tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72656627463280292612024-03-13T13:02:11.188-04:00Art Factskbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-27102531766140661802014-01-12T09:31:00.001-05:002014-01-12T09:31:13.768-05:00Video: Gershwin--Prelude I<p>Moving from Texas to New York was a pretty complicated process. One of the requirements for importing my piano was to prove that it could play Gershwin. Which is ok... I've always loved Gershwin and have always wanted to learn something of his. Unfortunately, most of his popular stuff is big and orchestral. The three Preludes are a great exception: they're short solo piano pieces, but they're pure Gershwin.</p>
<p>So here is my video of Gershwin's <i>Prelude I</i>. It's a fairly challenging piece technically, which made it hard for me to capture a performance that's both clean and musical. So there are places here where I'm not crazy about the feel.</p>
<p>This is also the last of the three videos I recorded during the Christmas holidays. So sad. But I promise not to wait two years before my next ones.</p>
<iframe width="400" height="244" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fCUksC56MGQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-76299647939639955512013-12-30T09:17:00.001-05:002013-12-30T09:20:37.596-05:00Video: Hamelin--The Ringtone Waltz<p>When you hang out in piano circles, somebody eventually asks the question: "What is the most difficult piano music ever composed?". The first answers are the obvious ones: something by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, etc. Then come the more obscure composers: Alkan, Balakirev, Godowsky, Sorabji, Kapustin. And Marc-André Hamelin. Now, I have no interest in torturing myself by trying to learn difficult music for the sake of learning difficult music. But I figure: if you're a piano nut, you owe it to yourself to hear what's being done with the piano "out at the fringes".</p>
<p>Marc-André Hamelin is particularly interesting to me, and not just because he's Canadian. He's taken some of the most notoriously difficult piano pieces and "recomposed" them to be even more difficult. But they're hugely entertaining at the same time. His arrangement of Liszt's arrangement ("La Campanella") of Paganini's second violin concerto is insane. But it's so clever and funny that it makes me smile from beginning to end.</p>
<p>I have no illusion that I'll ever be able to nail any of Hamelin's serious compositions. But as it turns out, he seems to have composed one (relatively) simple piece: The Ringtone Waltz (also known as "Valse Irritation d'après Nokia"). Rumor has it that he would break into this piece in concert if a cell phone went off in the audience. Not sure I believe that. Anyway, it's a nice, short, <i>learnable</i> piece and it lets me claim that I can play Hamelin!</p>
<p><iframe width="400" height="244" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zYRvdPoBImw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-35772296199680143422013-12-22T09:10:00.001-05:002013-12-22T09:10:18.805-05:00Video: Bach--Prelude in C Major<p>It's been almost two years exactly since I posted my last videos. I have excuses aplenty for the drought, but they don't matter because I finally made the effort to 'shed some new pieces and made the time to record some new stuff.</p>
<p>I have the raw recordings/footage for three new videos. The first one is Prelude #1 from book I of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. It's a simple piece but it's challenging to play it well. Most importantly, it's just really nice music that everybody likes. That's why I chose to learn it. I wasn't actually planning to make a video of this piece, but at the last minute I thought it would be a good way to ease back into recording. Doing the setup, recording and editing for these videos is a lot of work, and it's taking me extra time trying to remember the process. So having a piece that doesn't require a lot of post-production makes things go much more smoothly. As it turns out, I was able to use a single take for the whole video. It's far from perfect, and I could have fixed some of the more obvious flaws by editing different takes. But I kind of like the simplicity of the single-take video for this simple, beautiful piece.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas!</p>
<p><iframe width="400" height="244" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Hy2tnBwx-Ow" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-91038488007464690712013-12-21T08:43:00.001-05:002013-12-21T08:43:22.584-05:00If I Had a Nickel...<p>...for every time somebody watched one of my videos, I'd have about $13,000. Funny how just a couple of years ago we were celebrating 20,000 YouTube views over the first two-and-a-half years. And now we're at 260,000. (It sounds more impressive if you pronounce it "a quarter million").</p>
<p>So thanks to the viewers from 188 countries, the 457 subscribers, and the hundreds who "liked", "shared", "commented" and "favorited". Without you I'd be just some guy who makes amateur piano videos in his spare ti...</p>
