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Well, maybe Chopignon would be okay then. And the unexpected juxtaposition of mushrooms and chocolate is making me think of truffles!

In my callow youth, I imagined truffles to be chocolate covered mushrooms. I reacted to that idea in the same way as when Wilma Flintstone was pregnant with Pebbles (though I think it was still in the dark ages when that word was inadmissible on American television), and Fred offered her a chocolate covered hard-boiled egg.



Steven

p.s. to Chopinet:

Well try this link:

http://de.youtube.com/user/Leporello68

About the scales at the end of the nocturnes I simply fasten a bit the digital output of my piano
But it was almost 9 months ago, now I can do them without that trick, not always of course and unfortunately not that delicato and pianissimo as I'd like. For that I easily switch to Barenboim's version

Nocturne 37/1 is far more difficult in my opinion, not the notes and the rythm itself, but to render decently the choral middle part.
One needs a nice finger independancy to let the "canto" part of the chords to emerge.
I cannot still make those chords legato as I'd wish, but honestly I cannot pretend too much after 2 years I've started again playing piano.

SV: No, some of the other nicknames I've seen in biographies are, "Fric-Fric" and "Chip-Chip", sometimes with "little" before them! I agree with Kathleen- kind of nauseating!
I don't know if she called him these names directly to his face, or just used them in letters to refer to him.

Kathleen- thanks for the link to the article! It will be my rainy-Sunday reading.

Yep, and I'm still dyspeptic from the chocolate covered mushrooms and chocolate covered hard-boiled eggs!

Steven

Chopinet: I just listened to your C# m nocturne. It was absolutely beautiful.

Good grief...chocolate-covered mushrooms! I draw the line there. :rolleyes:

Kathleen

I'm not clear why anyone is bothered by the chorale section in the midst of 37/1, which I've played a great deal. The whole thing seems to me to fit together quite beautifully, and it's so much fun to boom out the bass in the appropriate spots (not overbearingly, of course, just richly and profoundly!).

Chopinet: Since you mentioned trouble making those chords legato, I wonder if your teacher may be doing the same as one of mine did some years ago, making you do crazy fingerings to achieve legato without pedaling. It's really quite simple to play those chords legato by pedalling on each chord change. (I don't mean this to sound insulting or belittling-- I just think we are often made to work much harder than necessary for no good reason.)

Just recently I've started a few lessons with a teacher who uses the Taubman Approach, which gives permission to play in an easy, natural way that allows your musical ideas to flow more beautifully and prevents you from hurting yourself. One of the Taubman concepts is to allow yourself to get legato with the pedal and not contort your hands unnecessarily. Some people are horrified by this-- one of the premier teachers here in Albuquerque used to say, "It should look legato, not just sound legato!"

I was having considerable pain with some of the stretches in 10/6, even though I was already used to thinking in terms of reducing strain in every possible way. My new teacher helped me to stop working so hard, and now the piece is painless. I think this approach is very much in tune with the way Chopin would teach.

Kathleen: My part-Polish husband detests mushrooms, which is a problem since I am quite fond of them. He really hated the mushroom/sauerkraut soup his mother used to make at Christmas. I wonder what Chopin thought of that.

Elene

Hi Elene:

I've never heard of the Taubman method, but he certainly is a man after my own heart. I hardly ever play the dynamics as written on the score; I just feel the music and play it the way I THINK it should sound. Now this is not to say I am not playing it the "right" way because everything I have learned is music that I know. So it's no big deal. But sometimes I experiment and play the "p" sections "f" and vice versa. However, I almost always go back to the original.

I will have to go back to the nocturne and look at those chords again. Before I tackle them, I want to get the first section down as perfectly as I can.

I'm sorry to learn of your pain. However, it's wonderful that you found a teacher who could help you with a technique that allows to play without pain-free.

Attempting any of Chopin' etudes seems almost impossible (at least for me). I really have no desire to learn them. Maybe it's because I KNOW I could never do so. My skills are and will never be of the level that it would require to undertake such a challenge. So, I am content to learn and play the levels 6/7 and once in a while attempt an 8 but not too often. I have become pretty lazy in my dottage, and I don't want to take on anything that will require hard work.

Mushrooms can be an acquired taste. I have never read anything about Chopin liking the dish you mentioned. I do know that he had a rather delicate appetite, and that might have been too heavy for him. But, if his dear mother made it, being the good son that he was, he may have eaten it just to make her happy. :rolleyes:

Kathleen

Feldenkrais Method, Alexander Technique ... and (specifically for piano) the Taubman Method, the Lister-Sink Method ... it's hard not to be curious about these, but they remain only names to me. I hope that it's okay to feel like "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and consider them on a "need to know" basis!

Kathleen, you could certainly give the Trois Nouvelles Etude in A-flat a try and expect to do very well with it. (But I think you know that already. )

I love sauerkraut!

Steven

It's Dorothy Taubman, so not a MAN after anyone's heart! Worth Googling.

The Taubman Approach does NOT mean "play it any way you feel like it"!!! It means to play with natural, flowing movements that work with your body instead of against it, in a state of dynamic ease. Which I think was also the "Chopin Approach."

