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Asking for thoughts on learning repertoire

February 16, 2006 at 9:29 AM

Today-

Bartok 2 and Prokofieff as well as Bach G Minor. I'm laughing a bit now at the idea of learning Bartok 2. Why? In 1994 someone suggested that I learn both Bartok #2 and Szymanowski #2. I tried Bartok #2 in '98 and neither my brain nor my fingers could get around it. Now, however, some things are starting to click.

Why do we, as we get older, learn new repertoire? To challenge ourselves, to grow?
Honestly, I have not learned Tchakovsky or Brahms, but know Elgar, Barber, Khachaturian and Mendelssohn.

Auditioning, they ask to hear Brahms/Sibelius/Tchaik/Prokofieff/Bartok/
Mendelssohn/Glazunov...

Any thoughts out there? Parts of Bartok actually feel really EASY, but it also seems to be about a different kind of concentration.

I can tell you what it's like from my perspective.

I am thirty, delving into the world of concertos after a long break from the violin. I have been practicing diligently for about two years. It seems as if almost nothing comes simply, that every phrase, every run must be hashed out in great detail, assembled bit by bit, run through from start to finish, picked apart, and then rehashed. I do this for a long, long time before it even begins to become my own.

Once I have analyzed every fingering, every bowing, memorized all the details from every angle, then I am able to think creatively and use the piece to truly express something. At this point, I am "getting my brain and my fingers around it". Only after about a dozen practice runs with friends and about three performances can I really call it learned.

I have so many pieces sitting on the stove in a big crock pot, bare structures just waiting to be filled in.

It's really hard. It's harder than I thought, yet, not impossible. I was afraid that it would be.