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Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:20:31 GMT

A short entry but I have been trying to figure out the name of the Beethoven quartet that Heifetz coaches (on video) in his master class (he plays 1st violin in opus 18. No. 5 but only coaches the other one) so I started googling and came across the blog Magic Moments of violinist and pedagogue Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi. This is a delightful blog and includes Youtubes of her fine playing. I appreciate her astute observations on the state of the arts. Take a look. In the meantime , embarrassed that I don't know all the Beethoven quartets by hearing, I will take any tips.

Our future

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 02:23:57 GMT

Tomorrow is a big day. It's time to take stock of what is important to music and musicians. It has been clear as we watch orchestras fail, cut back seasons and reduce salaries that musicians have been hurting. School districts are cutting back on "frills". Families reexamine the cost of instruments and lessons As deficits mount no one can have any illusions about government becoming a significant source of funding for music. It must come from philanthropy and from audience ticket sales--both discretionary in tough times. Families find money for music lessons and instruments when they have steady employment. Schools have a tax base to support a whole education when property values are rising and pension expenses are reasonable. Our hope is a robust economy with deficits under control and incentives to all to work and earn, each according to his/her ability and aspirations. It's time to get back on track for economic growth. It's not only our best shot, it's our only shot.

Delete the tracks: Live or silence

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:43:48 GMT

I went to the symphony last night. They started with Brahms Tragic Overture. It brought back a flood of memories. I recalled the first time I ever heard it. I remembered how I got the ticket, who gave me the ride, the drive home and much of the rest of the program 45 years ago with the Phoenix Symphony and conductor Guy Taylor. The memory of those two opening chords is still big and immediate. Last night's performance was very good but I won't remember it. The German Requiem was also on the program . Also an excellent performance but I spent the time wishing for this sound here, that tempo there etc. etc. The problem? I have heard these works so many times that it is hard to get the same level of enthusiasm I had those years ago when I owned a handful of LPs. I doubt I will follow through with deleting my tracks but I listen to recorded music less and less. Even the greatest music cannot continue to excite when it is available on demand and played incessantly. I resolve to make more live music and attend more live performances. I resolve to turn off the radio and the iPod more and more. If it isn't live it needs to be silent.

Those fabulous Hungarians

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:53:46 GMT

Here is the fabulous Illenyi family playing an arrangement of Paganini Caprice No. 24. Ferenc, the first man that you see, is a violinist in the Houston Symphony. His sister Katica seems to be quite popular in Hungary. Check out her other videos.

Feet and Mindfulness

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:42:54 GMT

Feet!? You don't need feet to play the violin. Indeed not and their are some famous examples of violinist who play brilliantly while seated.�

But this isn't about playing the violin except that it is.

In February the doctor said lose some weight. So I have been doing that. Fewer calories, more exercise. It is the only proven weight loss technique short of stomach surgery and I wasn't quite to that stage.�

So I spend a lot of time every day walking. No particular problems until last week when I got some sort of irritation on my little toe of the left foot. I just compensated a little and bamm!! I had some blisters on the ball of my foot near the big toe. This was painful. How, without feet, does one exercise enough to justify eating?

I suddenly have become very mindful of my stride. I don't run. I just walk. But I have become acutely aware of how weight is distributed across each foot over the course of every stride. Where does the foot make first contact? what is the balance between the left and right sides of the foot? does the weight shift over the course of the stride to the toes or do I pick the foot up as it passes over the ball? before that where is the center of the weight? Is it between the big toe and the next toe? one toe over? What about shoes? What about socks? etc. etc.�

What is the ideal?�

I only have questions. I knew how to walk in the sense of walking from my car to the Kolache shop but when walking is my daily path to good health I have had a sudden loss of confidence. �I am beginning to wonder if I should take walking lessons.�

But this has focussed my mind. Clearly one can focus on one thing and cause even more problems somewhere else. �

How much more true this is in playing the violin! We get a small pain and we compensate in ways that make a large pain. We have to focus to learn but we also have to unfocus to play.�

My favorites: The Hungarians

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:54:56 GMT

& nbsp;I know Katica's brother Ferenc, an outstanding violinist and a member of the Houston Symphony. & nbsp;There are 4 siblings and they all are virtuosos.