<p>Oh... right.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-THFNhvF0JRo/UrWZ6PXVVZI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/R0g2N4to79Y/s1600/260k.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-THFNhvF0JRo/UrWZ6PXVVZI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/R0g2N4to79Y/s400/260k.png" /></a></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-85930145561621704132012-01-02T09:12:00.004-05:002012-01-02T10:15:41.476-05:00Video: Schumann/Liszt--Widmung (Dedication)Here is the second video from my first session at the new house. It's Franz Liszt's solo piano arrangement of Robert Schumann's <i>Widmung (Dedication)</i>, which was originally written for piano and voice. I think it's pretty safe to say that this is the most beautiful piece of music ever. I'd been putting off recording this one for fear of not doing it justice. But at some point you just have to hold your nose, pull the trigger and jump. (?).<div><br /></div><div>A couple of technical comments... these two videos (<i>Widmung</i> and <i><a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2011/12/video-godowsky-alt-wien.html">Alt Wien</a></i>) are the first I've filmed with two cameras simultaneously. I bought Johanne a new camera for Christmas (a <a href="http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMC-FZ150K">Panasonic Lumix FZ150</a>). It does HD video too, so I nabbed it for a morning to do these two pieces. It makes the post-editing go a lot faster to have two angles to choose from for any given take. The problem is that even though both cameras were shooting full 1080p video, the quality of the Panasonic's video is much better than my Canon. The shots from the treble are all Panasonic, the shots from the bass are the Canon. The Panasonic shots are much crisper, and there's very little digital noise. The Canon shots are a little blurry by comparison and you can see plenty of digital noise in the near outer casing and inner (wooden) rim of the piano.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the audio, I decided to close-mic the piano a little more than I did in Austin. There's more house noise and street noise here, and putting the microphones closer helps get cleaner sound. But it also means there's less of the desirable kind of room noise (natural reverberation). So there's a little more work to do in the audio mixing/mastering to get a sound that fits naturally with what you're seeing in the video. I could probably have added even more recreated room sound, but it's at the expense of clarity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, here's the video. I hope you enjoy it!</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe width="400" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/klZU3H0StYM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-38435033895330419982011-12-29T19:55:00.004-05:002011-12-29T20:30:00.663-05:00Video: Godowsky--Alt WienBack in July, 2010 I wrote of <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/07/coming-home-again.html">my last visit to Paulette's house</a> to play her B. My mother's friend Louise suggested that I add some tranquility to my program. It was a good suggestion so I set about trying to find something I liked. The first piece I considered was <i>Alt Wien (Old Vienna)</i> by Leopold Godowsky (Triakontameron, No. 11). But I thought it might be a little too schmaltzy, a bias not lessened by its ridiculous subtitle: "Whose Yesterdays look backwards with a Smile through Tears." Then I discovered <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2011/04/video-corelligodowsky-pastorale-angelus.html">Godowsky's <i>Pastorale</i></a> and abandoned <i>Alt Wien</i>. But I wasn't able to get it out of my head, and decided to learn it. And now I love it: not so much schmaltzy as charming.<div><br /></div><div>This is also the first video from our new house in New York. I wasn't sure how it would come out. I was pretty used to my setup in Austin. And the lower ceilings, hardwood floors and parallel walls make for a much livelier room. I still have lots of experimenting to do, but I'm pretty happy with both the audio and the video so far.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe width="400" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xHGkNQWiwls" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-7381053183647234532011-12-28T20:14:00.004-05:002011-12-28T20:58:42.198-05:00Ready, Set, Go!<div>Hello from New York.</div><div><br /></div><div>We made the big move back in August, and haven't had much time over the last four months for anything but work and setting up home. But I was able to take advantage of a few days off over the holidays to get my studio set up, get my piano tuned and shoot a couple of videos.</div><div><br /></div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Eu2kh7XHuM4/TvvH_5fQ5nI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/6gVO545Se7g/s400/IMG_1146.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5691362454690391666" /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div>It will probably take some experimenting to get the video and audio how I'd like them in the new setting. But I think things are looking pretty ok. I hope to finish the production over the next couple of weeks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Stay tuned!</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DopTJ6L3UYU/TvvIAADRYEI/AAAAAAAAAWc/HsKV7ANhEZg/s400/IMG_1149.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5691362456452030530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px; " /></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-68521517073721009312011-07-26T18:23:00.002-04:002011-07-26T18:54:04.028-04:00ConcART IV (Farewell)The past few months have been one wild ride.<div><br /></div><div>If you're reading this blog, it probably means you're my mother or my father (hi mom, hi dad). And that means you already know that Johanne and I are leaving Texas for the unfriendly cold of New York. We leave mid-August, less than three weeks from now.