I was broke, and definitely needed fixing. Back in 1997-98 I had such severe tendonitis in my extensors in my forearms that I could not play octaves or full chords for the better part of a year. (I played a lot of harpsichord stuff that year.) What I was doing to hurt myself was so subtle that neither my teacher nor I could see it, but once I finally discovered what it was, the recovery was quick. Some of us seem to get hurt more easily than others-- I have trouble with unstable joints-- and need to be absolutely pristine about technique. I was already used to thinking in terms of playing in the most natural and physiological way, and helping my students to solve minor disabilities with their instruments.

So I was surprised that I managed to hurt myself so thoroughly again, but I guess when one is trying to play Chopin etudes without practicing enough otherwise and keeping the mechanism in adequate shape, these things can happen.

Kathleen, I totally agree with Steven that you could learn the TNE in A flat. For me it has visual-processing problems because of the wide jumps in the LH, but it's really not a particularly tough piece, and it's musically worthwhile (of course).

The "Cello" etude, 25/7, might also be within range, though it is more challenging. It has some fast runs, but you've already dealt with that issue in the C# minor nocturne.

Elene

Steven: I listened again to the Trois Nouvelles Etude in A-flat. Are you kidding me?? Only in my dreams. BTW, they are all amazingly beautiful. I have to start taking my iPod with me everywhere because I spend so much time waiting in line, waiting in the doctor's office, on the rack, getting a massage, etc. I could be listening to Chopin all this time. But thank you for your (sweetly misplaced) confidence in my ability.

That you love sauerkraut has to mean you have a bit of German in you somewhere. I make it (when I make it) rather on the sweet-sour side, with bacon, apple, butter, and lots of brown sugar.

I'm sorry I misunderstood you, Elene, about the Taubman Approach. I think I read about it on another thread and I guess I didn't read it as well as I should have. Maybe I'm looking for an expert who shares my ideas about playing. But it doesn't matter in the long run. As long as I enjoy what I am playing; that's all that really counts.

Remember that DVD I sent to Matt in July? I got it back yesterday, unopened. Someone wrote something in Polish on it that I think means return to sender. I wonder why? Well, Matt, I tried.

Kathleen

We've been discussing etudes, but I think it's been a while since the e-cital (scheduled for the October 17 anniversary of Chopin's death) has been mentioned.

This is my "before" recording of 10/4 with a month left to improve it (hopefully). I'm not yet applying pedal, and I want to work on more dynamic contrast, too (as well as iron out a few shaky spots).

http://www.box.net/shared/fp4numgogv

I'm fairly pleased with this—and was also pleased to find that I still remembered how to turn on my Zoom H4 after not looking at it since the Preludes e-cital nearly a year ago!

Steven

Kathleen

Kathleen,
No, really, the A flat TNE etude is not hard, as long as you can handle 3 against 2. If you can do that nocturne, you could do this too.

And hey, my mother's favorite food in the world is sauerkraut, and she is 100% Slovak and NO German!!

I told my husband the other day that I was thinking of being a poll worker for the November election.

He thought for a moment, then replied, "But you would actually be a Slovak worker."

This is what I have to live with.

Elene

Elane, I love your husband's sense of humor. My husand's style goes something like this:

(Me) "What does your new prescription cost?"
(Him) "$120.00."
(Me) "What!!?"
(Him" "Just kidding. Only $10.00."

Or:

"Gas is up to $6.20 at Mobil."
(When it only went up to $4.20 from $3.98).

I think the man is trying to give me a heart attack. Luckily, I have a strong heart (much like my head), AND I am getting to the point where I don't believe anything he says. (Cry Wolf) :rolleyes:

On another (Chopin) note:
I was walking the treadmill (ugh) at my last therapy session, listening to a Chopin sonata on my iPod. One of the therapists passed by and asked what I was listening to. I replied, Chopin.

Boy, that would put you to sleep.
Hardly, have a listen.
(I put the headphones on his ears and his eyes grew twice their size.)
Wow, that's beautiful. Are you sure that's Chopin?

So many people have the misconception that Chopin only wrote that dreamy stuff. How I would love to educate a few of them to his "other" side.

Kathleen

Have them listen to Prelude #24

And then they could try 48/1. Or how about the last movement of the third sonata. Etc.

Too bad $120.00 prescriptions really do exist and are not just a joke!


Elene

Even $1200.00 prescriptions aren't uncommon.

It's no joke, but you gotta laugh or else you cry.

Steven

My ex -pulmonologist wanted to put me on some high tech miracle that had a copay of $600 a month for asthma.

Good grief, Frycek!! I see that you put an "ex" in front of that pulmonologist. I hope this means you found another who is more knowledgeable about the many drugs out there that are not going to send you to the poor house.

My husband is alive (and relatively well, considering everything) today, thanks to the drugs prescribed for him. Between us both, the costs of medication are within our ever-eroding budget. And, of course, we are grateful that we live in a country where medical help is very good.

Elene: I actually tried that chord section of the 37/1 nocturne once again, and, much to my surprise, found it rather lovely (and easy). Thanks for encouraging me to get it another "go."

Kathleen