"If Music Be Food of Love..."

Hello, world!

This summer I've been working on a few pieces while my professor is away on travels. It's so sad to work without him, but I'm hoping to have this program memorized and perfect by the time he gets back. :) It's been a challenge working without a teacher, but it's rather fun to imagine that I'm already a professional pianist and must work on my own to perfect pieces for an audience. Haha!
They are simple pieces which I could have played years ago, but they're beautiful and fun. So there.


Felix Mendelssohn's Rondo Capricioso 
It's a fun piece with a pianistic introduction before heading into really simple (but difficult!) fast little notes which I am beginning to play a tempo now! It's so fun to play and I absolutely love it! The ending is so fun too! Those forte octaves flying up and down the keys are awesome! Love it!

Robert Schumann's Papillons (Butterflies) Opus 2.
In spite of this piece's "flighty" title, it's definitely NOT about butterflies! It's actually depicting the masquerade ball from a novel Schumann loved to read by Jean Paul called Flageljahre. This piece is filled with small but very diverse movements demonstrating the various scenes from the masquerade ball. Very interesting... Although a middle/high-schooler can learn this, I believe that this piece is underplayed way too many times. People perform it just to perform it and don't seem to fathom it's inexplicable depths and colors. I am so in awe of the genius in this piece that it has taken me for ever to decide on a suitable interpretation for the tiniest parts! Yes, I really do take it seriously! This piece cannot be played like other commercialized classical pieces like the Moonlight Sonata or Fur D'Elise. It cannot be played lightly! - It is special.

Joseph Hayden's Sonata In E Minor No. 53
This is a piece I've had on my shelf for years. (Kind of "baby-ish", I guess) I learned the first movement when I was 11/12-years-old, but now I'm finishing the sonata just because I hate having a sonata uncompleted! Anyhow, it's a lovely piece and the third movement is so fun!

And last but not least...
Friderick Chopin's Nocturne in C Minor Opus 48
Okay, this is probably my favorite Chopin nocturne (although I say that about almost all of them!) It's so powerful and full of rich feeling... I can't even begin to express how much I'm in love with this piece. My teacher doesn't know I'm studying this, so I'm going to surprise him when he comes back! (Heehee!) 
Well, I'm infatuated with Chopin, period. But this nocturne... Anyone who dislikes this has no heart. Here's one of Valentina Igoshina's beautiful videos of herself playing it. (She's looking into your soul at 4:13 on this vid!)

And here's my  very own darling teacher playing it in a casual recording. (His interpretation is seriously my favorite. And not just because he's my teacher! What can I say? - Great minds think alike!)

So that's about it for now...
Shalom!

~ Fiona