Catastrophic Practice lately

It’s January 2025. I’m planning to do Grade 8 ABRSM by the end of the year but the practice schedule has fallen apart. In a way, this was foreseeable; I travelled for a lot of November and most of December; access to a piano has been unreliable to say the least. But I have been home for almost 3 weeks now, and I have played just twice. I’m ashamed, especially given that I have a hard road ahead of me to do that Grade 8 by the end of the year. The pieces are a big step up and also, when I attempt to play them it is obvious that I have not been practising. But I guess it’s part of being an adult; a piano is not a pair of running shows and you cannot bring it everywhere you want.

I did touch one new to me piano during the holidays; where I was in France had a rather nice Gaveau, recent enough to have probably been built in Germany when Schimmel were building some of the French branded pianos. I must confess I liked it, but also, I had little to no confidence to play it.

So I need to tidy up some aspirations; get the Rameau back under some level of control, move further through Reverie. The least damaged of the 5 pieces I am looking at the moment was the Rachmaninoff and I wasn’t very far through that anyway so…For the Liszt and the Chopin, from which I should chose one, I was too cowardly to look at them. I did not look at the Chopin Ballade which is my escape piece. I merely battled with the Rameau and that was it.

Not practising is bad for me. It places doubt in my heart. Can I really aspire to doing these tests that no one else does outside ex British empire colonies? If I cannot manage Grade 8, what’s going to happen with those lovely pieces I was lining up for the diplomas. Am I faking it?

Am I just wasting my own time when I look at beautiful pianos, be they old French heroes or glitteringly shiny Steinways? Am I faking it?

So yes, the piano practice needs to get back into place, around work and around health management. I don’t know how this is going to work out especially if I insist on doing nothing, and reading (this may be why I have not played so much).

It’s 8pm on a Sunday night. I spent a good chunk of the weekend in the company of Alexandre Kantorow and now I want to play more Brahms.

it’s just, I have no idea when I’ll have time to do so.

Alexandre Kantorow, Brahms Festival 17-19 January 2025

Bozar hosted a Brahms festival this weekend and the piano concertos were being played by Alexandre Kantorow who already has coverage here. Today, he was in the company of the Belgian National Orchestra who were at home. Friday night’s concert was the Brahms 2 and Sunday afternoon was the Brahms 1. Both were sublime but I tend to lean a little towards the first piano concerto.

Both concerts were full, and I was up in a box rather than down at the feet of the soloist which is my preferred location. While I wasn’t totally lost on the orchestra pieces, the two piano concertos were absolute highlights. It’s also obvious that Kantorow is becoming a superstar, and it is hardly surprising. He was playing a Steinway and the sonority was exquisite, very bright and clean. I’ve always felt that the Steinway Ds were really reliable until I played a couple which didn’t quite do it for me lately. But the one in Bozar this weekend was a beautiful sounding instrument.

The second piano concerto on Friday night comes across almost as an autobiography to me; covering the dramatic ups and downs of Brahms’ life. Its second and third movements are amongst my favourite pieces for piano and orchestra.

I’ve never quite known what to make of the first concerto; it has a very long introductory phase, and then, the opening phrases for the piano are reticent, almost guarded. I’m always fascinated by the idea that he and Pyotr Tchaikovsky were completely overlapping and even shared a birthday although Brahms was 7 when Tchaikovsky popped out. There’s a lot in common, except the sound. They might both be romantics but that’s about as far as it is; they are both very distinctive.

I’ve always loved the third movement of the first concerto, and I’m pretty sure the first person I heard play it live was Barry Douglas. There is something quite imperious about Kantorow’s approach to it, however. I have never heard it played quite like that and yet, it was mesmerising.

He played encores at both concerts. I would love to know in particular what he played after the first piano concerto. I’m not saying I could ever aspire to play it, but I’d like to dream, anyway.