don't get too nervous (maybe it's ok to be nervous in advantage and calm at the 27th. )
I will have my second piano lesson tomorrow and I'm nervous too, I have practiced the 55.1 for this lesson. My teacher is not famous like yours, but she has had a quite famous student

I guess we'll both have to concentrate on music !

Ragnhild

Ragnhild, I hope your lesson goes well. My greatest fear at the moment is that Angela will say, after our first hour together, "I think perhaps you should look for another teacher - one who specialises in beginners"!!!

Maryrose, no way she will say that, because you are not at all a beginner - I hope you will not be too nervous, though - my teacher had to leave the room to make me calm down Play some Mozart to her, it will be fine. You did not seem like the nervous type when you played your recital piece, it was very calm and in control and focusing on music all the way

Ragnhild

Congratulations, MaryRose...on getting a Chopin teacher for your lessons. I certainly agree that NO WAY is she going to say look somewhere else. I know she will be so impressed by your playing.

Ragnhild: Also..a big to you. I am so glad you both found good teachers.

LA: About the grading. Frycek posted a great site for a listing of grade levels. I also have a book that I referred to earlier. It lists Op 9, #1 as an 8, and #3 as Very Advanced (which is abouve 8+ and is the highest rating she gives). However, she does say that certan pieces are even higher...at a virutoso level...concert pianist.

I can only think that the pieces are rated by comparing one to another. Of course, not everyone is going to agree on everything, but I think they is some general consenus and a guide used to indicate ranking.

I think it is helpful to know the rank. If I am at a mid-or maybe high intermediate skill level, I do not want to take on something that is rated as a 10. I should stick with the 6's and 7's for several years before I take on a 10.

Nancy...I promise to post my "favorite" nocturne (because it is the only one I can play at this point) later in the day. My little doggie is at the vets, getting a couple of teeth pulled. So I am posted by the phone, just in case of an emergency.

Kathleen

Hope that Kasha is OK, and doesn't have too sore a mouth, Kathleen!

If I rank these pieces as food , the Chopin 28/5 is a cookie, 9/3 is a cookie and a half, any of the Chopin sonata is at least one-pound steak, and Beethoven Hammerklavier is a 48-oz steak plus a big ice cream, and fries.

I like this ranking, LisztAddict. Especially on Mardi Gras when we're overdoing it before the fasting begins. It kind of makes me want to go to my nearest steak place and listen to some Beethoven!

Sadly, I'm about to eat a frozen dinner. I'd hate to insult any composer by comparing him/her to that!

Nancy

Thanks, MaryRose: My little Kasha is just fine; however, I'm $250 poorer. She is one "high maintenance" mutt.

Oh, today is Fat Tuesday. Good; now I won't feel too guilty about eating that whole giant-sized Hershey bar.

It took me about 10 tries before I got a fairly decent recording of the C minor nocturne (posth). I am playing it MUCH too slowly...to allow me time to get up and down a couple of those measures. I practiced those alone for about 2 months. Jeeze!! The rest of the piece is fairly easy. I think it could almost be a mazurka, but it's too slow. More like a funeral dirge...however, as I mentioned very Polish.

C minor nocturne (posth)

Oh, it's rated as a 6. But those measures are about an 8 to me.

Kathleen

I really enjoyed your Nocturne, Kathleen. You are a VERY musical lady. In fact I have enjoyed everything I have heard you play to date - and I'm not just saying that, honest! I know what you mean about the rating; Chopin has a habit of writing a seemingly easy piece, and just slipping in an almost impossible measure here and there. I put it down to the fact that playing was such second nature to him that he was unaware of difficulties on which us mere mortals might stumble.

I remembering trying a Hershey bar when I lived in NYC. Just once. It tasted cheap and nasty (unlike our Hersh of course she adds hastily).

I agree about Chopin; what's a genius to do!! Thanks for the nice compliment.

It's funny about chocolate. Whenever I buy a bar from England, I find it too rich for my taste. I can only eat a little (which, of course is good for my figure...). Our "Hershey" bars are not so "full-bodied." So I can eat more than I should, which I do!!


Kathleen

This Hershey bar is plenty full bodied, which is why he has to ALWAYS be on a ludicrous diet, even when around great food in Paris, because of course, he has to play consumptive, neurotic and sometimes deaf corpses, and corpses are rarely full-bodied.

Goodness, Hershey, I never thought about having to keep your physique in the same shape as the people you play. Isn't there some chubby composer that needs to be brought to the stage? It seems like Paris would be the perfect place to get into that role properly!

Nancy

Kathleen,

Love it!!! You have special touch. I could "feel" this one. Thanks for putting it up!

Schubert could use some attention - - -

Hersh: You have to be getting a break with Beethoven. He was stocky. So go ahead...and live it up a little. You can say you're eating for two!!

But losing that 30 lbs. for M. Chopin must have been one miserable experience.

This is funny..I just mentioned to my husband that Chopin never weighed more than 100 pounds in his whole life, and he said that Chopin could have been a jockey!!


Thank you Gerg, glad you liked my rather languid version of this wonderful nocturne.

Kathleen

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Actually I was just reading a report of a model who died of starvation, trying to be stick-thin for the catwalk. She weighed the same as Chopin - 7 stone (98lb). She was five feet nine - which is a couple of inches taller than Chopin. Maybe more than a couple, from some sources. But in any case, it gives an idea of how dangerously thin our poor hero was.

Frycek - feel free to post any further photos of your toyboys. Very cute

William is so handsome, Frycek. Thanks for giving us a good look at him.

Years ago, after a really studpid diet, at 5'7, I went down to 115 pounds. My bones stuck out all over. Not a pretty picture...certainly not like William.

I think a lot has to do with your bone structure...small boned, etc. I think Chopin may have been small-boned. What do you think? I've never read anything about this possibiity. Although now that I think of it, Poles are not normally small-boned people. But then his father was French, so...?


Kathleen

Well he was always described as having small hands and tiny feet so small boned is a pretty good bet.

Kathleen, I liked your performance very much. It may be slow, but you keep the rhythm steady (with appropriate rubato), and every note is very expressive.

Frycek, Schubert came to mind here also.