Today (and the last week) has been quite a downer. I don't know if it's the traveling or the lack of sunlight, but I feel quite sad and angry. Or maybe it's the cold...weather and condition.
That's enough rant for now.
Listened to excerpts of the Janacek on Amazon. And if I wish to buy it as an MP3, I can. But I'm not sure I want to. The sound quality of the singers is um, a little nasal for my liking. (Very particular about good singers.) And it's the original version of the winds and piano. It's also interesting that the articulations are quite different and the tempos are slightly slower. Still it gave me a bit of confidence that I am fairly close to performing it decently next April. Now it's time to get to the next level. And it's time to rest it for a month and get back to it in the third week of December. (And buy the score in the meantime. There's lots of imitation between the singers and the viola.)
And the recording today? It was the Campagnoli caprice no. 31 again. I worked though most of the middle section and made nice progress. In spite of the fact that my mood was very stressed and sad, I was able to still work. Good because the mood is temporary but the work remains to be done regardless. In the past if I had a bad day, it would be frequently turn out to be a day of non-practicing. Sometimes it would even extend to a stretch of a few weeks. Not a great way to become an artist. The work and practicing should be for a lifetime and a process-not a goal in itself. After having children, I realized that it was important to practice every day even for a few minutes. Also it was important to always try to improve and learn new things to feed the artistic soul. These ideas sustained me when I was not allowed to work for almost two years. And now it still does with the new challenges facing me.
Looking forward to two things in the near future. This week I will be in an orchestra for a couple of Messiah performances. I have played it about 40 times and never get tired of it. The conductor will be first rate. And a strange surprise for the violist. In no. 11 (the bass aria "The People That Walked in Darkness"), the viola part has many *treble* clef, violin-range passages in this particular edition. Strange. Good thing for looking at the part ahead of time. The rest is easy and the violas are tacet quite a bit so we get to see the violinists do their gymnastics in the tenor aria.
Also thinking a lot about a new project after this one. Have decided on something and it is rather silly, but I need to do it. Relates to that always trying to learn new things issue. When it's ready to go, I'll let you know.
'Til tomorrow!
2 comments:
I know exactly what you mean about practicing regardless of mood.
I suffer a lot from the lack of daylight this time of year (and the cold, and the clouds). I realized I must not let those sour moods interfere with my practicing. Instead, when I'm really down, I just work on improving the quality of some of the lighter / simpler tunes and leave the complex stuff for a better mood.
It seems to work for me :)
I'm so happy to be able to read your blog again. We've been on the road and/or dealing with dial-up for the last few weeks.
I'm really inspired by your daily recording project. Mostly the "daily" part. It's frightening how quickly a day off becomes several before I realize if I'm not careful. There's such a sense of always being busy when you have kids.
Hope your day goes well!
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