Just had a recital a few minutes ago!

Well, the recital went pretty well I think. This wasn't that formal, it was held at my house, and all of my teacher's students (most of them younger than I) performed. Surprisingly, Fur Elise was not played. However, we still had mvmt 1 of the Moonlight, Elfin Dance by Greig, and other such standard peices you'd hear at such a recital.

My older brother started out the recital with mvmt 1 of the Appasionata sonata, which went pretty well (nerves got to him on a couple of the hard passages).

The first peice I played was Mendelssohn Gminor concerto 1st movement, with my teacher as the orchestra. Unfortunately she forgot her glasses and didn't play as cleanly as would be desired. I started out the concerto being a bit nervous, mostly acting out of pure reflex, so that opening section by me wasn't as clean as it usually is (i.e. the octave and broken chord runs). Then I got it under control, and the rest went fine except for one really frustrating memory error on my part in one of the easiest and most random sections near the end. I am feeling pretty confident for the audition for a concerto concert coming up in December or January.

Then some other students played, and I got up again and played the Chopin's Butterfly etude and Brahms Gminor rhapsody. The etude was pretty good, just maybe one noticeable glitch near the beginning. That's a scary peice to perform because it is crash and burn if you mess up. The Brahms went well, and I had the most confidence performing it, whiched helped a lot.

To conclude the recital, my brother played mvmt 1 of Greig PC. My teacher again didn't play very cleanly the orchestra part, but my brother did really well (he nailed the cadenza). Then there were yummy refreshments, which I am still eating as I type!

Looking back, this was one of my better recitals, I didn't get as nervous as I usually do, my legs weren't trembling quite as much as last recital. I beleive this is due to my preparation and confidence coming into this recital--I expected myself to play well, and so I did.

There's a thread asking what you think about when you perform...well, let me tell you. On the Mendelssohn, my mind wasn't very focused, and I was thinking about pretty random stuff. Lol, i was even thinking about whether or not to post anything on this forum about the recital when it was finished! I didn't have very much time to think during the chopin, it's only a minute long. Mainly I was focusing on relaxing my right hand and hitting the right chords in the left. On the Brahms, I tried really hard just to listen to myself, and hear how I sounded. I found this is really helpful: a.) I really got into the music much more than the other peices, b.) I was much more focused, c.) I hit the right notes, and i wasn't just relying on pure muscle memory and reflex.

I just thought I'd write down my thoughts about the performance while they were still fresh in my mind. I probably bored you all, but I like posting, so there

. Feel free to post analyses of your performances, I for one am very interested in reading about them.

Have a good night,
--Abe