Frank Bridge: Valse Russe for Piano Trio

[gvans]

We opened a rather long trio program with this brief yet beautiful piece by Frank Bridge.
We elected to play the rhythm straight, as it is a Russian Waltz, and not prolong the second beat at the expense of the third in the Viennese style.

Thanks for listening.

Glenn

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[rachfan]

Hi gvans

That was absolutely lovely! Great playing. The three instruments blended very well together, and there were good three-way sight cues as necessary to ensure an holistic rendition.  

And leave it to an Englishman to compose a Russian waltz.  It's a very beautiful piece that quickly ingratiates itself with the listener.

I realize that every hall acoustic is different, and that the piano cannot overwhelm the stringed instruments.  It appeared that in this venue the piano lid was down.  Most often do you put the lid on the short "singer stick"?

Congratulations on a fine performance, and thanks for sharing it here.

David

[gvans]

Hi David,

Thanks for your kind words re the Bridge. Yes, deciding on the stick is tricky. This piano had three options, very short (which we used, it only looks like it's down), short, and full. I've used all with chamber music. When I listened to a fellow pianist playing here with the violinist alone (the Franck A major), she was too loud with the full stick. For simplicity we kept the stick short for my portion, since I can really blast the piano when I wish.

Had an interesting experience this weekend...we were playing a concert at SDSU, and somebody closed the lid of the Steinway D we were using. I opened (the very heavy) lid for our trio portion (it was a lovely hall with perfect acoustics) and the piano moved and rolled over my foot. I'm not sure how exactly it happened, but I took a nasty laceration to my great toe!

We played our Brahms anyhow.

Glenn

[rachfan]

Hi Glenn,

Wow.  There is the old saying that "The show must go on."  But playing through the pain after the concert grand rolled over your foot had to be excruciating.  Sounds like a freak accident.  I hope that will heal up quickly for you. 

Best,

David