So today, after the appointment, I went to one of my all time favourite places - the reference library on Yonge, and sat there listening to recordings for four consecutive hours. No exaggeration implied, my soul feels refreshed.
Originally I planned to go there and listen to several versions of Chopin Ballade No.3 and check for some wrong notes printed on my score, and ended up with lots of note-taking (rather, music score scribbling and circling). Three versions of the Ballade were played by Krystian Zimmerman, Vladmir Ashkenazy and Ignaz Friedman, and I'll have to say that Zimmerman's version was the best. Zimmerman, being Yundi Li's 'idol', possesses a lot of chopinesque characteristics (partly has to do with the fact that he's Polish), and I was listening to Ballade No.1 in G minor played by him, tears were stealthily slipping their ways out...then came the memory of the Eastman masterclass performance and the 'Zal' written on my score by Dr. Paul Poleii... and most importantly, how melancholy and grieved Chopin must had been when he heard about his home country being invaded by Russia... I've never heard a recording of Ballade in G this soul-stirring.
Friedman is crazy.He altered a lot of music - I think it's safe to say that about every piece he played, he changed some notes and rhythm. He's version of Liszt's
La Campanella is quite cuddly, heehee... and also technically impossible.
I also listened to a recording of Ravel's piano concerto composed for left hand. It was fantastic. By looking at the score, one can hardly tell it's written only for left hand; and by listening to it, it's just another piano concerto. Much of this concerto sounded like
Bolero, the orchestral rhythm part. But it was quite fun.
Next book on the list:
Beethoven by Romain Rolland.
Next piece on the list: Prokofiev's piano sonata. Some, if not all. =P
Music really helps with IQ (and EQ! hehe..). Music includes everything; it
is everything.