</div><div><br /></div><div>But we decided to try to squeeze in one last ConcART before going. This would give us a chance to see all of our great Texas friends one last time, play some music for them, maybe sell them some art. I haven't had time to pull together a full, brand-new recital program, so I thought I'd play the three new pieces I have, along with one favorite from each of <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/10/concart.html">the</a> <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/11/concart-ii.html">first</a> <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/10/concart-iii.html">three</a> ConcART recitals. In fact, I couldn't decide on just one from ConcART III, so I chose two.</div><div><br /></div><div>So ConcART IV (the "Farewell ConcART") will be Sunday, August 7, 2011. And here's the recital program:</div><div><ol><li><i>Prelude I</i> -- Gershwin</li><li><i>Sonata No.8 (Pathétique), 2nd movement</i> -- Beethoven</li><li><i>Pastorale/Renaissance No.8</i> -- Corelli/Godowsky</li><li><i>Danza de la Pastora</i> -- Halffter</li><li><i>Alt Wien</i> -- Godowsky</li><li><i>Widmung</i> -- Schumann/Liszt</li><li><i>Toccatina Op.36</i> -- Kapustin</li></ol>The Beethoven is from <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/10/concart.html">ConcART I</a>, the Halffter from <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/11/concart-ii.html">ConcART II</a> and the Corelli/Godowsky and Schumann/Liszt are from <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/10/concart-iii.html">ConcART III</a>. The Gershwin and Godowsky are both fun, short pieces that I was able to pull together fairly quickly. Putting the Kapustin on the program is sheer insanity. I'll be lucky to come out of it with no broken bones.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wish us luck!</div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-15687060238156849452011-05-29T09:01:00.004-04:002011-05-29T11:44:56.197-04:00Video: Falla--Danza ritual del fuegoManuel de Falla's <i>Ritual Fire Dance</i> from the ballet <i>El amor brujo</i>, arranged for solo piano by the composer. (I also added a few parts to the arrangement based on the original orchestral score).<div><br /></div><div>Over the years I've learned quite a bit of Spanish (and Spanish-flavored) music by big composers (<a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/10/video-albeniz-el-puerto-hd.html">Albéniz</a>, <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/07/video-granados-quejas-o-la-maja-y-el.html">Granados</a>, <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/05/video-ginastera-danzas-argentinas-hd.html">Ginastera</a>) and lesser-known composers (<a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/04/video-danza-de-la-pastora.html">Halffter</a>, <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-soler-sonata-no84.html">Soler</a>, <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2011/05/video-nin-culmell-muineira-galicia.html">Nin-Culmell</a>). This bias is no doubt inherited in part from my old teacher, Douglas Voice. But I never learned anything by Manuel de Falla, who was one of Douglas' favorites (I think). That's what inspired me to find and learn something by Falla for last year's <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/11/concart-iii-review.html">ConcArt</a> recital.</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of things to note in the video. First, I tried a new camera angle: "wide bass", and it doesn't quite work. It's shooting into the light, so the subject (me!) is too dark. I did what I could in editing, but it's still visually kind of ugly. I think I'll try again, though, with an accent light coming from the bass side of the piano. The problem is, I like to keep the exact same lighting for all camera angles so it looks like they were shot simultaneously. Some experimentation will certainly be needed. The composition of the angle is poor, too. The manual focus on my camera is flexible for still shots, but not very convenient for video. It's much easier (and I get better results) using autofocus. But it means I need to keep the subject in the autofocus sweetspot.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second thing to note is the return of video cats. Kashmir made his acting debut in my <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/01/video-mozart-variations.html">Mozart video</a> and was quite a hit among <a href="http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=DDMvvelPXj0">YouTube commenters</a>. Here he makes two appearances. Shiner also makes a very brief appearance. I tried to delay the scene change to give him more camera time, but I just couldn't get it to work.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Ritual Fire Dance</i> is an exciting, dynamic piece. But as usual, I find it hard to capture that in the video/recording.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe width="400" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9Y2Z8f0flDU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-13636624442227878772011-05-08T20:32:00.003-04:002011-05-08T22:46:14.249-04:00Video: Handel--Air and Variations (The Harmonious Blacksmith)Two years ago <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/04/video-arabesque-i.html">I wrote</a>: <blockquote>Claude Debussy's <i>Arabesque I</i> might be the "oldest" piece I play, in the sense that I've played it longer than the others.</blockquote><div>But I think George Frideric Handel's <i>Air and Variations (The Harmonious Blacksmith)</i> is even "older". I probably learned it a year earlier than the Debussy, which makes it thirty years since I first learned it.