Today's Trumpet Lesson

I had a great trumpet lesson today. What I thought I was doing wrong all week was me being overly enthusiastic and just taking what he told me to practice too literally. He told me to practice having a steady sound and making sure my air was always moving. I could only do that at a louder dynamic so for 6 days I just played loud... not even a pretty sounding loud. My whole goal was to keep my air stream steady and the only dynamic I could do that at seemed to be an uncomfortable mezzo forte. He said (paraphrasing), "No wonder you couldn't practice for very long. You played loud so often that you spread your embouchure and lost most of your control." "Oooooooooh..." was my response. Why didn't I think of that? Anyway, today he guided me in a new direction: soft playing. So my assignment this week is play soft and basically only soft. I can do that. :) Especially after such a physically taxing week.
Also great about today, it was sunny again! The sun is still here in Seattle. I don't know how much longer it will stick around, but I am enjoying the sunshine while it lasts.

I promise I will get to the second part of my review soon - probably tomorrow evening. With school starting up I've been busier than usual and haven't sorted out when I'm going to be dedicating time to writing just yet. My musical contribution today will be a recommendation.
There is a great up-and-coming pianist, Yuja Wang, that has a great contemporary recording of Mozart's Turkish March. Actually, the real title of the track is: Paraphrase of Rondo “Alla turca” from Mozart’s Piano Sonata K. 331 [2’51], by Arcadi Volodos.
The arrangement is great on its own, and Wang adds so much to the performance! Her CD is available through amazon and other internet sites. Here is the amazon link. I hope you think about purchasing her CD, it's really good.

Seattle Symphony Review (Part 1) - first review attempt

The Seattle Symphony performed a demanding program this afternoon at Benaroya Hall. The first half of the concert was Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, featuring guest artist Isabelle Faust, and the second half was Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Both pieces required dynamic extremes of the orchestra and I think that the acoustics of the hall really helped emphasize the orchestra's quiet and bold moments.
First of all, congratulations to Isabelle Faust on a spectacular performance. Faust's mastery of the soft dynamic during the Mendelssohn was a joy to hear. There were times when some people might think she was playing too soft, or not firm enough. I found her musicality during the tender movements of the second movement to be especially touching and her dynamic sensitivity to be quite remarkable. The first movement of the concerto contains flourish after flourish and Faust flowed through all of the lines beautifully. Her ability to see the bigger picture and play from phrase to phrase in such a technically challenging piece is particularly memorable. In the third movement there is quite a sprint to the end. Faust not only kept up with the orchestra's momentum, she led the symphony to the final chords. Her energy both musically and as a performer invigorated the orchestra, and upon striking the last chord the applause had already begun.