The story of Daniel's spectacular day

I had a spectacularly wonderful day today. :) My flute teacher had this wonderful idea to take as many of her students as could make it on a bit a of  "school tour". So this morning, we toured to two local elementary schools and played a short concert (about 35 minutes long) for them. It was really fun, and they were great listeners. I have to say that I was also impressed and appreciative that the teachers were willing to take time out of their class schedules to bring their students to listen. Music is always worth the time. We all went to Subway for lunch afterwards. Yay for Subway, (always my lunch-out place of choice). I went home and slept for 1.25 hours,  even though it was only mid afternoon. I was really tired for some reason, more than just mid-afternoon drowsiness. After my nap, I cut the grass, sang for a bit, made myself a good, strong coffee, and practiced some piano. After my mother reminded me that I was on supper-making duty, I made some delicious barbecued chicken, roasted potatoes and salad. I'm not just bragging, it really was tasty! Anyway, after supper, I got out my shirt and tie and headed off to the symphony. Amazing. The program included Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, Debussy's masterpiece La Mer ("The Sea"), as well as some other fantastic pieces, two of which were composed by Canadian composers. Brilliant stuff. The Debussy though, was just exquisite. Debussy never wrote a Symphony, but La Mer is the closest he got though. It's an incredible piece of music and just indescribable when heard live. It's so full majestic and full of life, and so beautifully textured and colourful. I found it pretty moving and inspiring. The concert tonight was exactly what I had been needing for a long while- a chance to reflect, get inspired and have a "night out" with myself. Ha. I feel ready to tackle new challenges and endeavours. All in all, a good day. Tomorrow- busking at the farmer's market, a talk/workshop about efficiency, and the last performance of Word Problem in the evening. Which reminds me that I haven't posted about Word Problem yet, so some of you won't know what I'm talking about. I'll blog about it soon. I promise. Until then, take care.

-Dan

Prokofiev's second piano concerto

Wow. I have been listening to Prokofiev's second piano concerto and it is amazing. It is definitely one of my favorites (mind you, that isn't saying much because it changes every couple of weeks.)

Did you know that when he first wrote it, it was very strongly disliked? One critic even went as far as to say:

"To hell with this futurist music! What is he doing, making fun of us? The cats on the roof make better music!"

Each to his own, I guess. I think that its a masterpiece. It was pretty futuristic for his time though, so I guess that man can be excused.

Done!

Done! I have finished my longest, best piece that I have composed. The second movement of my piano concerto, officially titled Piano Concerto no. 1 in G Sharp Minor-Andante. Ooh, doesn't that sound spiffy? Now, mind you, I say that I am done it, but in three months from now, or so, I will likely scoff at it and rewrite a lot of it. Oh well, I am pretty happy with it at the moment. On to movements 1 and 3!

Woot!

I am almost finished the second movement from the piano concerto that I am writing. Its always nice to finish a piece that you don't completely hate. And no, I haven't written the first or third movements. I wrote the second movement first because the theme just strolled into my head and I knew that it would make decent second movement

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #4

I listened to Rachmaninoffs' 4th concerto today. Its Rachmaninoff's least known and least liked piano concertos. It's a good concerto though, in my opinion. Perhaps one of the reasons that it isn't so popular is the lack of a really defined cadenza. I think that the cadenza is one of the best parts of a concerto. Its sort of the pianist's big solo, the chance for him to really give all he's got. The concerto as a whole seems slightly disconnected. However, I know that if I listen to it more and really try to understand it, the more it wil make sense and the more I will love it.

-Daniel (still humming the them from the first movement)