Have you ever had a pathetic perfomance ?

[kghayesh]

Because i have just returned from one my most pathetic performances, i just wanted to share this with you and see if anybody has had similar bad days or not.

My problem was that i didn't rehearse on the piano at the hall the day of the concert. I only had one rehersal a couple of days before the concert, and it wasn't good enough.

To my surprise, when i enter the hall and sit on the chair i find it is too low. I have to extra lift my hands to play properly, which was ridiculous. It nearly took half of my concentration during my performance.

Add to this, cold hands and stiff arms. I was playing Chopin's 1st Ballade !!! So, you can just imagine the endurance needed. But with a low chair and unwarmed up hands, it was really a pathetic performance.

Surprisingly enough, i got good feedback from the audience. But i am sure this is because they just don't know the piece or because it was the technically most challenging piece performed tonight.


I just wanted to share this and see if anybody had similar experiences.

[thorn]

yeah i have... my a level recital... i played both piano and flute which was the problem... did piano first and that went well...

then when i went onto flute my hands were all sweaty and used to piano playing, my mouth was dry because of nerves so i couldnt tongue properly and to top it all off i was playing Jolivet's Chant de Linos (if there are any flautists here who know it)... it was a total mess...

when i got the exam marks back... i got like A for the piano section and C for the flute part which dragged it down to a B

it's good that you got good feedback though.... maybe it didnt go as badly as you thought it did? we all have off days... unfortunately some of them are when we have to perform :/

[Mozartian]

A better question would be did I ever have a performace that was NOT pathetic.

I AM THE QUEEN OF PATHETIC PERFORMANCES AAHHHH

 

[jre58591]

im about to give a pathetic recital on may 21st. i can guarantee that it will be more than pathetic.

[bench warmer]

Sometimes "pathetic" is only in the performers head.
 My wife & I once attended one of Artur Rubinstein's last recitals. He started playing the Chopin Scherzo #2, got about a third through it, stopped, looked at us in the audiece and said, " I'm sorry I didn't start this very well and I'm not happy with it. I hope you don't mind but I'd like to start this over again" And he played it all again from the beginning!
 Well I'd be happy to  play that Scherzo  how he played it when he thought it was being played crappy!

[kghayesh]

A better question would be did I ever have a performace that was NOT pathetic.

I AM THE QUEEN OF PATHETIC PERFORMANCES AAHHHH

Looks like we have some company here!! Come on tell us some stories about your pathetic performances. I need to feel i am not alone 

[crazy for ivan moravec]

here's my story:

i study in Manila and i grew up in Capiz (a province like 40-minute plane ride away from Manila). immediately after my first recital (Sept. 2003) in Manila as a junior college student (we're required 3 recitals for BM), i started to have pains with my LH (tendonitis, mild), and it was already too late to cancel the homecoming concert ( October 2003) i was about to do in Capiz. i couldn't practice well because of fear that my hand will worsen, so i thought that 1 hour a day was more than enough and that i needed more mental practice than physical anyway.

hehe, so comes the big day... all went well actually except for.... the opening piece, Bach Partita in a minor. i lost my way in the first movement, the Fantasia, i was like going from one spot to another, trying to find my way out. but i never stopped. the thing with me is i don't stop when i have memory slips. but it must have sounded awful!! hahaha

another factor was the piano, really bad piano, half way down the keys was too soft compared to the other half of the keyboard!#@$@%

[pianistimo]

you are very talented if you do not stop for memory slips in bach.  i really like your postings in the audition room.  guess it is always important to have thought these things through and have a spot or two to start on every page.

[crazy for ivan moravec]

thanks, pianistimo.

my teacher always taught me to memorize by building blocks: measure by measure, phrase by phrase, system by system, then page by page. that way, you'd have lots of pick up points in case you lose your way somewhere. basically, you can start on any measure without hesitation. it's great to be secure that way, although i haven't been that secure most recently, hehe.

[kelly_kelly]

Yes, I've had a "pathetique" performance- I was playing the last mvt and I completely missed the ff chords  . What was even more pathetic was that my teacher didn't notice (pathetic on my teacher's part, not mine, though).

[tee_dee_es]

a pathetic performance? hmm, dont know. once in a competition, i played the opening bars of a french piece, stopped at measure 10, and walked off the stage. not sure if you call it a performance?

[crazy for ivan moravec]

how about lliterally looking for the correct chords of the opening of the schumann concerto for about a minute, scratching my head a the same time?! hahaha, this happened when i had to play for a studio performance class during my hell week in one of the semesters.

[Mozartian]

Looks like we have some company here!! Come on tell us some stories about your pathetic performances. I need to feel i am not alone 

Imagine being nervous beyond all belief and multiply that by 42.

 

[kghayesh]

Imagine being nervous beyond all belief and multiply that by 42.

why especially 42 ?

[Mozartian]

why especially 42 ?

Because it's the answer.

...

[mutedstring]

yeah... cold hands esp in cold weather...  My hands tend to get cold easily in winter... and a public performance just makes it worse... =(

how to solve that?

[elisianna]

Hahaha oh yes! XD  I was performing something one time... a bunch of people heard me practice beforehand and they were giving me compliments on how much emotion I put into the piece when I played... but when it came time to perform, I felt so much pressure that I messed up more than I can even describe... (I've actually pretty much forgotten it.)

Later that year, my teacher was having a super casual recital with his advanced students and I had to play the same piece, plus two others.  The other two I played fine, well the first one was fine, the second I surprised myself and played well and the third... well I started remembering my horrible experience.  It was funny though, I don't like to perform with sheet music in front of me, and till that point I hadn't, but I kept the music on the side of the piano "just in case".  I got halfway through the piece, suddenly got so completely nervouse and forgot what I was doing.   After I pause, I let out a loud sigh and sifted angrily through my sheet music until I found it.  I stuck it in front of me and I believe the rest of the piece was just fine.

Later on my dad, who was the only one in my family who attended said that I looked EXTREMELY angry while playing the last piece.  When I was complaining to my teacher the next lesson about my miserable performance he said he thought it was FUNNY and so "me" to have just opened up the book and started playing.  I sure am glad the recital wasn't anything serious...

My very first recitcal was the worst though.... I had been playing for a year and a half and was playing a grade 8 (RCM) piece that I HATED.  It sounded to bloody annoying and it jumped around a LOT through the WHOLE thing. XD  I was so nervous then that my entire body from head to toe was shaking a LOT and it was visible too...