February 18, 2004 at 9:32 PM

Im really glad hilaryhahn.com is back up, I really enjoy reading her journal entries.

Hey, good news! I got a new job for more money (yea me), also the old job let me have my last two weeks off and that means more time to practice. Ive been playing alot of scales and Bach on violin and play until my hand or arm gets tired. I play major and minor in all keys about 20 times with each scale and repeat 5 times, up and down one position and then shift until i have played all the way up and down the fingerboard. I have also been trying suggestions from Simon Fischer's book "Basics" about vibrato, they havn't helped much but I keep trying. Then I play Bach on guitar for about 20 minutes. Then I play more scales and Bach on violin and repeat the cycle for about 5 hours.

Its good to have the time to devote to musical discipline again, even if its only for two weeks, I'm savoring every minute of spare time I have been given. I love my new bow too, makes alot of my old "mistakes" disappear.

Been going to library also, many new cds and about 15 books about Brahms (one of them has his translated letters), Im I'm collecting facts about Brahms and his concerto out of personal curiosity and will put something up on my web soon so that I can show it to other people but mostly its for me to organize the facts and so it will be there incase I want to read it again.

Currently I'm listeing to Saint Saens Cello Concertos and Sonatas, that man is so amazing, I can say without hesitation once again that I prefer the music of Saint Saens to even Beethoven and Mozart! Also listening to piano sonatas and ballades of Brahms, cello sonatas of brahms, and piano preludes and etudes of Debussy. Also, another discovery is the Plentev at Carnegie Hall CD where he plays the Bach Chaconne on piano, very interesting. I love Plentev's tone and he has many interesting ideas with respect to dynamics, tempo and rubatos. He is very expressive and his technique is amazing but the chopin scherzos seemed too fast, the Beethoven sonata was amazing. He seems a little more of a virtuoso/prodigy type than someone more focused on musicality to me but I really enjoyed listening to him, a real master.

Also entertaining the thought of a black hole that was seen ripping a star apart, science can be so cool.

Random thought:
Why isn't science spelled sceince? Isn't the rule i before e excpet after c? Since this does not apply, why make a rule in the first place?

...nevermind, I never liked grammar anyways!

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

February 18, 2004 at 9:32 PM

Subscribe

Laurie's Books