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>The piece, written around 1720, is in what's called the <i>English Division</i> style: the theme is stated in (mainly) quarter notes, or one note per beat. Then there's a variation where the right hand plays two notes per beat, a variation with the left hand playing two notes per beat, then a variation with three notes per beat in the right hand, then three notes per beat in the left hand. Finally, the fifth variation has four notes per beat in both hands. This gives the impression that the piece keeps speeding up: twice as fast, three times as fast and finally four times as fast.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe width="400" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Mza-xqk770k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-35225684728931574662011-05-01T10:53:00.004-04:002011-05-01T11:56:43.532-04:00Video: Nin-Culmell--Muiñeira (Galicia)Here's another piece I discovered on YouTube. I'm pretty sure it was served up as a "Suggestion" video to one of my own. Given the spotty information accompanying the video, it took a little hunting to find the music. The piece is <i>Muiñeira (Galicia)</i> by twentieth century German/Cuban/Spanish/American composer Joaquín Nin-Culmell. It's number 24 from <i>Tonadas</i>, a suite of 48 pieces in four volumes.<div><br /></div><div>Nin-Culmell was born in Germany, the son of Cuban-Spanish parents and brother of famous author Anaïs Nin (whose full name was Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell). He was also a student of the great Spanish composer Manuel de Falla.<br /><div><br /></div><div>A <i>muiñeira</i> is a Spanish song typically played by a <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_gaita">Galician gaita</a></i>, which is a kind of Spanish bagpipe. The piece does sound bagpipey to me, especially the grace notes in the middle section. The lack of individual note attacks on bagpipes prevents you from playing the same note twice, so if you want to repeat a note you use a grace note to articulate it. This is exactly how Nin-Culmell uses grace notes in the middle section.</div><div><br /></div><div>As far as I can tell, this piece was also what I call a "YouTube Bullseye"—a piece that has exactly one video on YouTube. Of course, now that I've recorded it, it's no longer a bullseye.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><iframe width="400" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4PHL-KYwtyg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-78081038481727497572011-04-24T10:08:00.005-04:002011-04-24T15:23:28.955-04:00Video: Corelli/Godowsky--Pastorale (Angelus)I've <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-repertoire-season.html">written</a> <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2011/01/repertoire-redux.html">previously</a> about <i>Repertoire Season</i>, the time of year shortly after a <i>ConcArt</i> recital when I start hunting down pieces for the next recital. During Repertoire Season after the ConcArt-II recital in November, 2009, I was considering trying to learn something by Leopold Godowsky, a twentieth-century Polish composer. I wasn't really confident I'd find anything, because my main criteria for pieces are that they are beautiful/entertaining, shortish, and playable. Godowsky has a bit of a reputation for writing very difficult piano music (and difficult piano arrangements of other composers' compositions). But then I stumbled across a video by pianist <a href="http://www.magdalenabaczewska.com/">Magdalena Baczewska</a> of Godowsky's arrangement of Arcangelo Corelli's <i>Pastorale</i>. I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever heard. It's fairly short, and it didn't sound too difficult at all. (It turned out to be quite a bit trickier than Baczewska's wonderful performance suggests).<div><br /></div><div><i>Pastorale</i> is the sixth (and final) movement of Corelli's <i>Christmas Concerto</i>, one of his twelve concerti grossi. A <i>concerto grosso</i> is a Baroque form of orchestral music. There are two groups of performers (the <i>concertino</i> and the <i>ripieno</i>) that engage in a kind of musical dialog. I think Godowsky's wide but relatively sparse piano arrangement really captures the sound of the concerto grosso.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the video, I had the idea to emphasize the dialog by switching to the bass camera angle exclusively for the recurring "response" theme in the piece. I think the idea was better in conception than execution, though. For the first statement of the response, I didn't have a good bass angle take. And since the response theme is short, the frequent camera switches kind of interrupt the video flow.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second problem with the video is due to the position of one of my light stands. It was too close to the camera for the wide angle shots. This lights up dust floating by the lens. More seriously, it gave me a lens flare that I didn't notice until I'd finished recording. (You can see it as a light circle where the right side of the piano meets the treble leg). I managed to reduce the effect by setting levels in editing, but it's still pretty obvious.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm nitpicking, though. I love this piece so much that I can't not love the video!</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="400" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hH6Vhsi26zU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-67864609310844623102011-03-30T21:57:00.003-04:002011-03-30T22:24:52.654-04:00Is it Spring Already?