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To Liszt or Not To Liszt

At lunch today, I had the opportunity to hear a fellow student perform Liszt's Liebesträume. As you know, I've been working on this piece for awhile and, despite making progress, I've been thinking of dropping it in favor of more creative piano pursuits. I played it for a few minutes last night, and all I could think was, "ugh, ugh, ugh." How can it still be so sloppy (compared to Kissin's recording, at least) after so much intentional, slow, and loving work over the months?

Well, there's the fact that I haven't practiced it regularly since June ...

But still. Even though I love this piece more than just about anything, I want to move on. Last night, after ugh-ing my way through Liszt, I switched over to Jonny's lead sheets course ... and time disappeared. It felt like maybe 15 or 20 minutes, but suddenly my husband was home from his meeting and an hour had gone by. How on earth did I focus that hard for so long?

The Release

At some point during today's morning meditation, I breathed out the Liszt and let it go. It was time to move on, and I was at peace about it.

But then ...

Recital Reality Check

I listened to the young man playing Liebesträume at the student recital. He played it well ... but he didn't do the same interpretive things I do. He didn't play at the same tempo, and he didn't speed up where I would, or play with my same right-hand softness. He didn't take my pauses. His interpretation was fine and lovely, but it wasn't mine. And I thought, "My interpretation is important, too. Important enough to master and share."

So here I am, back in my To-Liszt-Or-Not-To-Liszt dilemma. I'm looking forward to meeting with Rebecca on Friday and am hoping she'll say the magic words that settle this--either "this has promise and you should continue it" or "um ... maybe you should take a break." Either way, I'll take her opinion seriously and go from there.

Meanwhile, Flying to the Moon

By the end of last night's practice, I was playing "Fly Me To the Moon" from a lead sheet, and even transposing to different keys! What's amazing is that, a few times, my fingers just seemed to know where to go without my telling them to go there. I guess all of my sevenths work last year, and all of my aimless 2-5-1 exercises in past years, are finally starting to pay off! I'm not where I need to be, but oh, I got a taste of it last night!

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