August 28, 2005 at 1:40 AM

Today at the end of practicing and again feeling pretty solid, I recorded my Brahms exposition. Now I have a whole list of things to still work on, which is great because that was the point of taping myself--but it's still a little annoying that I couldn't just hear those things under my ear as I was playing. I listened first to write down all the details, and then a second time for a more general feel. And generally speaking, there are some weird problems with my rubatos and tempi. They just don't make sense. Not that surprising considering that I often play instinctively but don't plan things out well enough. So, right now my performance sounds decent but kind of off because I've been too obsessed with details to realize that the big picture is what will pull it together. I believe I'll probably have to do a lot of playing things straight, strictly in rhythm, and then altering just slightly, making sure rits are no more or less than they should be--things like that. I also listened to my Oistrakh and Szeryng recordings, and again noticed (besides the obvious fact that they are wonderful) what masterful conceptions they hold of the piece, and how their choices are generally undeniably appealing whether you agree with them or not because they make so much sense. I do not get that feeling from my own Brahms at the moment, and really think it's possibly the hardest concerto to make sound convincing. But, I now have literally hours of stuff to work on when I go at it again tomorrow.

August 28, 2005 at 1:40 AM

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