Chopin

I am very grateful my Mom saved up her money to buy us a piano and piano lessons. She always wished she had learned piano, so she worked hard to provide it for my sisters and I. I am also grateful I had two fantastic piano teachers. The first was Joanna - pretty, sweet, warm and gave me a good foundation and the second was Angela, who taught me to really "milk" a piece. She would be a good friend to me through junior high and high school, but then somehow disappeared from my life and I miss her and her husband Darin - where are you now?

I never really achieved great technical abilities. I wish I had been more disciplined, but I do think I can emotionally connect with the music I'm playing. As Oscar Wilde said in The Importance of Being Ernest, "I don't play accurately - any one can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for life." This is, of course, a comedic statement, but I can actually relate. I used to love playing at night with just the piano light on and being completely immersed in the music. The silence and stillness of just breathing the music and stroking the keys. It calms me now, just thinking about it.

It is Chopin's bicentennial and I want to declare my love for Chopin. He wrote for the piano like no one else. His music is so beautiful, melancholy, emotional, romantic. I still have goals to learn some of his pieces better. I still get ambitious and start working on runs, trying to be focused, but, eventually, I skip the hard parts and get to the melodious sections I can play. I still appreciate and love sitting down, preferably at night or on a rainy day, and playing Chopin. It calms my soul and takes me away to the romantic imaginings in my head.

One of my favorite Chopin pieces:


And on the Chopin theme. Have you ever seen the movie Impromptu? It's about Chopin and his love with George Sand. I love it! It made me love Chopin that much more. Hugh Grant plays Chopin and he's great - it's very different from anything I've seen Hugh Grant do before or since. George Sand is played by Judy Davis and I love love love this performance - she is raw and passionate and just interesting to watch. Besides these two, Mandy Patinkin, Julian Sands, Bernadette Peters and Emma Thompson are also in this movie. And, obviously, the music is splendid.