Basically, the piece explores the sound world of the violin, as enhanced by speakers surrounding the performance space.  That space, on Sunday, will be the main stage, so quite large.  I will have a pickup mic clipped onto my bridge, and this will be fed to a computer.  Rather than simply amplifying my sound and playing it on the speakers, the computer will use my sound as the basis for all kinds of transformation.  Sometimes it will add 5 notes of harmony to whatever I play, sometimes it will repeat what I play with a specific delay.  At other times it will add sounds that, while violin sounds, do not match what I play at that moment.  The idea is that what comes out of the speakers should not sound like me with an echo; it should be precisely balanced so that no one can tell what is “real” and what is not.  But then again, all sound is real, and that will be one thing to take away from the piece.

In addition to the pizz (continuous groups of 6 at quarter=63) it really is a tangle for the left hand, but that will hopefully continue to clear up in the next few days.  I’ll be playing it for the composer then, and of course on Saturday there will be hours of rehearsal putting it together with the electronics.  As I say, there must not only be the surround speaker setup, but two audio/computer technicians.  One is there entirely for sound, and the other controls the specialized software developed in Paris at IRCAM.  This person must know the piece as well as the performer, since there are many adjustments to be made during the 20-minute piece.  As I said, it may be a while before I get to play this piece again, if ever!

So what is the worst, if you must prepare for it?  Actually, part of practicing is trying to improve your “worst” so that even if it happens, it’s not that bad.  I’m playing 4 pieces the day after tomorrow, and I can imagine the worst for 2 of them.  It’s the other 2 that worry me.  This used to be the way with every piece for me.  I would remember the best playthrough and hope that I could recapture it in performance.  Now I tend to remember the worst and assume that it will come back to roost.  The truth is somewhere in between, most likely halfway in between.

I must thank Akiko, once again, for encouraging me to do this playthrough in the first place.  By doing it nearly two weeks before the event in Minneapolis, I give myself a chance to reflect.  Plus, as I’ll be recording it, I can listen and judge for myself.  As Akiko knows, each performance is followed by a list of things that I “should have done”.  Hopefully, after Friday night, I can do those things, and my experience in the Twin Cities will be the better for it.

Beethoven:  Sonata No. 10 in G, I
Bach:  Sonata No. 3 in C, II:  Fuga
Ysaye:  Sonata No. 6 in E
Tchaikovsky:  Valse-Scherzo

A colleague said later, “finally, a maestro who knows his place!”

If you caught the show on the radio yesterday, you also heard me try not to put my feet in my mouth during interviews between pieces.  I’ve been told that I have a good radio voice, and even on occasion a radio face.

Two interesting things:  one, Znaider was quite taken with my Heifetz mute, although he refused to use it for the concert.  “I could not sleep at night,” he said, “knowing that I had deprived you even for one hour of such a mute.”  I guess I’ll hang onto this piece of rubber.  Two, Znaider broke his E-string near the end of the Brahms, much to the delight of the audience.  People always get a kick out of that!  We wondered whether he had rigged it to go off during the Beethoven concerto later in the week.

Then on Saturday, a trio concert with Brant and John Novacek.  Another limited-rehearsal deal, but at least this trio has played together many times.  What a fun group!  Too bad we only get once or twice a year to do this kind of thing.  That program was Haydn E-flat, Rachmaninov Trio Elegiaque, Sibelius Canon for violin and cello (to tie in with that week’s CSO program) and Mendelssohn c minor.  Plus we threw in John’s Intoxication rag as an encore.  That should be heard often, as it’s a thrilling 2 minutes!

http://www.wfmt.com/main.taf?p=4

The radio program is “Live from Levin Studio” (which used to be Studio 1, but was changed when they remembered they only have 1 studio) and the official billing is “The CSO Soloists Presented by National City– Nathan Cole, violin”.  Jim Giles and I will play Preludio from Bach’s E-Major Partita, Brahms Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Wieniawski Scherzo-Tarantella and Debussy-Heifetz Beau Soir.

The format, as I understand, is about 40 minutes of music with some fun talk mixed in.  So you’ll hear my impromptu answers to whatever questions are put to me by the host.  I did one of these a few years ago, with Jasmine Lin, and at one point the conversation turned to Jasmine’s upcoming composition for violin and vacuum cleaner!

I will post, when I receive it, the recording of last summer’s Wieniawski from the UBS Chamber Festival in Lexington.  That was part of the Chamber Olympics, and Alessio and I attempted to “break the 4-minute Scherzo-Tarantella”.  This is really not much of a feat, since the average performance is just over 4 minutes anyway.  It did take a little going over, however, to get myself used to a tempo a few clicks faster than normal.  On Sunday I’ll get to remove those few clicks again.  I’ll aim for 4′15″.

Akiko reminds me that another time Znaider was in town, also playing Schoenberg (the concerto) the second half of the concert was Mahler 5.  Maestro Barenboim allowed the soloist to sit in the back of the firsts and play the Mahler, after little or no rehearsal.  Akiko, doing duty in the back of the firsts that week, was his stand partner!  She reports that he acquitted himself quite well, although his height made him stand out among our section.

Today’s other activity is listening to violin juries at Roosevelt, that semi-annual tradition that I’m not sure anyone looks forward to… but that’s nonetheless an important tool in the learning process.  If a 10-minute snapshot of your playing in front of the full faculty doesn’t make you nervous, you’re well on your way to achieving veins of icewater.  Luckily I never had to go through this in school!  Good luck to all jury-players today.

You watch the Godfather trilogy from beginning to end, with optional breaks in between the films.  You eat and drink everything the characters eat and drink, when they do.  I don’t know how recently you’ve seen the Godfather movies, but they are packed with food and drink.  Much more than we realized when we thought up this idea.  In the end, it worked, barely.  It was certainly an unforgettable day and night!

So, to help out, I made us a spreadsheet.  4 spreadsheets, in fact, because Godfather II is split into two parts.  If you want to recreate this event, all you have to do is download my spreadsheets and take a look at the different food/drink events in each movie.  Each one is marked with its corresponding time in the movie.  Since I don’t know when you’re starting the movie, you input that into cell E2, just as it says on the spreadsheet.  The sheet will then calculate when you need to serve each “event”.  It couldn’t be easier!  Except that you will probably end up running around like your hair’s on fire, like we did.

So, here they are, the Excel spreadsheets.  Download and enjoy!  You will never think about the trilogy the same way again, I guarantee it!

Godfather 1

Godfather 2 part 1

Godfather 2 part 2

Godfather 3