I always knew I was going to perform on the piano with the whole dragon boat team as my audience, I just didn't expect it to happen in Guangzhou, China. After a rather long and tiring four-hour bus trip from Shaoguan to Guangzhou, I found myself in front of a white grand piano at the hotel dining area.
My fingers and wrists were still numb and I didn't think I could even make it through one chromatic scale. But I couldn't refuse my good friend Le Pecheur des Perles so I launched into the quiet opening chords of the 1st movement to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I don't know if they liked it, but judging from the enthusiastic reception, perhaps they did. It's a piece I learned by heart since high school.
Beethoven was on the verge of becoming deaf, and the first movement perfectly captures perhaps his feelings of despair and helplessness, but these changes to optimism and hope towards the close of the opening movement.
I fumbled, stumbled and tripped over my Chopin, stopping midway in the Impromptu because my fingers just wouldn't run. I had difficulty with the final rondo ("Turkish March") to Mozart's highly popular Sonata in A Major, I felt like I was playing with paws.
They still liked it, though. An encore was requested, so I played Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat.
It was probably my worst performance ever, but the enthusiastic response more than made up for my technical mistakes.
One senior member told me they got surprised that I play the piano at all, and they didn't expect me to play that well, my performance was more than what they actually expected.
My fingers and wrists were still numb and I didn't think I could even make it through one chromatic scale. But I couldn't refuse my good friend Le Pecheur des Perles so I launched into the quiet opening chords of the 1st movement to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I don't know if they liked it, but judging from the enthusiastic reception, perhaps they did. It's a piece I learned by heart since high school.
Beethoven was on the verge of becoming deaf, and the first movement perfectly captures perhaps his feelings of despair and helplessness, but these changes to optimism and hope towards the close of the opening movement.
I fumbled, stumbled and tripped over my Chopin, stopping midway in the Impromptu because my fingers just wouldn't run. I had difficulty with the final rondo ("Turkish March") to Mozart's highly popular Sonata in A Major, I felt like I was playing with paws.
They still liked it, though. An encore was requested, so I played Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat.
It was probably my worst performance ever, but the enthusiastic response more than made up for my technical mistakes.
One senior member told me they got surprised that I play the piano at all, and they didn't expect me to play that well, my performance was more than what they actually expected.
2 comments:
hey ron, welcome back!
reading this- i just recalled that time when you played the piano at the old greenbelt (remember, there was a piano on display in one of the corners) and i guess there were a few onlookers who gathered around possibly thinking who could this big shot be playing the piano.. hehehe couldn't remember if there was enthusiastic response from them though... hehe
but since college days, i remember how good you played the piano .. but we always asked you to play "contemporary"pieces as we were just lowly mortals who can't fathom a beethoven or a mozart or chopin... :)
marc, big shot ha :)
a lot of contemporary pieces don't lend itself well on the piano, perhaps with the exception of ballads, which isn't really my cup of tea.
When somebody requests for a contemporary piece, I don't really have anything to play. Even the easy ones which you could easily play by ear.
My main problem is that I don't really listen much to pop music. It's probably by force of habit :)
But I'll give it a try one of these days. :)
cheers
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