<div style="text-align: left;">Time to take inspiration from my <a href="http://johannemakingart.blogspot.com/2011/03/lets-try-this-again.html">wife</a> and my <a href="http://gunderpond.blogspot.com/2011/03/lets-try-this-again.html">cousin</a> and come out of blog hibernation. It's been a wild few months, but I hope to get a week in April to record some new videos. Until then, let me sneak in a little celebration of a recent YouTube milestone. On March 29, I reached 20,000 views of my videos on YouTube. 10,000 in the last six months. Thanks to all the people who watched them, the 27 people who have subscribed, the 90 comments and the 119 thumbs up. Too bad about the one thumb down. :-(</div><div><br /><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6u61DOhv1e8/TZPlWY9pr3I/AAAAAAAAATE/o18TfFOSKHo/s400/YT3-29_all.bmp" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 364px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590063735317835634" /><div><br /></div></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-18535950099645712752011-01-23T16:27:00.003-05:002011-01-23T17:00:09.783-05:00Repertoire ReduxIt's that time of year again. The ConcArt is behind us, holidays are over, cold weather has settled in. It's Repertoire Season!<div><br /></div><div>I've wondered in the past in this blog whether I would be able to keep up old repertoire while adding new stuff. Well, I'm finally losing some of my old pieces. And it just doesn't really seem worth it to me to be spending more time on them when my new pieces are so demanding. I always thought it would be a good idea to keep the old ones to pull out in case people ask: "Do you play any Rachmaninoff?", or "Play that Beethoven I like". But let's face it. People aren't exactly stopping me on the street and demanding I play the third dance from Ginastera's Op.2. And now that I have (HD) videos of most of the pieces I've played in the last couple of years, I feel better about letting them go.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what's this new stuff that's taking so much time? I have two new pieces in the can: Leopold Godowsky's <i>Alt Wien</i> ("Old Vienna") and George Gershwin's <i>Prelude I.</i> These two are memorized and up to speed. Maybe not quite ready for public performance, but close. A third piece is in the works, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get it down. It's <i>Toccatina Op.36</i> by Nikolai Kapustin. I have half of it memorized and close to speed. It's a pretty insane piece, so it's taking a lot of work.</div><div><br /></div><div>Beyond those three, I've been reading a lot. I'm trying to decide between two baroque pieces (Bach vs. Scarlatti). I have a classical piece I might do (Field). There's an Albéniz I'm considering, but I'm still hunting for this year's "gotta play" Spanish piece. Still on the lookout for a big, over-the-top romantic piece, too.</div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-69967064318186441082010-11-21T10:04:00.004-05:002010-11-21T11:06:14.280-05:00ConcART III Review<div style="text-align: left;">Another ConcART event is in the books. And I'm happy to report it continues to be a great success. The numbers were down a little this year: about 35 people made it to the recital with another dozen showing up during the art show. But it's still a thrill to pack that many people into your living room for a piano recital and party. We're thinking of expanding a little next year and coming up with some creative additions to the ConcART template.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TOlAECEG-3I/AAAAAAAAAR8/uw77NNuhmz0/s400/ConcART3-setup.JPG" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542031254473866098" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>The calm before the storm</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div>As usual, I began the party with a welcome and introduction before launching into the recital. My little stories before each piece were once again very warmly received. And I think this year I was more prepared than ever before, so the performances went very well. I was most worried about the Brahms (<i>Hungarian Dance No.2</i>) being messy, but it came off very clean. I had no problems with the Handel (<i>Harmonious Blacksmith</i>), and several people commented later that they liked this one a lot. The Corelli/Godowsky (<i>Pastorale</i>) offered the only real flub of the day, but I recovered pretty seamlessly. Of course it was at a spot that usually gives me no trouble, but that's the way things go. The trickier spots that I was concerned about were fine, and the performance was good. So overall, I'm very happy with this one. The Nin-Culmell (<i>Muiñeira</i>) went great. I don't think I could have played it better, and I heard several joyful outbursts at the end. As expected, the Schumann/Liszt (<i>Widmung</i>) was a crowd favorite. This piece was very well prepared and I was really able to put myself into the performance. The final piece (Falla's <i>Ritual Fire Dance</i>) turned out to be the second crowd favorite, which surprised me a little. It's a great end-of-program piece. Johanne confirmed to me later that the performances were all comparable to my practice performances, and that the tempos were all dead on. (One of my biggest issues is playing too fast when I'm nervous, which then causes other performance problems).