Sunday-July 6, 2003

I've played maybe a total of 3 hours since the last blog (rate of one hour per week). That includes the time I spent practicing today. I hope to get back on track as I'm going to give up some other activities to pursue piano more. This afternoon, I played through the Liszt sonata. It took me about two hours to play through it. Damn. This piece isn't so bad. There's lot of repetition in the piece. Actually, more like modulated repetitions of the theme(s) in the beginning. This piece reminds me of Joyce's Ulysses. Stream of consciousness and the multiplex perspectives/consciousnesses (e.g., character wearing macintosh noticing guy carrying bag of oranges; later, you see it from view of guy carrying oranges noticing the guy wearing macintosh). I've noted what I liked in the Stephen Hough recording and what I didn't particularly like (he plays it as if it were chopin...too much rubato). With Argerich's...she plays it too fast throughout though some sections are played very clear and 's got 'power'. Arrau's is very "deep" in some section, but too rigid in other areas. Horowitz's is mediocre. The recording I heard isn't one of his better ones. Pollini's is alright. I like Yundi Li's the best (he isn't forcing it). A Yundi Li and Arrau hybrid recording would be ideal.