Cool keyboard music that is not piano

Maestoso from Symphony no 3 “Organ” by Camille Saint Saens.

As it occurs to me:

Saints-Saens conducts, plays and speaks

I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Rachmaninoff’s recordings and feel very lucky to have them. Saint-Saens died over 100 years ago and to be frank, this is not bad at all in terms of quality. It includes bits of Concerto 2, Concerto 5 and the Africa Fantasy (I really should look for the piano music of that).

There is, incidentally, a recording of Brahms knocking around as well which was done in 1889. I find it almost impossible to listen to from a music point of view – the sound quality is very evidently early. You’ll find it on YouTube. I went looking for the Saint-Saens because someone mentioned he was a very good pianist in his day. The recordings date from 1904, just 15 years after the Brahms recordings and they are a significant jump in quality.

Reminder: Updated ABRSM lists coming next week

ABRSM should be publishing the 2025-2026 syllabus on 4 or 6 June (I’ve seen both dates bandied about).

From what I can remember they did not make substantial changes the last time and I would be comforted if they didn’t this time either. I’ve selected pieces from the 23-24 lists for Grade 8; I have deadline of Dec 2025 to do the exam with that list. As Grade 6 has run late, I need to consider the possibility that Grade 8 will as well.

We will see.

Practice Diary 20240601

I play the piano, that’s what I do. And I am sorry for my neighbours at the moment, unless they like the same four pieces, then they are on clover.

It’s been a good week for the practice in terms of actually doing any. I now for the first time in a while have an 8 day streak again. Hopefully i will make that nine tomorrow.

Most of the work has focused on the grade 6 pieces. They vary between being tantalisingly close to being ready and completely screwed up. I don’t understand that last part. I’ve been playing 2 of them more or less correctly for the last 3 months. The other two, well one I took a four month break from but it’s generally okay these days. The problem is Solfeggio which varies between being 100% perfect and otherwise being a hot mess. Currently, I am in performance practice which is where mostly, I say my piece introducing the pieces (sometimes) and then play them all. I want to be used to playing them as a performance. But now and again I have to break off and work on a couple of sections of Solfeggio. That’s frustrating because while I feel like I’m not improving, objectively I am. But I cannot play all four pieces cleanly in a single shot.

This is somewhat annoying because I was supposed to be 2 months into Project Grade 8 by now, and a ickle bit of the way into ARSM (Brahms, you see….). There isn’t one place where things go awry all the time, there are several that occasionally cause problems. Mostly, I think, it is glitches not in my fingers, but in my brain. As I’m playing from memory, because I can remember faster than I can read (although that really isn’t a big deal for anything other than CPE Bach), it leads to some wry entertaining moments for me. I think part of this is hormonal; I have not had a period for nearly 3 months now.

Aside from that, there were dips into the Rachmaninoff but in truth I need to do some prematch analysis on all four of the Grade 8 pieces and also find a teacher for that and the diplomas. I am not sure I have the chops to push through those on my own.

I came across some discussion about pass rates for the FTCL during the week. I’m focused on ABRSM at the moment but in general their diploma repertoire lists overlap; one comparison I saw suggested that the FTCL did not require an essay of types. I’m not sure yet how I feel about that but basically since I would probably choose mostly the same rep for both, it won’t matter until I am close to considering doing the registration. It being the last of the three diplomas, it’s not going to matter for the guts of ten years, if even then.

But there was one comment which I cannot find substantiation for that typically, the FRSM had a pass rate of around 50% and the FTCL had a pass rate of around 30%. Whether I do one or the other, I intend to do Chopin Sonata no 3 (it’s currently on both lists) plus something else (check the goals list for options) and maybe, I won’t be too focused on the diploma by then but still go for the piece.

In other news, it transfers that for ARSM, the Fauré Barcarolle I mentioned in the context of Lucas Debargue’s latest album and recently acquired sheet music is on the repertoire list.

The way I work it is as follows, crazy as I am, is that once I am working Exam X pieces, I will start finalising the choice for X plus 1. For ARSM, if I get Grade 6 submitted any time soon (CPE Bach willing), I will start seriously working on the next four pieces (and not just the Rachmaninoff), and also start planning the repertoire for the ARSM. Now it seems, there are two pieces from my TBL list lined up for that. After that, I’ll probably tap Rach’s preludes and then I have some serious work to do to find some Bach or Scarlatti that appeals.

Random piano news

While I was looking up some YouTube links for the Releases of Note entry for Lucas Debargue, I discovered he was playing a piano I wasn’t familiar with. It’s a Stephen Paulello piano, a rather beautiful looking large concert grand. So I went looking.

