Chopin Op. 23, Ballade No. 1 for Tonebase "Summer Crescendo" Online Community Concert (Aug 31, 2024)

First "live" performance! (You can hear an audience member muting in the beginning.) I played "the heck out of" the piece, or did my best to. Sacrificed some accuracy in exchange for energy and drama, something that I started considering after watching many pros' live performances of Scriabin's famously dramatic Op. 8 No. 12 etude. The quote, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel," (Maya Angelou) seems to apply here, as in they will likely forget the notes/mistakes actually played but will remember how they felt listening to your music. Honestly, I'm just glad I didn't have a major memory slip / completely forget the piece, since that distracts so much attention away from the music and onto the performer.

I think one of the things that helped in the preparation process, was to decide in advance what I was going to prioritize. For example, in the coda and other virtuosic sections, I knew I probably wouldn't hit all the RH broken chord arpeggios well, because I knew I would probably be playing at a faster tempo due to excitement/nerves. But I could prioritize hitting the bass notes accurately and with more sound so that they would be heard even after rapid pedal-clearing of RH mistakes.

Of course I'm still going to drill the heck out of the cruxes, especially those RH sixths pre-coda - SO consistently accurate pre-performance and SO missing-in-action during performance 🙃

One of the audience members commented (in response to my mention of this as a 6-year project) that even if this is a lifetime project, it's well worth it. I completely agree!

Someone in the audience also mentioned that they looked forward to hearing me work on this piece at the Tonebase NYC Intensive in November... I hadn't thought seriously about bringing this piece to the intensive, but I guess I should! There's plenty of more work to be done, and it'd be nice to get more performance practice in-person.