Somehow my schedule has a few spots here and there that allow me to practice - a good thing. So maybe this will turn into a cello blog, a little ensemble stuff thrown in? Still remains to be seen. Nerdy things to share, to be sure. But I think at the core all classical musicians are nerds...of the very best kind :)    

Ever since I was little (well, young) I've known that one day my left third finger is going to give me trouble. The first joint is really small and weak, and since my grandmother had really bad arthritis, I'm pretty sure eventually I'll have problems with it. Like I mentioned in previous post, I took some time off over the break, and for some reason my left hand hasn't recovered from the break as fast as it usually does. Specifically, the third finger...ugh. We played Kodaly Duo and the Shosty Trio in one concert, and those are some hard playing pieces: lot's of fifths (hard on the joints), loud music (hard on the joints) and stuff. My left hand hurts! Double ugh. So, I'm recalling all the wisdom that I once knew in my REALLY hard playing days when 10 hours a day was the norm every day for 10 years: Tiger balm (luckily I found a stash of extra strength from a friend who went to China a while back). A regiment of muscular finger exercises. Stretches designed for string players hands. Duport 7 and Popper Etudes (Piatti Caprices when I'm ready...) for strengthening. Ibuprofein and ice for swelling.     

No more time off. For the rest of my playing days. The muscle conditioning is ON!

I helped a friend try out bows on Monday night, which was really fun. Also reminded me of the days when hanging out with four cellists talking shop was the norm, not the exception. I found out that my favorite etude of all times (not just in the top 10, but no1!), Duport 7 is much admired/hated in the current UM cello population! I guess it is one of the favorites of one of the esteemed professors here. I'm a bit of a nut for scales and etudes, and get a little nerdy and neurotic, possibly even over-analytical about this stuff so it was fun to hear that this particular piece of music is in high demand. I think I'm going to try to pick some brains around here for more information. Which bowings are we talking about? The possibilities are so many... 

One of the only musical pieces I've ever written, the Lullaby Prelude on Tuu Tuu Tupakkarulla, uses a lot of stuff that this etude taught me. I think it was subliminal, started out as a structured improvisation. It's a good one. So for any cellists out there, Duport 7. Do it.  

Ah, everybody knows the piece. It's one of the most famous, and arguably most important chamber music pieces of the 20th century. How many composers these days use artificial cello harmonics in their writing? MANY, I can assure you. But as far as I'm concerned, nobody has topped the ghostly passage at the beginning of the trio, even close. Unbelievable! (the passage, not that nobody has topped it yet). The story about Shosty's relationship with the communist party authorities and the role his chamber music played in his defiance (?) of the party has been told many times. The 8th String Quartet ("dedicated to the victims of fascism") is ripe with symbolism and double meanings (some say) and the Trio uses a lot of the same materials.

The first time I learned the trio was for one of my DMA recitals in Ann Arbor in 2000: when I think of the piece, I also think of violinist Sasha Margolis. Sasha's sound is perfect for the piece - dark, lush, passionate, multifaceted... and completely and totally his own! It's amazing how the music transports us in time and back to a totally different life pre-kids, pre-job, still in school playing the cello 8-12 ours every day...

I was also a very lucky girl to work on the 8th String Quartet repeatedly: the Owla Quartet learned it first, studying it with the Borodin Quartet (particularly the cellist Valentin Berlinsky). The Borodin Quartet, of course, played it for Shosty himself, who (as the story goes) left the room without a word when they were done with the performance. As the Quartet was leaving, Mrs.Shostakovich ran after them and said that the maestro was so moved by the performance that he was incapable to speak. So the stories and the sounds I associate with the piece come straight from the source: bomber planes, bombs dropping in Moscow, assembly lines of machines... horrifying things, powerful music. The trio is the same way. Like I said, I am a lucky girl! I think just the fact of getting to play this music is cause for celebration, and to have repeats is just perfectly amazing.