Saturday, January 22, 2005

brahms and me.

(it's like mcgee and me, only...not. at all. :P)

phew, today has been a long day. the concerto competitions were held from 2:30 until maybe around 6ish or so. maybe even later. the pianos were up first at the maureen forrester recital hall, and i was scheduled to play last for the piano section of the competition. generally i think it went pretty well - it could have been better but then again it could have been a lot worse too. :P i made my mistakes but i didn't have any memory lapses, and that was what i was most scared for. :S but yah. all the time i invested into learning and practicing this song really boiled down to the 6mins of today's preliminary round. i think that's what put the most pressure on me today. nevertheless, it was a great experience, and i'm glad that i went through with it. ah, the journey of brahms and i.

one crazy ride:

from refusing to enter the concerto competition in first year and second year, to finally (reluctantly) agreeing to do it this year, to deciding on a piece and picking up the score for my concerto (Brahms, Concerto No. 1, Op. 15, finale) for the first time in early-mid november, to putting all other repertoire on hold to focus on this piece, to the initial stages of actually learning the music and sometimes wanting to throw the score out the window due to frustration and doubt, to learning the notes better and loving the music more, to practicing this piece on my own over Christmas break, to coming back to find that my teacher had the chicken pox, to having my first lesson after the break on monday (jan. 17), to deciding that day to enter the concerto competition, to practicing A LOT (by my standards anyway :P) this week, to more doubts and frustrations, to loving the music even more and more, to actually playing in the competition (which was today, jan. 21), to finding out that i made it to the finals...it's been quite the crazy ride for me and my concerto. :)

all praise, glory, honour and recognition must go to the One who deserves every last bit of these things, God. He is soooo good.


thanks to everyone who gave me words of encouragement, prayed for me, and came out to see me play today - i really appreciate it. in fact, i really appreciate you guys. :)

so now, i'm excited to share the rest of my concerto with everyone now that the 6min time restraint doesn't apply to the finals and i can play the whole thing. this piece is so beautiful, (brahms is definitely one of my favourite composers...his rhapsodies are really nice too...) i just hope that i don't mess it up. :S

good grief, i think that it's back to the practice rooms for me. take it easy everyone. :)

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