Cecilia and Chopin

I don’t like Chopin. I don’t like Chopin at all.
Okay, so I didn’t like Chopin. That changed slightly due to the numerous analysises of several Nocturnes, Waltzes, Etudes,… during the harmony lessons at the conservatory. In the end I even ended up buying ‘Impromptu, a movie about Chopin’s life.
A few weeks ago, I was watching [...]

Cecilia goes shopping

I think I deserved some shopping, after 5 hours of practical harmony (and doing the dishes). As a reward for my work, I went to the Fnac, which is just behind the corner. My budget was slightly larger than normal, so I permitted myself to buy all those cd’s I’ve wanted to buy for so [...]

Cecilia @ PBL

This time I brought home:
Andromeda Romano: The Spanish bow (book)
Michael Nyman: After Extra Time (cd)
Brass of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: works of Willem van Otterloo, Nick Woud, Giovanni Gebriele, Hans Werner Henze, William Schmidt and Derek Bourgeois (cd)
Christian Lindberg: The winter trombone, works of Antonio Vivalde, Darius Milhaud, Lars-Erik Larsson, Georg Philipp Telemann and Roland [...]

The story and the music

How important is it that there’s a story behind the music? I personally think that the music of performers who have a certain image in their mind while playing, has a greater value than the music of those who just play the notes (even if they do play musical lines and dynamics).
Yesterday  a class mate [...]

Déjà entendu

The piano concerto (Michael Nyman)
And yes, I do know the theme, but I don’t know why, because no, I haven’t seen the movie ‘The piano’.

Too bad the fourth part, ‘The release’, isn’t on YouTube.

Slidin’ along

How do you recognize a trombone player’s child in the playground?
He doesn’t know how to use the slide, and he can’t swing.
Well, the inventor of that joke obviously doesn’t know these guys yet. New Trombone Collective, a group of enthousiastic Dutch trombone players who one day decided it would be fun to play something together [...]

Cecilia @ Centre Ceramique

My evening I spent looking through books and sheet music at the library of Maastricht. Here’s what I brought:
Alexandre Tharaud plays Ravel (cd)
Ann Livermore: A short history of Spanish music (book)
Alma Mahler: Gustav Mahler, memories and letters (book)
Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango for piano (sheet music)
Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango for clarinet and piano (sheet [...]

Cecilia @ PBL

What I brought home from the library in Hasselt:
Thomas Mann: Dokter Faustus (book)
Michael Nyman: Piano Concerto, Musique à Grande Vitesse (cd)
Alban Berg: Wozzeck (cd)
Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango, Estaciones Porteñas, 6 Tango etudes, Tango no. 2 (cd)
Songs from Spain and Argentina: works by Alberto Ginastera, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados,… (cd)
New Trombone Collective (cd)