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

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″.

I was just beginning to adjust to my new circumstances when I was told that Mr. Galimir would be coming down to Philadelphia the next week! I was overjoyed, but also nervous. As I was just starting with my new teachers, most of my repertoire was in the early stages. Remembering lessons with him where I had played pieces that weren’t quite ready, I decided instead to revive the Bach a minor sonata, which was the first piece we had studied. I spent a great week relearning the piece, using the experience of my last two years to my advantage. I wanted to present him with something completely different from what he had seen the first time we worked on the piece.

When the lesson began, we talked about the summer for a few minutes, but he was eager to hear the Bach. I could tell that he didn’t have the same energy that he had brought to his first lessons with me, but his ears were the same as ever. After the improvisatory first movement, he said, “You play very well,” a high compliment from him, “but I don’t know why it’s not very well in tune.” I should have waited for the whole sentence. But he asked me to go on anyway.

The fugue felt great, much easier than when we had struggled through it two years before. Every so often I glanced over at him, sitting in the familiar chair, his eyes closed, but his mouth articulating the rhythms. During one of these wanderings of my eyes, my brain wandered as well and I suddenly forgot what came next. I was almost to the end of the movement! His eyes shot open, and he leaned forward. “Ja, ja, go on!” He began singing the next few notes with such conviction as though he could start my arms moving with his voice. I sheepishly finished the movement with no further glances in his direction. Only then did I look over to see a mischievous grin on his face.

“You know, you played it very well…until the end, where–I don’t know why,” he dropped his voice, “you f****d it up.”