lunedi, Aprile 24

Blogs are weird. I liked Ryan's! Who are all those WEIRD starwars fans you know?

Since Thursday it has been pretty busy around here. Nabore had a concert last night with a Russian violinist and Bulgarian Cellist. They did the 3 Schumann Piano Trios. It was a 2 hour concert of VERY difficult music- difficult for audience as well as performers. www.roma.metropolisinfo.it/article/articleview/100111/1/3/ I was lucky enough to turn pages for one of the rehearsals on Thursday, and I was at two of the other 4. It was AMAZING!!! Incredible musicians. Great music, too. Unfortunately the concert was a lot worse than any of the rehearsals had been. The ensemble fell apart, and no one was playing very well technically. I was disappointed, but still enjoyed it. I learned SO MUCH by watching Nabore play. He really is good. I respect him, and even if he is a punk when he teaches, and even though he has an embarassing picture of himself in the program (I can't describe it- he has one hand on the keyboard with a light shining on only that hand, and the rest of him is dark. His face is gazing innocently upwards at the light....its too much!) he is STILL a giant of a musician. The people he has associated with, the pianists he has taught, and the lifestyle he lives is one in a billion. In the concert he wore this incredibly ornate embroidered jacket that must have been some kind of traditional Greek costume. Anyway...it was super, super amazing to hang out with these guys. Fortunately they chose English as the most mutually accessible language so I got to listen in on their conversations: "William, deed you ever hear the recordingu ofu Schnabel, Heifitz and Rostropovich playingu the Trout? Eet ees eeencrrredible!" "Oh, darling, I was THERE! Yes, I was there! It was phenomenal, but did you know I played it with Amadeus? Oh yes, I played with them many times" "Ilya, did you know that aòlksjdfowie just sold his Guarnarius?" "NO! He did?" "Yes, and he sold it for 2 million"...etc. I mean, that's the best I can do at imitating them. It was way better in real life- a mixture of hilariously nerdy and fascinatingly elite.
The concert and all the rehearsals were held in this beautiful library of a 1670 Palace called Palazzo Altieri. The caretaker of the archives (which is the room in which the concert was held) wouldn't let me take pictures because its not a museum, its "my house". Yeah, crazy. Do a Google search on it and see what building she calls "mia casa". The Archive room is a very high ceiling, and fits about 300 people in it. The walls are lined with 15 foot bookshelves that are FULL of books, letters, and other documents dating 1610 all the way through 1900s. Wow. You walk through the enormous wood doors and smell OLD PAPER. Its beautiful. And it was especially beautiful to see the 9 foot Steinway sitting at the far end. mmmmm. A really magical place for that kind of concert.
Afterwards we stayed out until VERY late. I met 3 other students of Nabore's, one Italian, one Bulgarian, and one Indian. They were all nice, and I had a good time visiting with them. The Italian one invited me to practice on his piano whenever I need, and to play ping pong with him. Massimiliano was also there, and it was good to see him. If anyone hears of a movie with Brad Pitt called "Frank" coming out in the future, Massimiliano is supposedly composing the soundtrack. I know, its fishy, and he's always telling these outlandish stories that MIGHT be true, but really could be totally not so I don't know. Anyway, it was a good evening. BUT, I stayed up way too late and have to go to sleep now!
No new pictures today.