Saturday, September 02, 2006

Friday Fun

Since all the Kool Kids do fun things on Friday, I thought I would join in. But to be even more kool, I procrastinated and have it in a day late. I find that some music is fun to listen to, but not so fun to perform. Other music is a blast to perform, but rather boring from the audience's perspective. My example of the latter is Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. I had fun performing this, but find it too long and repetitious. Examples of the former are mostly limited to piano pieces that are beyond my technical ability. I can trudge through many of Beethoven's piano sonatas, but the development sections can become quite tedious as I struggle with diminished arpeggios. But listening to Alfred Brendel or Edith Vogel breeze through the same passages is a true joy.

What are your examples?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Anything that requires me to bow very long, slow notes is more fun to listen to than to play. For example, the Adagietto of Mahler's 5th Symphony or the slow movement of the Schubert cello quintet both make my arms very very tired.