Can you share your recent successful performance?

[dora96]

Hi all,

I have heard plenty of doom and gloom in the piano recital performance. Do you have any new and exciting performance that make you exhilarated and inspired you so much. If you have that sort of wonderful experience, can you share your preparation and your emotion before going to the stage? How do you prepare yourself and give the best performance. What is your state of mind at that moment? How do you make yourself not to nervous and besides yourself? What do you feel about the audiences' applause after the concert ? I am looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you

[gyzzzmo]

- I dont want to share any emotion/preparation before going on stage
- I prepare myself by playing pieces a like before going on stage, and sometimes i play some hard parts staccato from the performance
- My state of mind is 'music'
- I'm not the nervous type
- The applause is nice, but i always want to go away from stage asap, because i dont really need the audience their judgement, afterall i know the piece alot better then they do and i'm the one who knows if it was really good or not

Maybe that idea of 'the audience are a bunch of musical dumbasses' are the reason why i'm not nervous at all for any concert. works for me.

Gyzzzmo

[richard black]

OK, here's one - I accompanied a dear old friend (and her husband and one friend of theirs) in a charity concert the other day, supporting a charity which had helped said friend overcome very serious clinical depression. The venue was a school hall with a just-about-serviceable piano, and most of the audience were certainly not regular classical concert-goers (which is something I like, frankly). We played a programme of more or less popular classics and a few lighter numbers, which we'd prepared on an absolute minimum of rehearsal time, so there was the odd minor moment, but the audience LOVED it and frankly so did we, most of the time at least. We got a standing ovation and raised lots of money.

[franzliszt2]

- I dont want to share any emotion/preparation before going on stage
- I prepare myself by playing pieces a like before going on stage, and sometimes i play some hard parts staccato from the performance
- My state of mind is 'music'
- I'm not the nervous type
- The applause is nice, but i always want to go away from stage asap, because i dont really need the audience their judgement, afterall i know the piece alot better then they do and i'm the one who knows if it was really good or not

Maybe that idea of 'the audience are a bunch of musical dumbasses' are the reason why i'm not nervous at all for any concert. works for me.

Gyzzzmo

What if you play to a musical audience? Like if you play in a conservatoire performance class, where every single person in the room is a pianist? And there are probably some very fine pianists in the room. I always assume that some people in the audience will be very fine musicians, or lovers of music and becasue of that, they make me nervous becasue I feel a certain duty to make them enjoy the music I perform. I actually prefer playing musical audience, becasue I know that if I play well, they will appreciate it. I hate playing for non musical audiences, simply becasue they will always go WOAH at a fast section, and will enjoy a slow passage for about 30 seconds...and then switch off (no matter how well you play it). I mean the extreme case of unmusical audience....like when I was at school and had to play for the church goers, and they were the most unmusical bunch of people, and that used to depress me.

[gyzzzmo]

What if you play to a musical audience? Like if you play in a conservatoire performance class, where every single person in the room is a pianist? And there are probably some very fine pianists in the room. I always assume that some people in the audience will be very fine musicians, or lovers of music and becasue of that, they make me nervous becasue I feel a certain duty to make them enjoy the music I perform. I actually prefer playing musical audience, becasue I know that if I play well, they will appreciate it. I hate playing for non musical audiences, simply becasue they will always go WOAH at a fast section, and will enjoy a slow passage for about 30 seconds...and then switch off (no matter how well you play it). I mean the extreme case of unmusical audience....like when I was at school and had to play for the church goers, and they were the most unmusical bunch of people, and that used to depress me.

I've been 'lucky' enough to always be better than the listeners, also when playing at conservatories (i havent done conservatory, but did do some concerts there and masterclasses). But that doesnt really matter for me since i'm probably more demanding towards myself than the audience 'demands' from me.
But i prefer playing for a musical audience like you, because they at least know what to appreciate and their applause means more as a confirmation when a performance went well.

And when i have to play for a unmusical audience..... I've always enjoyed the music, the piano and the atmosphere in a decent sized concert hall. So audience never manages to depress me, the only thing that depresses me is when the music isnt going like i want it to go

Gyzzzmo

[dora96]

I have quite lots of interesting and fun performance among the general public. It is true that performing classical music to unclassical audiences, it can be non threatening and  can escape the criticism because they don't know what the heck that you are playing. It looks very clever and sounds wonderful to their eyes and ears. I always feel depressed after they applause me for such as wonderful performance, and deep down I know that it is dreadful, the music goes too fast, out of control and so on. However, I don't care anymore because it is all entertainment anyway.

