Tetris Rain

Why by Michael Nyman. Composed for the OST to Anne no Nikki (The...

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:07:00 +1000

Why by Michael Nyman. Composed for the OST to Anne no Nikki (The Diary of Anne Frank). Text is by Roger Pulvers…

I’ve been thinking a great deal about how my knowledge of films and their characters can inform my approach to learning the music for the Michael Nyman album I’m about to record. Even though I’m playing an instrumental arrangement of this piece, I find it helps me to get inside the music a little more deeply if I keep the text of the song in mind as I play.

Ksenia Bashmet plays Michael Nyman’s “Digital...

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:30:00 +1000

Ksenia Bashmet plays Michael Nyman’s “Digital Tragedy”. Mr Nyman’s own performance of this piece on the “Enemy Zero” OST is at least twice as slow, so I suspected something was up. I asked him if it was a typo in the commercially available score. He laughed. Of course it is!! So, folks, if you’re going to learn it, it goes at about 70bpm, not 170bpm *giggle* I’ll be recording the correct tempo, cos I’m a nerd who does her research ;)

That said, I quite like Ms. Bashmet’s speed version. It’s really rather compelling.

“I am a deeply superficial person”. - Andy...

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:50:00 +1000

“I am a deeply superficial person”. - Andy Warhol.

I’ve been drafting a blog about image and classical music, mostly because I’ve seen so many truly awful posters and publicity photos for classical artists scroll by on my various newsfeeds recently. I think we should all be as deeply superficial as Andy. Stay tuned for the blog.

So, a few weeks ago you suggested to me the Bruce Brubaker recording of the Glass etudes, which I located and in the process became aware of the Duckworth pieces "Time Curve Preludes" and "Imaginary Dances". I managed to locate the very nice (but expensive!) sheet music for the Duckworth pieces and am now starting to work through them. I love them! Just wanted to say a big thank you for opening this door.

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:47:18 +1000

Duckworth!! Oh gosh, I’m so glad you discovered him. Are you a Moondog fan too?

There's always going to be somebody who doesn't like what you're doing, but you have to do it anyway and trust that someone else will like it as much as you do, or, even better, you might change someone's mind. Everyone dogged me for doing a recital of works by Cage and people he was influenced by/influenced, but afterwards I had many people telling me it was the most well put together, thought-provoking recital they'd ever been to. If you love it enough, someone else will too.

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:46:27 +1000

I know right! It’s interesting… The first time round when so many people were ridiculing me not only for recording Philip Glass’s but also for choosing a wonderfully wacky Stuart and Sons piano, I felt kind of afraid and unsure. But the album won me an award and some nice reviews and a profile as a soloist that I never intended let alone dreamed of having. So, um, bollocks to the haters. ;)

if i were to articulate why i like your performances of glass' music, your performances "breathe"... very vague, but no other way i can think to say it...

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:43:49 +1000

Oh. Gosh. That’s a really lovely compliment! Thank you :D

Dunno if you got this message but… It was cold enough here to wear the hat you knitted for me a couple of nights ago. So I took it for it’s first outing. And it was lovely and cosy.

"…this sense of their linked life – cadences as unstoppable as time – is what makes them so..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:36:10 +1000

“…this sense of their linked life – cadences as unstoppable as time – is what makes them so moving.”

- Kate Kellaway writes in the Guardian on the latest performance of Philip Glass’s 20 solo piano Etudes.

I was proud to be a part of the premiere of the last three of these, back in February. Memories!

I love my hometown, Canberra. I love it so much, I’m...

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:17:17 +1000

I love my hometown, Canberra. I love it so much, I’m giving them a very special concert of a rather exclusive repertoire.

Earlier this year, I had the great privilege of performing some of Mr. Philip Glass’s as yet unpublished Solo Piano Etudes in a concert for Perth International Arts Festival, including a world premiere. He’s given me special permission to perform them, such a rare and wonderful gift. A gift I’m passing on to the lovely people of the nation’s capital.

Can’t wait!

Enemy Zero… Big. In. Japan. I’m loving recording...

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:42:03 +1000

Enemy Zero… Big. In. Japan.

I’m loving recording Michael Nyman’s soundtrack for this game. It’s ace. And if you’re a vintage gamer type, download yourself a Sega Saturn emulator and play the game. It’s ace too.

I’ve been getting a lot of less-than-lovely opinions on my decision to record an album of solo...

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:38:14 +1000

I’ve been getting a lot of less-than-lovely opinions on my decision to record an album of solo piano music by Michael Nyman. eg.

“Pfft. He’s a lightweight. Second rate.”

“Isn’t it better with the rest of the band?”

“So you found something to like about him, eh?”

I am reminded of the opinions of which I bore the brunt during my preparation for my Philip Glass album Mad Rush. There was quite a lot of derogatory talk, and a bit of jealousy. It kinda hurt at the time, but the album still did pretty well for me, and won me an ARIA so… meh. I’m taking all this as a kind of good omen.

Haters gonna hate.

