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Monthly Archives: November 2007

Gretchen am Spinnrade

For several days last week it seemed all I did for 5 or 6 hours each day was play the Liszt arrangement of Schubert’s “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (“Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”). It is an addictive little piece which I find to be more theatrically dramatic in the piano arrangement than in its voice-with-piano original. [...]

Utter Waste

“The day was an utter waste” used to be a running joke between a friend and me. It was a comment uttered with sincerity, and in the instant that followed we both laughed at the dark humor we found in it. Those words pieced together with sullen resignation, an almost biblical grandeur that could make [...]