Anxiety Attack in Church? Aaaaaaaahh......

[chopintod]

Well, I've got a recital tonight...playing Fant-Imp, and to make a long story short, I nearly fainted in church from nervousness.  (That combined with stress of leaving for college Thursday....aaaaaahhhhhhh)

I know the song well, but the one section near the end of the A part (where the opening theme is moved up several times, and then the several chromatic parts) frightens me...I always slow down dramatically, and every once in a while I'll trip my fingers up...

I feel relatively fine now, and I'm not really looking for advice on beating anxiety, but I am wondering if I can get some last minute advice on the chromatic sections...actually, I mainly just wanted to tell the story....

At least there's golf to look forward to tomorrow....

Terry

[pianistimo]

did you use the church setting to play your music first?  over the years i've found that church is one of the worst places to play solo classical piano.  for one thing, it is hard to find suitable solo piano music (not too showy, not too short, not too long, etc).  if i were to 'do it over'  i would simply choose music that i was able to use the music with (organ chorales, bach duets/with maybe flute or cello, popular christian solos jazzed up, vocal and instrumental accompaniment).  then, it is not an intense performance experience, but rather a praise experience (maybe even letting people sing with the music - if they know the tune).   

i've found maybe one or two piano lovers in church congregations - but, the rest think you're trying to play too difficult of music in church. they can't understand it. they don't enjoy it.  and, they probably don't 'relate' to the beauty aspect, and simply see the 'showy' side.  i've had people rave about a piece (played some beethoven) and then another person come up and say it was inappropriate?  so, i try to please the most amount of people now.  you can even take a poll  (or watch what kind of music is mostly played at that church) and see what the majority of people like.  usually, in church, it is semi-quiet music - if you know what i mean.  sometimes praise music is louder, but it's still relatively quiet.

maybe, for a concert, you could play in the evening sometime.  then, you could also take donations (either for yourself or for the church) and have the recital type atmosphere you need to concentrate.  (when you hear babies crying and people shuffling around - it's hard to play difficult music well).

as far as the nerves - i would take more calcium (say in a banana milkshake) about 1/2 hour before recital.  (or less - if you don't mind the mustache)

chopin is one of the more difficult composer's to perform well because the music is so fast and furious and one miss of the fingers and you have to either re-start a section or figure things really fast.  i would say, play at a comfortable speed.  don't try to be a speed demon.  people enjoy you getting through the piece and not stuck and going over and over a section.

ps are you going out-of-state for college?  happy travels either way. 

[mikey6]

I Played the Shostakovich dmin Prelude and fugue once in church -it went down rather well .
As for memory, try memorizing your fingering or at least which finger is on which note at the main downbeats.

[lau]

after the is moved up and there is those 2 chromatic runs then the third long run. I can never play the long run in public... ah, it sucks