Working hard for music

“Now we know that you are gifted, very gifted, but you must work very hard, because someone who is gifted has to work harder than someone who is not, and you will see how boring it is to work hard at music.”

Ravel to Manuel Rosenthal after a concert.

Cited in: Nichols, Roger (1987) Ravel Remembered. London: Faber and Faber, p.67.


Posted

in

by


Featured Content

Empty pockets
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” – Norman Vincent Peale, American author and preacher Cited at QuotationsBook  
The Blue Danube (Strauss)
Title: The Blue Danube (op. 314) Composer: Johann Strauss Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part (32 pages) Sample:
As good as Paderewsky
“At the end of a dinner he was attending by a lady in Liege, Ysaÿe was asked to listen to a young violinist. Although he felt tired and was longing to go back home he could not but accept his hostess’s request. The young man played several pieces from his repertoire. Then, after a long […]
Mass of Solidarity
Title: Mass of Solidarity Text: Roman Catholic Mass Composer: Greg Smith Sections: – Penitential rite – Gloria – Gospel acclamation – Creed – Holy – Eucharistic acclamations – Amen – Lamb of God Additional: – Gospel acclamations for Lent (Glory and Praise to You) – Gospel acclamations for specific Sundays or Feasts available on request. Instrumentation: – SATB […]
The life of a pianist
My life involves endless hours of repetitive and frustrating practising, lonely hotel rooms, dodgy pianos, aggressively bitchy reviews, isolation, confusing airline reward programmes, physiotherapy, stretches of nervous boredom … punctuated by short moments of extreme pressure …perhaps most crushingly, the realisation that I will never, ever give the perfect recital. It can only ever, with […]
Sleepy Bear
Title: Sleepy BearComposer: Greg SmithInstrumentation: PianoPerformer: Greg Smith (22 March 2009) Your browser does not support the audio element. Sheet music
Musicians’ response to violence
This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.  — Leonard Bernstein, 25 November 1963 Christopher Buchenholz, “An Artist’s Response to Violence”, Leonard Bernard Office, https://leonardbernstein.com/about/humanitarian/an-artists-response-to-violence. Accessed 18 March 2022.
A concise rehearsal
Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965) was a German conductor. However, he had a dislike of rehearsals. Karajan recalled: One time he was going over Tchaikovsky’s Fifth with the Vienna Philharmonic. He came to the second movement, with the horn solo, and said, “Let’s start.” He did a few bars, stopped, and said, “See you this evening. You […]
You Have Been Our Refuge – Psalm 89 (90)
TITLE: You Have Been Our Refuge (In Every Age, O Lord, You Have Been Our Refuge) TEXT: Psalm 89 (90):3-6, 12-14, 17 INSTRUMENTATION: SATB and piano PRODUCT MEDIUM: PDF score and part SAMPLE:
Out of practice
“All I have left is a long nose and a fourth finger out of practice.” Chopin, in Scotland, unable to visit his friend Julian in London because of ill health. Cited in: Zaluski, Iweo & Pamela (1993) The Scottish Autumn of Frederick Chopin. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, p.23.