The pianos are designed and built in France, and built to order no less. I’m not sure when I would ever accidentally get a chance to play one although I’ve played one of Chris Maene’s pianos, a couple of Faziolis and one or two of Marcus Hubner’s pianos as well. It would be interesting to try this one too as the sound on the Debargue album is beautiful. But apparently an appointment can be made to play at their workshop. It’s tempting.

Releases of Note: Lucas Debargue, Complete Piano Music of Gabriel Fauré

I realised I hadn’t flagged this when I was writing about more recent sheet music acquisitions. This is out and for me, it is an unexpected piece of joy. Gabriel Fauré’s solo piano music is a little undervalued I feel. The piece of music which I truly love is the B section from this.

Lucas Debargue plays Fauré

I haven’t come across many stand out solo albums this year – the top two albums of the year so far are duets.

This is, however, wonderful, and deserves a lot of recognition.

Newly acquired sheet music

I had a ninja trip to London last week and took a few minutes to hare up to the music department in Foyles. I was looking for a couple of things, one of which is not available at the moment but you might randomly find it somewhere that hasn’t sold all its copies yet. In Foyles, I was not so lucky. There was no copy of any of the Liszt works I want. Why I want them I don’t know; I don’t play much/any Liszt at the moment.

The other piece I wanted was Barcarolle Number 1 by Gabriel Fauré. There is an album of Fauré’s complete piano music knocking around which I don’t seem to have flagged but I will. Here’s the trailer:

Lucas Debargue – complete music for piano by Gabriel Fauré

Anyway, the taster which Apple Music released absolutely ages ago was the first barcarolle, and I want to learn it. I see it, I buy it. However, Foyles also had a transcription of Pavane, so I bought that too.

The Liszt that I am looking for are his transcription of Beethoven Symphony No 7 and the chorales. I don’t urgently need them but if I see them, I will pick them up. In any case, I will ninja to London again soon.

Missing public piano Brussels airport

The piano in Area A in Brussels Zaventem appears to have moved. This is sad.

There has also been a really nice upright at Gare Central in Brussels in a hall with wonderful acoustics. I haven’t had time to play it yet. But I have heard people playing it and it just sounds exceptional.

Practice Diary 20240526

I practised three days this week. This is a big improvement on most of the month of May which has featured a few weeks of nothing at all.

So, where are I? I’ve missed my April deadline for submitting the exam, and I won’t make the end of May either. But I am close and that makes me happy.

This week I worked primarily on the exam pieces, and one of the Grade 8 pieces.

Grade 6:

CPE Bach: = this is about 97% there. I make precision errors from time to time and these are really linked to how tired I am.

Mendelssohn: 99% there. Mostly clean playing.

Rebikov: this one is odd. Mostly, it is 100% there but when it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong.

Milne: likewise. Mostly it is 100% but when it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong.

I now practice all four as a performance and I have started practising the little speech I want to give introducing the pieces at the start of the exam recording too. That’s a bit nerve wracking to be honest.

I had intended to use the Steinway I occasionally hire for the exam recording but it is mostly not available until August, so I will more than likely wind up recording it at home on my digital Kawai. That’s a little disappointing.

In addition to that, the Grade 8 piece I looked at today (only today, I’m afraid) is some Rachmaninoff. I will have to sit down with a recording of it and do a few read throughs. It’s in the key of D flat, and that’s just a little challenging.

I realised today that since I had finished memorising the Grade 6 pieces (I will play from memory), I wasn’t reading much music and this is detrimental to the progress I made reading earlier in the year. So I want to resolve that and while I have to read the Rach, I need to do some easier to swallow stuff. I need to pick up the 40 piece challenge I started at the beginning of the year. In fact, I cannot believe it is almost the end of May. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I’ve missed practice. It’s been hard as I’ve been away from home quite a lot, and I’ve otherwise been tired. I’ve also picked up reading and drawing again. This makes a difference in terms of available time – don’t call this an excuse – the reality is many people have struggles on available time. Nevertheless, I spent 40 minutes at the piano today and more than 2 hours yesterday. I’d like to go back to doing at least an hour a day. We’ll see how this week shapes up.

20240520 Practice Diary

Let’s be honest. The practice has fallen off a wagon lately. Admittedly for 2 weeks I have been travelling. So I think there was only one practice session in there. It was alright given I haven’t been playing much. I also played at the Airport in Amsterdam.

I would have played at the airport in Brussels but the piano in Area A is GONE. NOOOOOOOOO. I hope the one in B is still there. I’ll check the next time I am flying outside Schengen but as I tend to exit Schengen in Amsterdam lately….Oh well.

Someone left a book of movie themes at the piano in Amsterdam though so if you are looking for Chariots of Fire, there you go.

Now that it occurs to me, I used to have a copy of Chariots of Fire when I was a teenager. It didn’t turn up the last time I went through the piano music at home.