</div><div><br /></div><div>The art show was also a big success. Johanne sold eleven paintings. And the sales seemed a little more intense to me than past years. Many people had strong favorites and went straight to the office to make sure they got their first choice. This year we also offered <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/11/get-em-while-theyre-hot.html">CDs and DVDs</a> of the first two ConcART recital programs for sale. We sold 26 discs. I was a little surprised (but happy) that the CDs were more popular than the DVDs. The ConcART-II CD was the biggest seller (10) followed closely by the ConcART-I CD (9).</div><div><br /></div><div>Bottom line: I declare ConcART-III the most successful ConcART yet. Even with fewer people, we sold almost as many paintings (in fact, more per-guest), and the desire to buy seemed much stronger to me. Add in the disc sales and it's undeniable that our guests were very generous to us this year. Most importantly for me, the more I think back on it, the recital really was the best so far.</div><div><br /></div><div>On to ConcART-IV!</div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-39622351433746789562010-11-08T22:31:00.005-05:002010-11-08T23:05:51.329-05:00Get 'Em While They're Hot<div style="text-align: left;">Some time last year, Johanne and I got the idea that I should record video and audio for all of the pieces from <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/10/concart.html">ConcART</a> and <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/11/concart-ii.html">ConcART-II</a>, and offer DVDs and CDs for sale at <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/10/concart-iii.html">this year's show</a>. After nine days of recording, six piano tunings, hundreds of hours of audio and video editing, hundreds of dollars in discs, cases, paper and ink, days of babysitting the disc burner and printer, 800 cuts and 150 folds, I finally finished them all.</div><div><br /></div><div>And here they are: $10 apiece, buyer's choice, until I run out!</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TNjEyUUpLsI/AAAAAAAAARc/VbHUm0oQ1MM/s400/cd-dvd.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 283px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537392110579822274" />kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-55460996078502650862010-10-30T22:09:00.003-04:002010-10-30T22:38:22.508-04:00ConcART IIIIt's the most wonderful time of the year... ConcART time!<div><br /></div><div>Our <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/10/concart.html">first art-show-slash-recital</a> was in October, 2008. We followed that up with <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/11/concart-ii.html">ConcART II</a> in November, 2009. Both were more successful than we dared hope. Now we're just two weeks away from ConcART III, which will be held Sunday, November 14, 2010.</div><div><br /></div><div>Johanne has been busy with pastels and oils (including some great explorations with the palette knife). I've been busy 'shedding for the recital part. There are some challenging bits, but I really, really like this program.</div><div><ol><li><i>Hungarian Dance No.2</i> -- Johannes Brahms</li><li><i>Air and Variations (The Harmonious Blacksmith)</i> -- George Frideric Handel</li><li><i>Pastorale/Renaissance No.8</i> -- Arcangelo Corelli/Leopold Godowsky</li><li><i>Tonadas No.24 - Muiñeira (Galicia)</i> -- Joaquin Nin-Culmell</li><li><i>Myrthen Op.25 No.1/Widmung</i> -- Robert Schumann/Franz Liszt</li><li><i>Danza Ritual del Fuego</i> -- Manuel de Falla</li></ol></div><div>Come to Austin, see the show!</div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-46984984337837292492010-10-18T21:57:00.004-04:002010-10-18T22:42:08.828-04:00Video: Rachmaninoff--Prelude Op.23 No.5After the first ConcART recital (in October, 2008), someone asked me if I had ever played any of the great Russian composers. I decided then and there that I'd answered "no" to that question for the last time. So I started hunting and in December, 2008 decided on this Prelude by Sergei Rachmaninoff. I figured "I've got ten months to learn it for the next ConcART... no problem". <div><br /></div><div>Well, I may have underestimated the piece, or overestimated my skill, because I don't think ten months was quite enough, given my short, after-work practice schedule. I did play it at ConcART-II in November, 2009, and it went well enough. But I promised myself I'd work it a little harder for the video. So I gave it a half-year's rest and started over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, I'm happy I learned the piece, because it fills what was an obvious gap in my repertoire. It's a beautiful piece and it's fun to play, even if it serves up the occasional trainwreck. And I learned something else from this piece, too. Rachmaninoff had really big hands.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15952618" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15952618">Rachmaninoff: Prelude Op.23 No.5</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1084715">Ken Barker</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-34763224743846903062010-10-04T22:00:00.003-04:002010-10-04T22:35:43.989-04:00Video: Albéniz--El Puerto (HD)<i>El Puerto</i> was the first piece I recorded when I got my piano back in the summer of 2008. Two years later I finally got around to redoing it in HD with a good audio recording.<div><br /></div><div>Isaac Albéniz wrote twelve pieces (four books of three) in his masterpiece, the <i>Iberia</i> suite. <i>El Puerto </i>is the second piece in book one. It's a very special piece for me, not just because I love it so much and I played it so much in my youth. <i>Iberia</i> was also a favorite of my teacher, Douglas Voice, who performed all twelve pieces in concert. Douglas passed away in 1998. I still think about him just about every time I play this piece. