On Wednesday, October 13th, I went to LeFrak Hall during free hour to listen to some of the music put together by the Long Island Composers Alliance. I didn’t know what to expect and I liked what I heard. I think that throughout my life the only piano music that I’ve heard really has just been classical. I find that classical piano music is soothing and I like that about it, but I also began to like these new, more modern pieces that I heard on Wednesday. I watched in amazement as Stephanie and Saar, the pianist duo, played at such fast paces for different parts of the pieces. I kept thinking to myself how talented they are to be playing these complex pieces for an hour and a half basically non-stop.
In comparison to what we heard at Le Poisson Rouge and Bright Sheng’s pieces, I think that this performance had a little less variety, mainly because in the other two performances we saw, there were other instruments. There was a variety of composers with different styles for Stephanie and Saar’s show which switched things up a bit and I liked that. All the pieces had a different vibe and that was interesting to me. I may have liked the performances we saw as a group a little more because there were more performers and more instruments. I personally like having more things happening to draw my attention.
I would just like to end this by saying that even though I think classical music is soothing, I still felt nice and relaxed after hearing this more contemporary piano performance. It was great to go to and just relax for a little bit in the middle of my hectic school day.
I think we have another example of the power of the live performance. It allows the “art” to speak in a way that is more “human.”