Show Off Piece

[Sylvia]

I don’t play for kids. I play for weddings and receptions, and most of the people are Hispanic, as you learned from my books.
My Never on Sunday I play to make it sound as much like the balalaika as possible…no glisses. I have the vinyl of the sound track.

[balfour-knight]

Sylvia, I think that would be a great interpretation of “Never On Sunday.” But I also would think that there are kids at the weddings and receptions you play for, too. There always are at the ones we do here, all ages of people. That’s one thing that is so great about a family event such as a wedding; all generations come together to celebrate! By the way, I am thoroughly enjoying reading your wedding books, one story at a time so I can savor them! Anyone who plays for weddings should read your books.

I hope this did not get too far off the original thread–I apologize if it did!

All the best,
Balfour

[balfour-knight]

I thought it would be fun to revive this old thread–any more suggestions of show-off pieces?  One advantage of being retired is having much more time to really practice and learn new repertoire.  After Christmas, I decided to relearn “La Source” by Hasselmans.  What a project, to really learn this delightful piece and memorize it.  There are some 70 pedal changes in the ten pages, with 17 of them on Page 6 alone!  I memorized it quickly so that I could play it perfectly on the piano, but the pedal changes would “sneak up on me” when I played it on the harp.  But now it is firmly back in my performing repertoire, to the delight of all my friends!

Hope all of you are enjoying this beautiful Sring!  Best thoughts and harp hugs.

Balfour

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Albeniz’s Sonate en re is a delightful short encore piece. A great show-off piece is Spohr’s Fantaisie, but you need really strong technique. Another good one is the Fantasy on Themes from the opera Eugene Onegin by E. Walter-Kuhne. The final movement of Mozetich’s Songs of Nymphs is lovely, and very showy.

[balfour-knight]

Thanks, Elizabeth!  I do play and enjoy the Albeniz Sonate, but do not know the other pieces you mentioned.  I will never run out of beautiful harp pieces to learn in my new-found retirement!

Best wishes,

Balfour

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