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm quite happy with the video. There's a lot that can go wrong in this piece. But this performance is pretty clean.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15529426" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15529426">Albéniz: El Puerto</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1084715">Ken Barker</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-6626409269311919802010-08-03T10:50:00.003-04:002010-08-03T10:59:35.633-04:00Video: Liszt--Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (HD)Here is the latest installment in my series of HD remakes of SD videos. The old video of this piece is nearly two years old, and was only the second piano video I made. Definitely time for a makeover. <i>Sonetto 104</i> will always be special for me, since it's one of the pieces I performed most towards the end of "the performing days of my youth". It's also one of the first I recovered when I started practicing again in 2007.<div><br /></div><div><object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13812455&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13812455&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/13812455">Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1084715">Ken Barker</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-68636516541688228062010-07-24T11:09:00.007-04:002010-08-16T11:12:56.323-04:00Coming Home Again<div>Various uninteresting events kept me from traveling home to Ottawa in 2009. But I made sure to hard-schedule a visit in 2010. <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/09/recital-recap.html">As in 2008</a>, I made sure to take advantage of Paulette's invitation to play her young Steinway B. My small audience was mom, dad, Johanne, Paulette, mom's friend Louise and my first piano teacher, Edith Orton. It was a very casual gathering and I made sure to play the pieces I'm working up for this year's ConcArt recital. I also played a couple of "oldies", a couple of "requests" and one piece on Paulette's Baldwin L1. Here's the list:</div><div><br /></div><div>Friday, July 16, 2010:</div><div><ul><li><i>Quejas, ó La Maja y el Ruiseñor</i> (Enrique Granados)</li><li><i>Danza de la Pastora</i> (Ernesto Halffter)</li><li><i>Air and Variations: The Harmonious Blacksmith</i> (George Handel)</li><li><i>Widmung</i> (Robert Schumann/Franz Liszt arr.)</li><li><i>Muiñeira</i> (Joaquin Nin-Culmell)</li><li><i>Hungarian Dance #2</i> (Johannes Brahms)</li><li><i>Ritual Fire Dance</i> (Manuel de Falla)</li><li><i>Danza del Gaucho Matrero</i> (Alberto Ginastera)</li><li><i>Impromptu Op.90 No.4</i> (Franz Schubert)</li><li><i>Sonetto 104 del Petrarca</i> (Franz Liszt)</li></ul></div><div>I think everybody had a good time. I had two very nice comments and one good piece of constructive criticism. Paulette asked when I bought my piano because it sounded like my playing had matured and become much more expressive since 2008. She attributed it to having my own piano to play every day. Edith asked if I practiced technique (scales, etc.) regularly. I explained that with my limited practice time, I practice technique in service of the pieces I'm learning/playing only. But I do practice the runs, arpeggios, trills, etc. from the pieces as though they were technical exercises in order to get them as clean as possible. Her impression was that my technique and articulation were strong.</div><div><br /></div><div>The constructive criticism came from my mother's friend Louise. She suggested (and everyone agreed) that it would be nice to have more tranquility in my repertoire, since most of the pieces I played were quick or fiery or energetic (or all three!). I do have slower, calmer material, but didn't play much of it. The comment reminded me that even in a casual gathering, you shouldn't ignore program-level considerations. It also convinced me that I really need to add one more piece to this year's planned ConcArt program. Now I just have to find a new piece that's a slow/tranquil foil for the rest of the program, something that's melodic and beautiful, something that's not too trivial, and that I can learn and get up to performance level for the Fall.</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TEsMsqB77eI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/iM7V8HOvCdI/s1600/KenPiano.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 303px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TEsMsqB77eI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/iM7V8HOvCdI/s400/KenPiano.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497501731472010722" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i>Having fun at Paulette's Steinway B</i></span></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-17735922837419655942010-07-06T11:37:00.002-04:002010-07-06T11:48:47.225-04:00Video: Granados--Quejas ó la maja y el ruiseñorThis video is my HD remake of Enrique Granados' wonderful <i>The Maiden and The Nightingale</i> from <i>Goyescas</i>. That leaves just two more HD remakes to do: Liszt's <i>Sonetto 104 del Petrarca</i> and Albeniz' <i>El Puerto</i>. The Liszt is already filmed/recorded, but not edited. Look for it to appear around the end of July/beginning of August.<div><br /></div><div>I feel like my performance of <i>Maiden</i> has really improved over time. But I just went back and watched the old, crappy SD video and the performance wasn't bad. There are definitely some things I prefer in the new one... and there are plenty of very subtle improvements. And of course, the video quality is a million times better. But my playing of the piece hasn't changed as much as I thought.