Among Friends

[JasoninBoston]

Hi @alliswell

I have been studying piano since I was a small child and certain composers really touch me in such deep ways.  I feel like I could answer this question in so many ways and it would really depend on the day or my mood as to how I would answer.

Right now, just without too much thinking, I would say at the top of the list for me is Chopin.  There are certain pieces of his that I have been working on for years and keep going back to. His Grande Valse Brillante is one I   but so many of his compositions I just love!!

Beethoven is another composer that I absolutely adore and have loved working on his Moonlight Sonata over the years. Mozart's Sontatas have moved me deeply as well.   

Lately I have been working on a Rachmaninoff piece that's so difficult but beautiful!!   

Next I want to work on Dvorak's Humoresque.  I love his opera Rusalka and I find this piece really lovely.  

The other fun thing I get to do is help a friend practice for his voice lessons.  He is studying opera and I have been having so much fun working through some of that amazing repertoire with him!  

I have been fortunate to have a lovely Steinway grand piano--which is really my one of my greatest loves.  It takes up most of my small downtown Boston apartment/ condo and I don't know quite what I would do without music!! I usually end up practicing a few hours a day and take lessons once a week!

My next great love is opera and I am totally addicted to trips to the Met Opera in New York!!!!!

[AuntG]

Jason, how does one start to appreciate opera?  I guess first knowing what the opera is about would be a starting point.  Years ago, I would clean our large farmhouse each Saturday and had a live Metropolitan Opera broadcast on in the background.  I found it relaxing, but frankly didn't understand a thing.

[qwarkster]

I studied music/applied piano in college.  My favorites are Mozart, Chopin, Beethoveen and Brahms, some impressionists and instrumental 21st century (not exactly as applied to piano).  These composers' works I can enjoy working on no matter what.  I wished I went on to study jazz and be able to improvise using the ear instead of relying on sheet music, but life got in the way.

I was submersed so-to-speak in the classical genre as a child and listened to opera extensively.  After studying the structure, presentation, development, drama, and just being overwhelmed with it, I have come to dislike it to the point of intolerance, with exception of Mozart.  To me it's music overdone.  I almost have the same aversion to ballet, but there are some forms or dance that have branched out of the classics that still appeal.

Just my input.