Dumb question: I listen more to jazz than classical music. In jazz it is quite clear why one version of a song is different than another - improvisation + clearly individual style etc... What makes one version of a classical performance better than others? I can't put my finger on why, say I prefer your versions of Glass' work to others. It's less obvious what is different but my preference is just as clear. Also, do you have any fave versions of Glass' piano works - other than yours.

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:30:05 +1000

This is not a dumb question at all! Classical performers’ interpretations of the score do differ markedly. The nuts and bolts of the music are pretty much non-negotiable (pitches, durations) but there are plenty of other things you can play around with, within reason. My favourite performers are the ones who take great care with the details of emphasis in the phrasing, every choice the performer makes is in the service of this.

To put it simply, it’s rather like the difference between saying “I love you”, “I love you” or “I love you”.

"If you consider that the arts began as an expression of community around the campfire, the fact that..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:23:21 +1000

“If you consider that the arts began as an expression of community around the campfire, the fact that arts organizations now need to identify ways to connect more deeply with their communities is truly astonishing.”

- Doug Borwick in his blog I Blame Beethoven

Bowie!!! I’m doing a Bowie arrangement for Sydney...

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:53:37 +1000

Bowie!!! I’m doing a Bowie arrangement for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Yes, a choir. And not only a choir but a cabaret performer, a harpist, a double bassist and a recorder virtuoso.

It’s gonna be rad. Check it.

heymonster: Someone requested a post of all of the current...

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:48:03 +1000

heymonster:

Someone requested a post of all of the current Strong Female Characters, so here you go.

prints are available here.

I love this! I am also proud of how my own work reflects women’s stories. This reviewer picked up on that, which kinda made me blush.

Only a few more days to vote in the ABC Classic FM Classic 100:...

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:38:00 +1000

Only a few more days to vote in the ABC Classic FM Classic 100: Music in the Movies. And I’ve another suggestion to make… Gabriel Yared’s soundtrack to the film Betty Blue. I love this soundtrack so much, I recorded this track from it C’est le Vent, Betty. And I wrote about why I made this choice in the digital booklet for the album….

“It’s all about the choices we make, isn’t it? Someone who made consistently pretty bad choices would be Betty (Béatrice Dalle) of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1986 film Betty Blue. I’m sure that many of us imagine ourselves reacting to bad news in the extreme. Just think how good it would feel to punch that boss you hate square in the face, abuse that unfaithful ex-boyfriend/girlfriend in front of their current flame, rip out the vocal folds of those hideous screaming kids next door. Of course you would never ever act upon these crazy fantasies, but this is where you differ from Betty. Suffering from an unspecified mental illness, she has no filtering mechanism between appropriate reactions and dangerously inappropriate reactions. However, she also has moments of genuine fond connection with her long suffering boyfriend Zorg; the piano duet they play, C’est le Vent, is such a moment. Pity they had to have this moment in the piano shop in the middle of the night, disturbing the neighbours.”

Queenie van de Zandt sings Rise from the musical King Kong. I...

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:24:27 +1000

Queenie van de Zandt sings Rise from the musical King Kong.

I had an excellent day at a recording with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for this show. It’s a really wonderful combination of live music and electronic music, for which we recorded a bunch of stuff including works by Gorecki and Verdi! I haven’t been excited about a musical in a really long time, but I’m excited about this one. Yay!

When I first mentioned that I was to include Claude...

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:32:13 +1000

When I first mentioned that I was to include Claude Debussy’s Claire de Lune from Suite Bergamasque on my second album The Good, the Bad and the Awkward many wrote to me excited that I was including a tribute to the Twllight films. I apologise to those people. It has nothing to do with sappy teenage vampires. It’s a tribute to that wonderful Hollywood blockbuster Ocean’s Eleven (2001). There’s something quite seductive about this film, super smooth Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his motley crew of clever crooks whom we are manipulated into liking. We know that stealing is wrong, but we know too that people who run casinos are crooks. Plus our thieving crook friends in this film are so human, so fragile, so damn likeable and have genuine affection for each other. The casino bosses are just plain greedy. After the big heist, watching the Las Vegas fountain dancing under the flashing lights with ecstatically beautiful music by Claude Debussy, anyone would be forgiven for thinking our crooked friends were kindhearted modern day Robin Hoods (except for the fact that they keep all the money for themselves!).

Absolutely loving 'the good the bad and the awkward' the toy pianos have such a brilliant sound. :) can't wait to hear your next cd.

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:47:10 +1000

Thank you. All those tracks on that album have such a personal meaning for me, so your words mean a lot to me.

I love my toy piano so much. It was a Christmas gift from my partner :)

Hey Sal just wanted to express my appreciation for Mad Rush, even though in the scheme of things that's from a little while ago now! Anyway, it really is a beautiful album:)

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:45:48 +1000

Oh, gosh, thank you so much! It was really a turning point for me, having the opportunity to really get inside PHilip Glass’s music. I’ve learnt rather a lot, I must say. ANd am still learning!!

Gratuitous metronome appreciation post. I really do love my...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:41:52 +1000

Gratuitous metronome appreciation post. I really do love my metronome. I don’t know what I’d do without it…