Seeing a performance at Benaroya Hall, it's hard to miss the banks of pipes surrounding an organ console raised to be in the middle of the stage's back wall. Almost a couple of decades after the organ was installed, we finally got to hear it a couple weeks ago, but not with the piece you would expect.
Read MoreIt's that time of year again. Today is my mom's birthday, so here's me playing Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, the first piece in Debussy's Children's Corner.
This past Sunday was mostly taken up with spending time with Kellen and Noël before their move to Germany. Saturday, though, was a whirlwind of activity for us. We left the house mid-morning, and didn't get back home until late at night. In between we went to a food festival, saw giant boots, took a café break, wandered through sculptures, dropped by to see how Kellen and Noël were doing with packing, had dinner, and went to a concert (complete with pre– and post–concert activities).
Read MoreOnce again it's my mom's birthday, so it was time to figure out a piece I thought I'd be able to record. This year it's MacDowell's Alla Tarantella (Op. 39, No. 2).
Read MoreI previously wrote about how we went to the KUOW Front Row Center event at the Seattle Art Museum, and a couple weeks ago was another event, this time at the Seattle Symphony. It featured a piano concerto we're quite familiar with performed by a pianist we're also quite familiar with.
Read MoreSeems it's becoming a “thing” for me to record myself playing the piano for my mom's birthday. That day is today, so here's this year's installment, the Adagio movement of Beethoven's Pathétique sonata.
Read MoreChopin's Waltz in D♭ Major, Op. 64, No. 1 is titled Valse du petit chien is better known as the Minute Waltz. I decided to try to record it for my mom's birthday.
Read MoreLast night, Melody and I went to a recital at the University of Washington which had two parts. The first was Robin McCabe playing Ravel, and the second was a set of pieces for eight hands and two pianos.
Read MoreMelody and I play the piano a bit almost every night, and while that's not really a lot of use, it's enough to warrant having it tuned a couple times a year. Sometimes, however, a bit more work needs to be done.
Read MoreOf the pieces I used to play, my mom's favorite was the last movement from Bach's Partita No. 1 in B flat Major (BWV 825), the Gigue.
Read MoreMelody and I had a gift certificate to the Seattle Symphony. Given the opportunity, we looked through the schedule and decided to go to the performance of Tchaikovsky's first two piano concertos, part of “TchaikFest!”
Read MoreMelody came upon some free arts tickets, so we took advantage of them. Last Tuesday we heard Till Fellner perform at Meany Hall, and last night we saw Double Indemnity at ACT Theatre. It sounded like a great deal, and we enjoyed ourselves on both nights.
Read MoreMelody and I were in the car the other day and I instantly recognized that the radio was playing Mozart's Concerto #19 in F, which I had played when I was in high school. I have lots of memories with that piece.
Read MoreIf you like expanding your musical horizons beyond what's on the radio or want to learn new connections between various songs and artists, the iTunes Weekly Rewind is a great podcast. Every week they take a look at some of the songs which have been playing on the radio, on TV, in movies, even in ad spots. But more than just giving a name and artist to a song you heard just fleetingly, they also use songs, artists, or events as springboards to not only go into depth, but to point out both what influenced an artist and whom that artist influenced. There are a lot of music geeks out there, and these guys rate right up there. As they should, since they're on the team which compiles the iTunes Essentials collections.
Read MoreThere will be a Ten Grands Concert this Friday at Beneroya Hall in Downtown Seattle. As the name suggests, there will be ten pianists each playing a grand piano, all on the stage. They'll be playing a variety of music, both classical and modern. There will also be individual performances, but people definitely go to see all those pianos being played at the same time.
Read MoreLast night Melody and I went to a two-piano concert by Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman at Benaroya Hall.
Read MoreIt was pure coincidence that I was recently reading A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for a Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner, especially since I read about Henry Z. Steinway's death just as I was getting to the part of the book which talked about him. I found the book to be a quick yet entertaining read, especially since it dips into related topics such as the history of the piano, the artistic goals of tuning, and descriptions of how a piano is manufactured. As the title implies, the book centers around a particular piano, a Steinway which was labelled CD 318. Hafner tells how the piano was made during WWII and explains how it and Gould were finally brought together.
Read MoreThe last person named Steinway to run the Steinway & Sons piano company died last Thursday. Henry Z. Steinway was the great-grandson of Heinrich Steinweg (later Steinway). Coincidentally enough, I happen to be reading the part of the book A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (by Katie Hafner) which describes how Steinway & Sons came to be. More on the book after I've finished reading it.
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