Jackpot

Great news - I'm upgraded for the DTW - LAS leg of the journey home. My fingers are crossed for the other two legs.

Yesterday's trio was an All Schubert Day. We started out on string trio reading the Allegro of D471, the only movement completed in that trio, followed by the Minuetto and Rondo of D581 (first version), having made a valiant but unsuccessful attempt at the first two movements. Then the violist wanted a switch so we moved on to the piano trio, Op 99. It was a Bb kind of day. That piano trio has a wicked cello part, and I haven't practiced it at all this month. I think I have a subliminal conviction that it is impossible, so what's the point of practicing? I gave up on trying to read the notes, and just played it by ear, a surprisingly successful strategy. Yesterday, anyway.

I also had P- accompany me on piano while I tried out a couple of recital options, with T- as audience. I found out last week that my music school has two adult recitals coming up in January, one for string players on the 11th, and a second for chamber music on the 25th. My trio there will play the 4th mvmt of Beethoven Op 1 No 1 on the 25th, but the organizer also asked me to consider playing on the 11th. Since my Bach Prelude is nowhere near performance ready, I'm considering a couple of other options.

I don't have a lot of solo performance experience, so I thought I'd choose something that is technically well within my grasp, and that I could confidently buff for performance in only three weeks. My candidates are (1) the 1st mvmt of the Breval Sonata in C, since I worked on it a little this month while both assisting Pink Fluffy Slippers by recording a practice accompaniment track and avoiding my own practice requirements, and (2) Chanson Triste, by Tchaikovsky, a second selection from Suzuki Book 4. My secondary motivation for considering these two pieces is that they are the audition pieces required to get approved to take beginning level Suzuki teacher training.

I haven't played Chanson Triste before, but it is very cellistic, and was the vote by my trio members. (The Breval is actually rather boring as a solo, somewhat better as a cello duet, but that isn't an option.) I played it again for my neighbors yesterday evening, and they enthusiastically endorsed that plan. A-, the 9yo cello player in the family, is really getting into it, choosing to practice rather than almost anything. I hope I provide additional inspiration. So that is my tentative plan. I have until Thursday to commit.