</div><div><br /></div><div><object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13085767&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13085767&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/13085767">Granados: Quejas ó la maja y el ruiseñor</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1084715">Ken Barker</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-80662761980202895212010-05-30T09:57:00.012-04:002010-05-30T12:42:42.096-04:00Happy Second Pianoversary<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TAJ5OM6ifiI/AAAAAAAAAQc/cDFEs9BAF1k/s1600/TruckHouse.jpg"><img style="text-align: center;float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 128px; " src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TAJ5OM6ifiI/AAAAAAAAAQc/cDFEs9BAF1k/s200/TruckHouse.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477073381727829538" /></a>Today marks the second anniversary of <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/05/delivery-day.html">the delivery of my piano</a>. I can't even imagine life without it. In two years it has starred in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/kbub6f">18 videos</a> and audio recordings, it's shown itself in <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2008/10/concart-review.html">two</a> <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/11/concart-ii-review.html">recitals</a> to 100 people, it's learned about 25 pieces, and it practices almost every day (I assume it doesn't play when I'm out of town).<div><br /><div><div>It's been tuned 10 times, voiced twice, had its <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2009/04/piano-fire.html">shanks fired</a>, been tweaked, lubricated and adjusted. It's been covered on three occasions and wiped down 700 times.<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TAKRSJIkPYI/AAAAAAAAAQk/IENKafSD7EQ/s200/Kashmir-piano.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 134px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477099837711465858" /> It has been played by <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/05/so-thats-what-it-sounds-like.html">two people</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>It has never had a cat inside of it, although this is not thanks to any great self-restraint on the part of the cats. I've never touched its case with my bare hands, but I think today I will.</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy Birthday, piano!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lWQZpYXMaZg/TAKRSaY_1tI/AAAAAAAAAQs/3U3aoKaH4Og/s200/Shiner-piano.jpg" style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 200px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477099842343786194" /></div><div></div></div></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-48990561644440518092010-05-29T10:16:00.000-04:002010-05-30T11:53:29.066-04:00So That's What It Sounds LikeI've had my piano for two full years now. But believe it or not, I've never heard it played (I'm always the one playing it). I've invited others to play it, but have never had any takers until last weekend.<div><br /></div><div>My neighbor's father is a fairly advanced pianist, and we talk about repertoire pretty regularly, but he's never taken me up on offers to play my piano. Last Saturday after dinner Johanne and I were out throwing a football in the street when he came out with his grandson to see the football. After chatting for a few minutes Johanne invited him to try the piano again and this time he took us up on it.</div><div><br /></div><div>He played parts of Schumann's <i>Carnavale</i> and Mendelssohn's <i>Songs Without Words</i>, and even the first page of Liszt's arrangement of Schumann's <i>Widmung</i>, which was really fun because that's a piece I play too. I couldn't stop smiling, hearing my piano for the first time. And it's amazing how rich and full it sounds from "out front", even though its unisons are horribly out right now. I can't wait to have him back when it's tuned so I can hear it at its best. </div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7265662746328029261.post-621139441812266122010-05-02T10:11:00.003-04:002010-05-02T10:28:22.374-04:00Video: Ginastera--Danzas argentinas (HD)The pieces I posted in the <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/03/video-ginastera-danza-del-viejo-boyero.html">last</a> <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-ginastera-danza-de-la-moza-donosa.html">three</a> <a href="http://art-facts.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-ginastera-danza-del-gaucho.html">blog</a> entries are often (usually?) performed together as one big work: the <i>Danzas argentinas</i>. I wanted to do the same with my video: have one continuous performance/video of the three dances together. (The individual videos posted last month were actually edited down from the full-length video). So this week I'm posting the complete video. <div><br /></div><div><object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11378716&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11378716&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/11378716">Ginastera: Danzas argentinas</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1084715">Ken Barker</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></div><div><br /></div>kbubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01529933365403228209noreply@blogger.com0