Lagniappe

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:05:32 GMT

�Lagniappe (pronounced here as lanyap) is a word we hear frequently in Houston. Its a Cajun word from Southern Louisiana and we have a lot of Cajuns here in Houston. The word means a small gift that a merchant gives a customer. Like the baker's dozen. It is frequently used in the context of �giving someone some slack. It is wiggle room or margin.�

How much wiggle room does a violinist need? I think the answer is -- a lot. I reported last week a performance of the Brahms C minor Piano Quartet for friends. It wasn't a disaster but it clearly wasn't the best I could do. What happened? I could play all the notes reasonably well. But when the pressure of a performance was on things happened. I took care to limit the range of possibilities for things to happen. The other performers are all professionals or professional level players. I practiced exhaustively for over a year. We had at least six rehearsals.�

But still it wasn't altogether adequate. I lacked lagniappe or wiggle room. A piece like the Brahms is at the upper end of my technical range. Not good. If you bought a recording or even saw a good Youtube performance of it the performers would not consider it at the upper end of their technical range. They would likely be performers who could play the Tchaikovsky Concerto in public from memory and receive resounding ovations. That isn't me.�

Many great players of the past were not known as big time virtuosos. Performers like Szigeti, Oistrakh, Elman and others were not known for playing Paganini or Ernst. In fact Jascha Heifetz didn't play a lot of Paganini in spite of his impeccable virtuoso qualifications. I seem to recall that Heifetz or a contemporary thought that mastery of Rode and Dont etudes were an adequate technical foundation for a solo career. Well these artists may not have performed these show pieces but there seems to be plenty of evidence that they included them in their practice routines. Oistrakh's students heard him play Paganini Caprices in master classes. Szigeti did not perform significant amounts of music that he commented on in his published works.�

It is clear to me that one must be able to play in private at a significantly higher level than one attempts to do in public. We need lagniappe. We need to be able to execute at a very high level.

My teacher studied piano at Eastman with the late Cecile Genhardt. She insisted that he practice his repertory in multiple key signatures. In fact he tells a famous story (at least it was famous at Eastman) of a DMA candidate in piano performance who came for his final jury. Ms. Genhardt asked him what he would play.

He said "a Beethoven Sonata".

She asked "which one"".�

"Which one would you like to hear," he cockily replied.

She named a sonata and he started to play it.

"Stop!" she cried. "It is so boring in that key". Please transpose it a minor third upward.

"No one can do that," he replied.�

Bad news for him. She hobbled down to the piano and sat down and played the first movement in the requested key. At the end of her performance she stood up and said in her Swiss German accent "floonk". His DMA dreams were dashed.�

I sort of hope that the story isn't true but in any event there is a lesson in it for me. You cannot expect to play something well until you have built yourself some serious lagniappe into it.�

I need to redouble my technical studies. I need earn some lagniappe.�

�

Our performance: a reflection

Sun, 02 May 2010 03:32:50 GMT

�Tonight I performed the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor. We did at at home. My wife, Andrea, was at the piano, My teacher played cello and a recent master's graduate of the Shepherd School of Music played viola.�

We had an audience of about 20 good friends.�

What went right:

1. We only invited friends

2. We had excellent refreshments catered by the violist's boyfriend. After the program conversation and sociability is always improved by good refreshments. We are an alcohol free home and some of our guests may have preferred a little anesthesia but that we could not provide.�

3. We had rehearsed fairly well and only one mistake (by me) in the last movement caused a breakdown. Sorry.

Lessons learned:�

1. A performance isn't a rehearsal. You can never know what may break in �shift or a fingering so you have to be able to do it anyway imaginable.

2. Teacher says that you have to perform frequently in order to be comfortable performing. He suggests that we do this at nursing homes and other places so that I learn to "perform".

3. Teacher says that you have to abandon yourself to the music. The minute one thinks of oneself the performance will suffer.

I am glad I did it. I am grateful for good friends who found some enjoyment in it. It wasn't an unmitigated disaster. There were some very good moments. The slow movement came off tolerably well. In fact the only major disappointment was my tone production for the extended violin passage at the beginning of the last movement.�

Slow practice

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:36:52 GMT

When I was a child my teachers always admonished me to practice passages slowly. So I did. I played it slower. So what!? It was slower. I did have time to ask myself what should I be doing while I was practicing slowly and the answer seemed to be just practice it slowly. It was an opportunity for day dreaming.

But now I have a better idea of what to do when practicing slowly.

1. Practice all the advance placements of prepared fingers. Also consider other opportunities for advance placement.

2. Keep track of where the first finger is at all times.�

3. Prepare finger patterns.

4. Anticipate string changes and string crossings

5. Listen for intonation errors. (No slipping and sliding)

6. Measure shifts to full completion of the shift.

7. Watch bow divisions (the bow is the hardest part of slow practice).

�

etc.

It turns out that slow practice really has some big benefits. It isn't an opportunity for turning your mind off and getting distracted but it is an opportunity to process a wider band width of technical instructions.

Career plans for musicians

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:18:41 GMT

& nbsp;I listened to a violin recital on BYU TV today of violinist Ben Chan. Ben is a computer science major. He played the C major fugue (Bach), Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Wieniawski Polonaise Brilliant and the Vieuxtemp Concerto No. 5. It was very fine. It will be broadcast again in the next few days and if you have U-verse TV you can record it on channel 567 (or see it on line at the streaming site. & nbsp;

The interesting thing about Ben is that he is a computer science major. I don't know him and don't know why he chose computer science but I find it telling that a young man of his capabilities is choosing something other than music. Could this become a trend?

He has his own Youtube channel. This has been posted on YouTube.