Senior Recital

Senior Recital, 1980. WEKEVED Records.
Most musicians would not want to share their high school playing with anybody. But as I was considering re-recording pieces I had played in my high school years, I found a cassette tape of the recital that my teacher, the late Leigh James Unger, arranged for me to play at California State University, Fullerton, on their new 9’ Steinway grand. And to my suprise, this tape sounded pretty good.

In particular, I had been thinking of the set of dance pieces, “Tanzstücke”, by early 20th century composer German Paul Hindemith. It took me a while to warm up to these pieces that my teacher had assigned me. But their aggressive rhythms won me over, even over the dissonances, and quartal “harmonies.” I had never heard another performance, nor even seen another copy of the music. So recently, I thought maybe I should work these pieces up again, and make a recording of these pieces since there seemed to be none. Then I found my old tape and realized with all the time, concentration and work I put into the whole recital, way back then, in 1980, I played these pieces as well as was ever going to. In addition, now there are plenty of Youtube videos of people playing these pieces.

These are not all perfect performances, but many friends and relatives were there who may enjoy hearing it again. And those of you who want to hear me playing something “completely different”, here is your chance. It was a good start to my piano playing life. And so it will be available starting 9/19/19.

TRACKS:

1. Prelude and Fugue in C min – J.S. Bach Sonata in C. Op. 2, No. 3 – Beethoven
   1. Mvt.1 – Allegro con brio.
   2. Mvt.2 – Adagio.
   3. Mvt.3 – Scherzo – Allegro
   4. Mvt.4 – Allegro assai
2. Etude Op. 25 No. 7 – Chopin
3. Bethena – Scott Joplin
4. American Beauty – Joseph Lamb
5. Waltz in G minor – Kevin Weed Tanzstücke for piano Op. 19 – Paul Hindemith
   1. Tanzstücke 1
   2. Tanzstücke 2
   3. Tanzstücke 3
   4. Pantomime – Tanzstücke 4
   5. Tanzstücke 5
6. The Cascades – Scott Joplin
7. End space
   Approx. 58 minutes total.