{"id":1829,"date":"2014-07-15T17:26:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T00:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/?p=1829"},"modified":"2018-03-03T17:27:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T01:27:11","slug":"from-a-summer-festival-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/archives\/1829","title":{"rendered":"From a Summer Festival in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday, Week Two: on the fifth floor, I run into Mr. K., with whom I worked last week. He complains passionately and despairingly that he\u2019s suddenly unable to play simple trills in Scarlatti\u2019s \u201cPastorale\u201d sonata (K.9, D minor); but adds that he <i>can<\/i> still play double trills! <!--more-->We move to his practice room. He sits down at the piano heaving two huge sighs. I draw his attention to them, and point out that he\u2019s tense emotionally and physically. Yes! He hates the tension of preparing for this weekend\u2019s competition! He hates the Scarlatti!<\/p>\n<p>I tell him of my affection for it: it\u2019s the first piece I ever played (at eight years old) that could appear on an adult program; and the first piece that impressed my dad. I suggest that K. hates not the Scarlatti but the pressure; and I point out that it\u2019s in his power to turn his back on it. \u201cGo play for the Inuit,\u201d I suggest. \u201cToo cold,\u201d he replies. \u201cBetter the Caribbean.\u201d He\u2019s relaxing a bit.<\/p>\n<p>I play him bits of some other Scarlattis. He likes a couple very much. (I point out that the piano\u2019s regulation is very poor, and doesn\u2019t make the trills easier.)<\/p>\n<p>Now I ask him to play his Scarlatti; and it\u2019s fine, and the trills are fine. Maybe there\u2019s a missing \u201cending note\u201d in one, but nothing to worry about, and especially not in the context of his extreme tension.<\/p>\n<p>What score is he playing from? Some chords are fuller than in mine. He says he lost his score and is recreating it from memory!<\/p>\n<p>I mention Alexander Technique as an addition to his repertoire of relaxation and control. I urge him to say to himself, \u201cRelease the neck\u201d or \u201cRelax the neck\u201d in rhythm as he plays. \u201cYou have NO problem playing this trill!\u201d I assure him as I stand up. He understands I mean it\u2019s psychological.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>And if all else fails, I say, grinning, he can scream. \u201cNo one will hear you. The halls are filled with noise.\u201d But he did scream recently in another room, he says; and when he left, a lady in the hall recoiled from him. \u201cWell..she has to learn sometime,\u201d I say. This tickles his funny bone and he\u2019s laughing hard as I wave goodbye and leave him to the work. <span class=\"jb-end-of-post\"><img class=\"jb-end-of-post\" src=\"\/Mordent.svg\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday, Week Two: on the fifth floor, I run into Mr. K., with whom I worked last week. He complains passionately and despairingly that he\u2019s suddenly unable to play simple trills in Scarlatti\u2019s \u201cPastorale\u201d sonata (K.9, D minor); but adds that he can still play double trills!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1830,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions\/1830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}