my first performance in thirty years

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 03 Aug 20 - 05:06 PM

Thanks for telling us about this performance. Having the opportunity to not only play your piano, but to play with a small group and work towards a performance is ... well, I can only imagine that it is bringing joy into your life.

Please keep us up to date on the progress and also let us know when you all perform the piece and how it goes.

Music is a blessing.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Aug 20 - 02:58 PM

If you want to know what
the Theme and Variations from the "Forellen - Quintette"
sound like --

although, we will never in a hundred years
sound as good as this --

here is a filmed performance.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Aug 20 - 02:14 PM

At Schubert's untimely early death, the same poet, Grillparzer,
wrote the inscription for his tomb.

Die Tonkunst begrub hier einen reichen Besitz,
Aber noch viel schönere Hoffnungen.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Aug 20 - 02:05 PM

Schubert's music is based on a charming little song he wrote earlier.
And, as you are entitled to my opinion,
this is what I think of the words (by Grillparzer):

this is a truly lousy lyric.

DIE FORELLE

by Franz Grillparzer

In einem Bächlein helle,
Da schoß in froher Eil
Die launischer Forelle
Vorüber, wie ein Pfeil.
Ich stand an dem Gestade
Und sah, in süßer Ruh',
Des muntern Fischleins Bade
Im klaren Bächlein zu.

Ein Fischer mit der Rute
Wohl an dem Ufer stand,
Und sah's mit kaltem Blute
Wie sich das Fischlein wand.
So lang dem Wasser Helle,
So dacht' ich, nicht gebricht,
So fängt er die Forelle
Mit seiner Angel nicht.

[this stanza was suppressed, not set to music]
So scheu'st auch manche Schöne
Im vollen Strom der Zeit
Und sieht nicht die Sirene
Die ihr im Wirbel dräut.
Sie folgt dem Drang der Liebe;
Und eh' sie sich's versieht,
So wird das Bächlein trübe
Und ihre Unschuld flieht.

Doch endlich ward dem Diebe
Die Zeit zu lang; er macht
Das Bächlein tückisch trübe:
Und eh' ich es gedacht,
So zuckte seine Rute;
Das Fischlein zappelt dran;
Und ich mit regem Blute
Sah die Betrogne an.

[Schubert omitted this last stanza]
Ihr, die ihr noch am Quelle
Der sichern Jugend weilt,
Denkt doch an die Forelle:
Seht ihr Gefahr, so eilt!
Meist fehlt ihr nur aus Mangel
Der Klugheit; Mädchen, seht
Verführer mit der Angel --
Sonst blutet ihr zu spät.

(poem published 1785, in Karlsruhe.)

Subject: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Aug 20 - 01:48 PM

Well, it isn't much. It isn't even public, speaking strictly.

Four of us are patients in a clinic and,
each of us being classically trained,
we have been reading through classical music together --
we never knew each other before being admitted here.

The youngest of the lot, the violinist, will soon be discharged,
as it is time for school, to which this musician will return.
We hope to see our fellow patient off, when the time comes,
by performing at the clinic together, and our audience will be
the staff and our fellow patients.
(Due to the pandemic, we can't have visitors / guests here.)

In truth the other three musicians (including the violinist)
are all a lot younger than I am, and their technique
is reasonably up to speed, they play often enough,
even if they are not music majors (they aren't)
as I was at their age.

Me, I play the piano part, and for the last thirty years
the only keyboards I have touched have been for computers
(I did learn touch-typing in my youth as well).

So here we are,
practicing the Theme and Variations from
Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet -- just one movement.
It doesn't take long, but it is a lot of work to prepare.
My technique is SO bad.

I have an excuse for the dirty little tricks I am using,
abbreviating the piano part to make it easier to play.
This piece is a quintet -- we're a quartet.
The fifth musical part, the missing part,
is a double-bass viol -- we don't have that player.
I'm using my left hand, at the piano keyboard,
to hit the bass notes, filling in for the missing player,
while my right hand fakes the piano part,
and when the double-bass viol drops out,
then my left hand can grab onto the rest of the piano part.
So it isn't strictly what Schubert wrote,
and the purists would throw a tantrum;
but it makes it possible
for the four of us to play this quintet
and for it to sound good, if not magnificent.