Note to self: create Google Spreadsheet that will keep track of how many days I’ve been working on this thing.
Got a lot of work done last night on the first half of Variation 3, which is actually not too hard at the right tempo… and is insanely difficult at my current skill level if I take it at the Gouldian “Hey! I’m a Virtuoso Pianist!” tempo. The piece overall make take 100 minutes instead of 80, I’m thinking. The audience is gonna love me. My vendors will be serving Claritin-D washed down with Red Bull at the intermission. If you come, you may want to bring crayons and Cheerios to keep yourself quiet.
Tell you what. I’ll follow up the Goldbergs with Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant-Jesus (total performance time: two hours, ten minutes), and then end short and sweet with Ives’ Concord sonata (45 minutes). Peter Jackson will come, and he’ll be saying, “Joe, I think you need to make some cuts”. Bill Clinton will say, “Wow, maybe people DON’T want to listen to one guy for four hours.”
Okay, Enough schtick for now. It’s going to be a “lecture-recital”, so I have to save some for the big show…
