Do you remember, dear readers, what result we get if we mix the three following words: Music, Sunday and sadness? In case that you don't remember, now is the perfect moment to refresh your memory. The result is #SadSunday, a post where you can listen to mostly sad, but not just that sad kind of music. And I have to refresh my memory too... the day almost passed, and no word was written still for this edition of the series.
I have to improve my memory because of some other reasons too. I promised myself yesterday evening that this Sunday will be a day off. You see, I forgot that. I also forgot to apply sunscreen and we were outside in nature, in the mountains by the lake. The sun was shining brightly... so I got a little sunburnt. Ouch. Maybe as I am a musician, so we keep forgetting things and later remembering them. For example, a great pianist, Maria João Pires, experienced a quick "memory test" with one Mozart concerto. I already mentioned it to @holisticmom, in one of her posts.
So, Maria prepared another piece to play, and on the stage, when the orchestra started to play the introduction, she realized that she got it wrong, that is not the music piece she thought they will play. Panic? Desperation? Sadness? You can watch the video here so you can see her worried face. When I watched it, I was worried too haha although I knew that she would remember to play the other one. And that is exactly how it happened, in that orchestra introduction, she was able to remember and start to play the good piece.
However, I don't want you to remember this beautiful Portuguese pianist just through the video you have seen now. Also, we need something sadder, something like... Chopin. Let's press that small play button on the next video and enjoy her delicate performance, creating perfect music phrases and achieving the singing notes on the piano. That last quality of piano playing is not easy to accomplish. But having the idea in the mind, patience and the ability to listen to produced sounds gives such a result as this interpretation. Enjoy in Nocturne in E minor, op 72 by the composer Frederic Chopin:
What do you say, sad enough for this post? No, right? But if I write you one sad fact that some pianists can face, you will feel maybe a little bit of that emotion, sadness. If you are a pianist, you want to have big hands that can play with energy large chords, octaves and give as much power as you can when you play. However, Maria João Pires has small hands, so it is difficult to play some late Beethoven sonatas, or technically demanding works by Liszt or Rachmaninoff. So what else, then choose a repertoire that is suitable for smaller hands. Like Scarlatti, Mozart, Bach...
Here comes Bach's French Suite No. 2 in C minor. Heaven on the earth? This suite and her interpretation. My favourite part of this suite is Allemande. I listened to it countless times.
For the end, I will bring here a piece that is not in the mood of sadness. It is just infinite beauty through the sound of the piano and notes that came out from the heart of Johann Sebastian (yes, again Bach). This is the second movement of his Concerto in F Minor, BWV 1056. I played this concerto too, and it was more challenging than it can be thought at first glance... Not the technique, but the phrasing and achieving an elegant sound, accompanied just by "pizzicato" notes by the strings. Have some nice moments listening to it (her playing starts in 0:23) and if you want, let me know which piece you liked the most, played by this Portuguese pianist lady.
source of the cover photo.