i listened to alicia de laroche play and enjoyed it. i must say, as a christian, that i think erotic music to me means not just two bodies but two minds working together. i'm glad to be married because i think that music does have a deeper meaning when you think about something sort of intangible like love.
i hear naked notes when i play samuel barber's nocturne. if you only play the left hand, the right hand is sorely missing. when you put them both together, they work sensually (caressing different rhythms, harmonies, and stretches of the hand). i never thought of this before i saw this site. i kind of thought 20th century music was very cold.
cycles of life such as youth/exhuberance, falls/maturity, wisdom/children/knowledgethroughstudy, second wind (that's right now)/seeing things not just as they are from our point of view - but much better through another's eyes, and finally closing down/getting near death/dying. that whole process is somewhat sensual. i would say that giving birth and dying are two elements that are brought into composers music. very serious music can be very sensual since it is "giving birth" to an idea slowly. and, music written in a composer's last days (ie mozart's requiem) is very "erotic" if you want to call it that.
erotic can take on different connotations. i think one, for me, is "the unknown." some pieces of music don't have a simple structure or form and meander. such as pieces written to describe water, rivers, oceans. i like watching animal planet, too, and find movements of certain animals such as are in the cat family very purposeful to saving energy for the chase. then there's the chase. then retreat. in piano, i see this too, with very difficult pieces- a sort of saving of ones energy for the more difficult sections, but a very real need to relax at the exact same moment as all that energy is exerted (otherwise muscles become tense and cannot move fast).
i think younger students should save their sexual energy and piano is a good outlet for expressing all your feelings (passion, happiness, sadness, whatever) without danger. "forbidden" in music isn't really "forbidden." i try to always work my repertoire, and then something really really hard (sightreading or learning slowly). it is doing something you haven't done before.
for professional artists, i notice that people such as Andre Riu put passion into everything. that is personal ENERGY. if you watch someone just impassionately playing a fast piece (or slow) it is boring. i think energy, emotion, feelings, that must be the part that engages the audience into "your realm." it's part teasing, part give and take (knowing what music they like, and what you like), and part letting go in some places without fear of mistakes and playing as fast and light as possible or as slowly and with much feeling as possible. it is interesting to watch audiences.
Topic: Erotic Piano Pieces