Spring Recital Update

May 8, 2006 at 8:19 PM

Whew! It's over. I played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto e minor 1st movement this Saturday at my teacher's student recital. I had been working on this piece for over a year already and polishing it the last few weeks incessantly. I know that my family is probably sick of hearing the concerto, but I just love the musicality of it.

As it turned out, I read all about performance anxiety from this board, and the Oliver Steiner page, and decided that it was okay to be nervous and jittery, and that I would not play it as well as in practice, and that I would miss a few notes. And funny thing is that I was not as nervous as before and actually ended up enjoying the piece. I was the last student, so you can imagine that if I had been obsessing on each detail and fearing that I'd miss each passage I would have had plenty of time to stew about it. Instead I did enjoy the rest of the recital, and when it was my turn I was pretty calm. Too bad that my two friends who showed up could not stay, as the recital started late and was very long. But my family was there, and most of all I really enjoyed the piece. I did miss some notes, and a chord, yes, it's always where you never miss during practice and can't believe why you changed your fingering and missed. But since I was not demanding perfection, I just went on and kept going.

I also found it helpful to not practice that much on the day of the recital and just go about my normal activities. I did take an Aleve and an Allegra right before, so that my allergies and any sore muscles would not act up. Wouldn't have wanted to sneeze or cough during my playing.

From Karin Lin
Posted on May 9, 2006 at 4:33 AM

We'll make your next recital for sure. :)

From Terez Mertes
Posted on May 9, 2006 at 4:41 PM

Ooh, you performed AND you enjoyed it w/o too much nerves. Doesn't get better than that!

From Clare Chu
Posted on May 9, 2006 at 8:01 PM

Considering that my first recitals were disasters, because when I missed a note I would stop all flustered and forget where I was. That happened to me twice in one piece! It helps to imagine that you're just playing a part and that it's the music that's important and is a speech to be delivered, rather than me being the focus. However can't say I'll be calm next time. This concerto I played as a child in a recital many years ago, so there is that familiarity and memory somewhere tucked in. Next I want to try something really difficult, maybe Tchaikovsky or Barber. That'll be a challenge because I've never played before.

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Spring Recital Update

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