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My Journey with Mozart

March 9, 2008 at 4:08 AM

Whew-my first blog. Actually, I had nothing to write about, but seeing as I am a huge fan and (hopefully) a huge member of V.com, I thought I had to write a blog.

Two days ago, my violin teacher gave me several assignments. I was to learn the Bruch Violin Concerto's second movement, perform Bach's G minor fugue in a month, take my barber concerto to a masterclass, learn Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and, to top it off, learn Mozart's Concerto No. 5. This, I was especially excited about. Ever since first hearing it several years ago on a recording with Itzhak Perlman, I fell in love with it. Since then, several more recordings have followed Perlman's into my 5 year old, 60 GB Ipod photo. These have included Kremer's, Mutter's, Bell's (I love this one), Manze's, and Biondi's.

As soon as I first looked at it today, my enthusiasm was dampened considerably. I am using the Barenreiter Urtext, because I love more period oriented performances (Check out Kavakos' vid of it on Youtube-very baroque like and stunning). I spent several hours fingering and bowing the first page. My favorites I put in dark pencil, and I put, in some cases, four or five more options in parentheses.

I glanced at the clock-12:00 PM. I had started practicing the Mozart at 10:00 AM. I couldn't believe that I had been excited to do the piece. Even the day outside reflected how I was feeling. Ironically, while I was diligently doing my scales and etudes, the day was bright and sunny. 5 minutes after starting Mozart, it got windy. One hour later, the sky darkened, and so did my mood.

Thankfully, I finished fingering and bowing it today, and finally worked on it. I will need help from my teacher, no doubt, but I will work hard on coming up with my own musical ideas.

I am also planning to write my own cadenza for the first movement-the Joachim is too romantic for my taste, and the Franko is crap. I will keep you posted on this.

Sorry if my first blog was really long, spelled out, and boring. I will hopefully be able to put pictures of my progress on the cadenza (if I work on it), and so forth.

Please comment on what I can do to make my blogs more interesting!

Brian

Not too long. Always great to read stories about what pieces you are working on, how you practice, what you feel like when you practice. Even painting the picture of the weather and your changing moods.
All very fun to read. Very inspirational to me.
It's best to write the things that propel you to write, whatever they are. Don't worry about your audience because everyone likes something different. Mostly, I just like to catch the unique self portraits that people paint when they write.
I thought this blog was interesting already--just the description of how you approach a piece for the first time and get in all the fingerings and bowings. I have been learning a lot of new music lately and just figuring out how to approach it is a challenge in itself.
Brian,
Great blog:-)

Doing your own fingerings will cause you to learn the piece in greater depth due to the tremendous effort and dealing with all the possibilities. Be particularly aware of string crossing and shifting points.

Remember — Mozart is a "tempest in a teapot." I believe that quote is from Enescu.
D.

You are doing a good job. The main thing is to talk about how you feel about what you are doing. Also, it is more interesting if you talk about your life outside of music. Emily Grossman and Karen Allendoerfer write blogs that I find particularly interesting. Look at how they do it.
Let me also add that Mara Gerety tends to write very imaginative blogs. She is another good example. Part of blog writing is showing that you have an active imagination.
I imagined that I practiced today... :)
Just be yourself. Don't pattern your blogs after someone else's. It's your chance to express yourself honestly.