Week 3: My heart leaps up! 
Welcome to the Main Thread for the third week of "The Romantic Era" challenge!
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- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- click)
Favorite romantic composer?
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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Mertz - Op 13 An Malvina (May 17)
I am continuing to work on this one. It is well-memorized by now, but I'm not sure my playing of it is improving. I can't seem to get through playing it without making many mistakes. On this one, I messed up the very ending (again) which is SO frustrating.
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Eric Phillips That was beautiful! Lovely tone and real musical feeling! I’m not familiar with the piece, so your ending convinced me. But I understand your frustration!
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Eric Phillips This is also excellent,Eric. I not sure I can tell if it is better than the previous version - both are so wonderfully performed.
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Eric Phillips It's very hard to improve something already good.
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Eric Phillips doesn't demand so hard about yourself, Eric! Mistakes are always happening, worry about just if they are always in the same place in the score...
For me, your performance was amazing, thank you for sharing! -
Moyses Lopes Thanks, Moyses.
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Chopin Mazurka Op. 24.1 (Aron transcription) 1st draft
Well, I am finally back amongst the living, almost all symptoms have been resolved except for an occasional cough, This is my first (pretty rough) draft. There are sections that went well but lots of stumbles and mistakes. Mistakes aside, I still have a lot of work getting the phrasing and interpretation right. Chopin can be tricky in that regard.... so I struggle.
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Jack Stewart Coming along nicely. Also a nice arrangement. Looking forward to the next rendition. Also, so good to hear you are feeling better.
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Jack Stewart So glad you’re feeling better and back to playing, Jack. What an incredible piece of music! It looks so difficult, but you already are playing it well and musically. Chopin’s rhythms are so tricky. They always feel just a little off balance to me, but in a good way, giving the music character. That character comes through in your playing.
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Dale Needles Thanks Dale. I just now got this one more or less under my fingers. The C section was/is really difficult for me to play coherently, but on a good day I can make it make sense. I have referenced Rubinstein for phrasing but so far I have utterly failed to capture his phrasing. Hopefully as I get more consistent and comfortable with it I will be able to sculpt something more expressive.
And thanks for the well wishes. Covid was tougher than I thought it would be. It really had me on my back for 2-3 days.
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Jack Stewart Welcome back to the challenge, Jack. Glad to see you recovering and playing Chopin's music as well, normally difficult music like Chopin should be forbidden in my guitar world, but let's dive into it this month.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric. This an incredible piece of music.
(Chopin is probably my favorite Romantic and one of my overall favorite composers.)In some respects it is not as difficult, technically, as it might seem. However, I find it very difficult to make it work musically. Hopefully that will come with further efforts.
Thanks for the well wishing. It feels good to be amongst the living again. BTW, I recall you mentioning you originally had Covid before the vaccines. That didn't originally register with me but that must have been terrifying.
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Wai Thanks Wai and I'm with you on the Chopin challenge. He is becoming one of my favorite composers. However, my performance is not nearly as refined as yours.
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Jack Stewart Yes, I got Covid at Thanksgiving time in 2020. It hit me much harder that time than this time, perhaps because I am fully vaccinated and boosted now. I wasn't admitted to the hospital, but at the Urgent Care, they said they would have sent someone in my condition were it not for the overcrowding in hospitals. I never lost my smell or taste, but many foods do smell and taste different ever since, and not in a good way. Who knows what the long-term effects may be.
I hope you are on the road to full recovery. I'm happy that you are already feeling up to playing music. The guitar has been a real source of hope and joy for me during the pandemic.
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Jack Stewart This week I almost did not attend the challenge but yesterday I was glad to see you well at the Concert. In April, at Easter, I got Covid as well. It's was not a good experience... Anyway, Covid apart, thanks for the Chopin!
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Moyses Lopes Thanks Moyses. I'm sorry to hear that went thru Covid as well, but glad you're over it. I still have a residual cough and congestion but no other symptoms. At this point it is more of a mild nuisance. There are several of us here that are Covid 'graduates'.
BTW, I see you responded to a video I made several days ago. I did re-record this piece right after the concert - to redeem myself, sort of. Anyway it is at the top of this stream and is much better.
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This work, Torre Bermeja is one of my favorite pieces by Albeniz. It is so beautiful and shows how brilliant Albeniz was. I always wanted to play it, so just began it for this Romantic Era challenge. It is quite difficult, so is a work is process. It needs more time to resolve some areas but hope you can still hear the genius of Albeniz. This arrangement is a combination of parts I selected from Llobet, Segovia, and Carlevaro.
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Barney That was spectacular, Barney. You have a real gift with Albeniz. I very much look forward to further updates.
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Barney Really beautiful, Barney! You are the master of Albeniz in this community, that is certain.
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Eric Phillips Thanks Eric! Albeniz is one of my favorite composers, so guess when you love and feel the music, we have more of a chance of doing a decent job on it, and hopefully play expressively. I'm trying like we all are.
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Barney wonderful! and a joy to watch and to listen!
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Barney so colourful!
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Stefanie Mosburger-Dalz Thanks for listening Stefanie. I appreciate your kind words!
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Barney Bravíssimo! As said eric, you are our master of Albeniz! So many contrasts and colors, Thank you very much for this performance!
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Moyses Lopes Thank you very much Moyses!!
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Thanks very much Jack!! Are you familiar with Iberia by Albeniz for piano? If not, when you have a chance, listen to Alicia De Larrocha perform it.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
