Lately I have been going through sort of a spiritual journey when it comes to my violin. I know I´ll never be a top professional musician but I´ll always have my violin by my side and play it. I do not need to be a professional to love music and everything it has to offer.
Because music is so much more.
Music about creating and exploring, it´s about creating a world out of nothing but thin air.
It´s about giving the word sound a whole new meaning and making it beautiful.
It´s about having an amazing spiritual experience every time you play and/or hear music.
It´s about reaching for the utmost and the highest.
It´s about watching the joy of little children when they play and discover that they can make music.
It´s about seeing people come alive when they hear a beautiful piece.
It´s about singing in the shower at the top of your voice.
It´s about singing along with your friends in fellowship.
It´s about coming together and making music.
It´s about meeting amaizng people and having amazing experiences along the way.
It´s about realizing that our world is beautiful
It´s about realizing that the most important things in life can not be seen but must be felt with the heart.
Music is so much more than we can ever imagine. But that is why I love music.
The Bach A Minor concerto is a very special concerto to me. It's one of the best pieces I have ever played and it's also the first major concerto I worked on. I love all 3 mvt. but the 2nd one holds a special place in my heart and here's why:
I played the 2nd, mvt in the spring of 2008 after my teacher assigned me to it. I sort of liked playing buit I struggled with vibrato at the time and I also greatly preferred the 3rd mvt. at that time because it was faster and more exciting. But I went through it all the same. I was originally going to perform the 3rd. mvt in recital and was really excited but then I got terribly sick and couldn't practise for a week. And as I had been playing the 2nd. mvt. longer my teacher decided it'd be best for me to perform that mvt. Needless to say I was not very happy.
I first performed at my teacher's recital and frankly that performance didn't go alt that well. I was nervous and I didn't really like the piece so it was not one of my brigther days. Infact I kind of despised having to play it. But that was going to change.
Two weeks later I was set to perform it for the teachers at my music conservatory for evaluaiton. Unfortunaetly I had to perform it straight after an exam in school. The exam was math and I failed it epically and I knew it. So i arrived at my conservatory confused, angry, tearful and stressed. I whipped out the violin and proceeded to perform. I thought I performed terribly. My bow shook as if there was an earthquake and I missed an income and so many other things. I bawled my heart out afterwards and was in eveyr way in terrible spirit and determined that it was a mistake from the start that I played the 2nd. mvt.
But I was wrong.
My teacher called me several days later and told me that he thought I did a much better performance in front of the teaher than I did at his recital and he said I played it well and it felt as if the knew the piece better. Then I got the comment from the teachers:"Well prepared an a good performance". What i thought was a flop turned out to be a good performance. It was such a surprise!
Needless to say, after that I gained far more love for the piece than I had done before and when I got a CD with Anne Mutter playing it I played through the 2nd mvt. on the CD time and again and loved every second of it. It's now one of the best pieces i have ever played.
I did flop my math exam epically but I did not flop my violin performance and that instantly saw me through. So Bach turned put to be a true blessing for me.
And heree's my favourite recording of this wonderful piece
More entries: January 2010
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