July 3, 2004 at 6:21 PM

July 3rd already. Wow! Where did June go? What did I do in June? It's flown by so fast I can hardly remember! Everyime I turn around there's something else to play at or look forward to or just things that need to be done. (like picking rasberries)

In the past week alone I performed Lark Ascending at one of my teachers recitals, accompanied my student at the same recital did a Canada Day Pops Orchestra concert then tonight I'm playing at the highland games as some of the evening entertainment. That's all in the last 5 days. When do I get a break? Actually, after tonight, other than starting at school on Monday, I'll be off from performing more or less, until the end of July. It will be nice to have that time to do some more focused technique practice and get some more of this repertoire down better.

I'm really in love with all this repertoire I'm working on right now. Such a wide variety fo styles and eras. The Ysaye sonata is starting to finally come along, I still have a bit of trouble hitting the tenths in tune all the time but I'm finding practicing some of those harder sections as double stops is helping get my precision and speed down. The Bach is coming along pretty good too. I love the E major Partita but was a little leary about learning the Preludio because it's such a popular one to do. I'm learning it for a group performance of it, it would be unlikely that I'd do it in an exam though, just because it is so popular and I don't feel as passionate about it as the other options I have to pick from. I'd rather do the Largo from the third Sonata or a Double and it's preceeding movement from the first Partita. All in all though, it is a fun piece and it's pretty! It's also probably one of the least intense of the solo Bach repertoire. It's kind of interesting learning it alongside Ysaye No. 2 and seeing how Ysaye uses the Preludio in the opening movement.

For my exam repertoire I've learnt a lot of pieces from all the lists, except a concerto. I've been doing the Mozart but it's from the next grade above. If I want to I can play that concerto but I don't feel it's the greatest representation of my playing and it's not really a "me" concerto. I was pretty set on doing the Korngold concerto (first and 2nd movements) but then I thought...maybe I should do Barber, it would show my musical side, but then I've been thinking wait, this exam is the one where they want to see your technical level and Korngold would be a bit more of a technical display. I'd have to pay extra to sub the Korngold as it's not in the syllabus but my teacher is alright with that the Barber is from the next grade up but you are allowed to play one selection from the following grade if you want to. The repertoire choices for this particular exam aren't very big, concerto wise. Their's a Viotti concerto, Bruch G minor a Mozart concerto, Sphor, Conus and that's it, I think with the acception of maybe one other concerto. Compare that to the next grade that has Bruch 2, and the Scottish Fantasy, Elgar, Sibelius, Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Khachaturan, Prokoviev, all the biggies and some of the lesser played ones, there's tons to pick from. So Barber or Korngold? hmm....I'm thinking Korngold would probably be a better choice for this particular exam. I just really don't know. It would depend entirely on if the examiner wants to hear what you can do technically or musically but I won't know that until 6 weeks after I've done the exam and have a results sheet back.

I think my break from practicing Kreutzer should be up now.

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July 3, 2004 at 6:21 PM

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