A pianist’s diary: Chapter 4

Tomorrow, I am going to the Carnegie Hall to hear a piano recital. The performer is Maestro Denis Matsuev, one of the most famous living Russian virtuosos. Last week, I can proudly announce that I played in a piano masterclass to another very famous pianist, Kirill Gerstein, who frequently performs all around the world and I have heard about him long before I applied to study in the USA. Maestro Gerstein frequently performs in Prague and he graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. I played the Prelude and Fugue in E flat major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 by J.S.Bach to him and it was a fantastic experience because our approaches to music were very different, however I was able to immediately react and to try an alternative way of interpreting the music by Bach.

Earlier, in September, I was courageous enough to organize my own piano recital that I split with my girlfriend, who is also a pianist. In September, almost no student is ready to perform such a concert. We played our solo pieces and we finished our performance with a piece by Claude Debussy, called Le Petite Suite. This piece was written for 4 hands and it was a lovely encore (although it was written in the program; encores are supposed to be surprise pieces after the end of performance).

Generally, I have to admit that right now I am even happier than I was during the previous two academic years, because of a rapid and fruitful progress in my craft which is a classical piano performance. Each day, I am getting closer and closer to becoming a concert pianist. Here, in NYC, I am constantly in a practicing regime and I also focus on planning repertoire on the upcoming competitions in the nearby years around the world.