My musical stalking continues...;). This is my third opportunity to see Natasha play the Ivories. This time around I got to see her play Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Opus 21. According to Wikipedia this was composed in 1830 when Chopin was about 20 years old. Natasha is currently 22 so there you have it. As crazy as it sounds I actually saw her perform this on two consecutive nights. Again I swear I am not stalking her but due to some ticketing snafu's I had tickets on back to back nights.
Some observations...I thought Saturday's performance had a bit more energy. Be it known that I was on the floor for Friday's performance and up and behind her on Saturday. I have determined that front row seats at the symphony aren't worth it. It doesn't do the entire instruments justice, unless of course your our a string fanatic. Either way whether it was my location, my attentiveness, or just my feelings I thought Saturday night was more impressive. One of the reason was seeing the entire length of the keyboard. The distance her hands move to hit certain keys is crazy. It would seem to me that the keys are an extension of her hands. How do you find that one key and hit is just right at the right time? Also there was no crying baby on the second night...which made the solo sound a bit more in tune with the overall production.
You know Americans put a lot of weight and energy into our sporting events whether it be a quarterback shredding of a defense with laser accurate passes, whether it is a pitcher painting the corners, or a basketball star shooting a three pointer at the buzzer and while there are a few great ones who can do this, how many people can play a 30 minute piano concerto, without sheet music to cheat off of, to play with 30 other musicians in perfect time, and do it with seemingly ease. I mean they don't do statistics with musicians but in a Chopin arrangement I bet the pianist is expected to hit 1,000 keys? It is an amazing achievement...plus throw in the personality, the execution, and the translation to make something provide an emotional response in the audience? How many pianist can do that? Maybe 5? 10 at the most? Talking about a one in a million...being able to play a piano like that is awe-inspiring...a achievement like no other. It is too bad that these "athletes" don't get their due. I wonder how much a concert pianist makes per show? Well according to this site it isn't about the money but generally $5,000 - 10,000 per event. So my guess is that Natasha probably does pretty well for herself especially someone who is only 22 years old.
Good stuff...
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