Thursday 25 June 2009

It's that time of year I think. Lisa's ill so our Friday night gig is cancelled; I seem to remember this time last year doing lots of preparation for a gig that didn't happen either. Still, I have Sunday's solo recital to work on, so there's no shortage of practice to be done. 

I've always had a hunch that there was something pipe-like about Alexander Reinagle's harpsichord variations on The East Neuk of Fife - it's only this week, hearing Bonnie Rideout's amazing new fiddle pibroch recording, that I've taken it more seriously, as harpsichord-pibroch-lite, perhaps. There's a tendency with these sort of keyboard arrangements of fiddle tunes, to play them with a rather condescending smile on your face as though they're not really intended as serious music, but this may not be a fair assessment. Then a pile of photocopies dropped through the door this afternoon from the NLS, including a really interesting keyboard version of Jackie Latin, that I found there a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I recorded myself playing Sunday's recital programme, which is always a useful discipline. Listening back is revealing, but rarely cheering, as you go through various stages ranging from 'well, that's just a bit rubbish', through 'oh, I thought I could play that one' to 'I hate my playing'. Self-doubt is part of the process, as they say. But what's particularly revealing is the truth of my perpetual rehearsal moan (borrowed from a comment by Robert Fripp) that musicians shouldn't get excited - not when they're playing anyway - because their excitement rarely if ever translates into audience excitement. The places on the recording where I got the wrong kind of energy and adrenalin pumping, are a breathless, scrappy mess. But at least my wrist doesn't hurt in the Rameau any more.