Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist #27: Playing “Siegfried” from Swan Lake Act 3
"Siegfried" from Act 3 of Swan Lake looks like simple music, but it's harder than it looks to make it sound musical.
Nureyev’s Siegfried solo in the White Swan pas de deux
Maybe I’ve just led a sheltered ballet life, but after 30+ years of playing for more rehearsals and casts of the white swan pas de deux from Swan Lake Act II…
Black Swan, the design of everyday things, and the extended mind
I’ve been very nervous of trying out the orchestral reduction I made in January 2015 of the Black Swan female variation for real-life principals in companies in case I became too distracted…
Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #6: Playing the Black Swan variation music
The music that is harder to find than a black swan Let’s start with a few facts. Although this solo, and the Black Swan pas de deux that it comes from,…
Confessions of an anxious ballet pianist day #5: Playing for the White Swan variation
I’ve already written an entire recent post about one problem with accompanying this variation (The perils of musicality when you’re accompanying a ballet solo) but that’s not the end of the story.…