When I watch Lang Lang's performance. He looks so enjoy and having a ball. I just wonder how to get this sort of performance and confidence despise what people criticize  him.   How does he get this sort of spirit?   

[gyzzzmo]

When I watch Lang Lang's performance. He looks so enjoy and having a ball. I just wonder how to get this sort of performance and confidence despise what people criticize  him.   How does he get this sort of spirit?   

Probably because of the 1,2 billion Chinese, all clapping and jumping in perfectly order. Plus fame comes from the masses, not from those few who actually know what 'beautiful music' is.

gyzzzmo

[richard black]

Hang on, what's so threatening about playing to an audience of expert musicians? Aren't they the ones who understand - both the music and the performer's 'little moments'? If you play badly, they just think, 'oh, that's a shame, so-and-so played badly' but at least you aren't going to risk putting them off Beethoven for life!

[quantum]

There was one in the summer.  I'd been preparing for this concert for months.  It was a fundraiser for MS society of Canada, and I had to play a good chunk of the concert.  Mostly really difficult chamber music, plus one piano solo.  Less than a week before the concert my cousin suddenly passed away.  We were close. 

I thought of canceling, the organizer said he completely would understand if I did.  That would have left them minus 40 or so minutes of music.  Family encouraged me go ahead with the concert.  To think of offering the music in her memory.  Finding a substitute pianist would be a tall order for such difficult music which had taken me months to learn.


The tragic event somehow took away some of the nervousness I had to some of the pieces.  I didn't think about it that much.  Preparation towards the concert was steady up til the last week.  I ended up not going to the dress rehearsal and canceling a practice with the Soprano.   We showed up hours before the concert to practice the chamber music in the space.  At that moment, my training just took over.  Think about the music, interpret it, deliver a message, listen to your fellow musicians, adapt to their playing, etc.

Had some time after practice, just a little, to admire the beauty of the church architecture and acoustics, while other performers warmed up.  Had to set up my rec equipment too. 

My mind was just too filled at that time to even think about nervousness.  When it came time to play I just thought of the music.  The audience seemed to like the contemporary music, some were just piano moms and dads, some were composers (who's pieces I played).  I probably was thinking of how well I served the music. 

I posted an excerpt of this concert earlier on:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,30891.0.html

[tds]

my gibberish that may not be of value...haha

my feeling after concert:

ok, here we go. i've never given a concert that i am entirely satisfied with. in fact, most of the time, i thought they were somehow below acceptable standard. but funny thing is that there are my point of view of my performance, and there are opinions from critics, friends, family and audience. do i find discrepancies between these views? quite often! - sometimes slight, sometimes big. sometimes quite similar to how i feel, but occasionally, they differ so much that they can be confusing-as if we were discussing about two completely different matters.

practicing:

when practicing i try to focus and work as methodically as i can. this is not a "fun" nor exciting stage. i work seriously with a lot of sweats and occasional headaches. here i am at my "most analytical" mode. i try to understand as much as possible, drill as effectively as i can, apply as many methods as i can think of. slavery!

during performance:

i set myself on "pure enjoyment of music"/"fun"/"sharing beauty" mode. of course concentration and awareness of what has been learnt and practiced are there, but of less intense at this stage ( unless i perform a new, difficult piece that requires massive concentration!! )

preconcert moments:

moment before walking to the stage, i pray to God: "God you have your plan in me. what do i know?!!" and then its time to think about sharing music, having fun, loving ur audience, enjoying urself on the stage.

preparations:

I eat enough healthy foods before concert till 3 hours before the H hour. i dont eat anything unusual coz i do wanna get sick. i used to not eat at all, but this has proven to be bad for my stamina and concentration. i sleep enough several days before concert. i exercise regularly. if i give concerts in other countries where there is a big time difference, i try to arrive several days beforehand to get used to jet lag

another preparation thingy:

avoid ps.com and/or other internet forums/chats as much as u can. even tho u miss lucylucy