Concert Report on Degree Recital Piano
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CONCERT REPORT ON CURTIS BOS, PIANO
Introduction
Curtis Bos is a piano student dedicated to graduate in masters of music in piano pedagogy and piano performance in this concert report. He started his musical passion at six years, where he began taking piano lessons. Curtis received his Bachelor of Music in piano performance at Liberty University, working with David Ehrman. He then continued his education at the University of Tennessee, where he pursued his master’s degree studying with David Brunell, Fay Adams, and Igor Lipinski. This is a concert report of Curtis Bos’s piano recital, which he performed to fulfill his degree requirements for Masters of Music in Piano Pedagogy.
Observations on the recital
It is a type of concert based on a solo presentation in the classical music genre, where the piano player is Curtis Bos. His performance is conducted at the university’s Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall on Friday, April 7th, at 7:30 p.m. It is an event of the end-of-course exam in which students face a jury panel who assesses their musical skills. The audience was composed of the jury panel of music professors, fellow students, and the public invited to attend with no admission fees. Several students were performing that night, and they are to be ranked and awarded with their master’s degree according to their recitals. The event started at 7:30 p.m. and was ending at 8:30 p.m. This concert report is based on Curtis Bos’s performance at that recital by analyzing the pieces he played according to this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/iIN7cmJgzqo. Here are some of the pieces he performed and their composers, where he based his performance.
Curtis’s first performance was “Piano Sonatain D-Dur, No.7: I. Presto” by Berlin Virtual Symphonics & Edgar. The piece is romantic in style and has got four movements; Allegro in G major, andante in C major, subdominant of G major, and allegro. Although his choice of key G major for the first movement is essential, the second movement expresses restlessness and disquiet. The movement ends with resignation, which suggests that it is unable to contain the disquiet (Bloom, 2018). A serene melody in A- flat opens the second movement, although there is gloominess starting to be heard. The third movement is introducing tranquility; allegro, but the fast tempo beat of subdominant of G is subduing it. The audience did not enjoy the first piece he performed since it did not express how calm it is supposed to and is not emotional.
A break is introduced before he performs his second piece, “II. largo e mesto” by Murray Perahia. Three movements characterize it; con moto agitato, Allegro con moto, and Presto (Bloom, 2018). The second piece is better than the first according to the most audience since it opens with sounds from the keyboard coming from a processed distance. It is generating a sad melody, which is rocking gently with repeated notes. Despite starting the chords broken and slow, they are increasing in intensity and frequency. He does not struggle when performing the pieces. The audience likes this concert because of this piece, which he performs with ease without struggling to make it perfect.
Finally, he performs “Beethoven Sonata Op.10 # 3 Mov 3, 4” by Valentina Lisitsa. The piece has three movements; Allegro in G major, Andante in C major, and Scherzo (Serbanescu-Martin, 2017). It is made of both impressionistic and romanticism styles. In the first movement, Allegro in G major ends with themed sections after an echoing effect, starting initially. The second movement is fast and has high intensity hence, contrasting with the first movement. It makes it interesting; therefore, the audience is enjoying it. However, he starts the third movement, Scherzo, with broken and slow chords, and the harmonies’ changing is not consistent with the notes. It makes the piece less entertaining and building the audience to dislike the concert. This piece is not enjoyable as much since it is very technical due to the repetition of chords. He requires a lot of stamina to perform this piece, which he does not have.
Conclusion
The audience is mostly entertained by the second piece, which makes it their favorite since it is opening with distance keyboard sounds that are processed. They liked the concert since it was calm, soft, and did not struggle to perform. The main reason that the audience does not like the show is because the pieces were meant for large hands, and Curtis is unable to handle it at the level best. Although the music has aspects of delicacy and softness, when he pauses, one can compare it with the loudest chords being generated. The recital is also not systematically followed and can take less time than it takes.
References
Bloom, P. (2018). Recital 2: Sonatas Nos. 5-8 & 19-20: Program.
Bloom, P. (2018). Recital 3: Sonatas Nos. 9–11 & Three “Electoral” Sonatas: Program.
Serbanescu-Martin, T. (2017). Brahms’s Piano Exercise Mode and the Politics of Friendship (excerpt).