Now I have done the last training sessions, and am on the way to Kalmar ironman.
This Sunday I did the last bike session: around 100-120 km in moderate speed. I did this by combining it with attending a concert held by my friends Pelle and Sofia Hansen. For those of you who do not know it already, they have really succeeded in demonstrating what I have always believed to be true: that it doesn't matter where you do something, as long as the quality is high enough, people will come. They have created a concert hall in the middle of nowhere, out on the far countryside in Östergötland, but manage to get both some of the best artists in Sweden (of which they are ones), and a working economy, because they take proper ticket fees (200 SEK/ticket) and get full audiences (2x150 people/concert).
I managed to get a seat < 2m from the performers, here playing Schönberg's Verklärte nacht. Pelle and Sofia, the main arrangers of these concerts, are sitting to the far right, and in the middle to the left, respectively.
As you see the concert hall is completely filled to the brink, and this despite this concert being doubled, i.e. given twice in two days.
One of the benefits of going by bike to places, especially places like this that are a little bit off, is that you get to see very beautiful places along the way. Many of these places I would never had seen otherwise, if I had gone by car or bus, since these travel along much bigger roads, at higher speeds, and with a numbening glass window between you and the landscape, which makes you less present, and less prone to stopping and enjoying the view. Here are a few of these pictures, the first of them is close to the concert hall, nearby Slätmo, and the others are from a small country road between Opphem and Bestorp.
Then on Monday, I sent off the bike to Kalmar via a bus-based service, and ran home in a way that was approximately 10 km. It felt fine, and was a good sign that my previously a bit troublesome foot will hold up sufficiently fine to complete the race on Saturday (which has been my main worry so far).
Finally, on Tuesday, I did a swim of approx 1500 m, and some weight lifting just for fun.
Since then, I have mainly taken care of my body: done some yoga, rested, and done and listened to some music. And, now, today, Thursday, I am at last on the train down to Kalmar, where the race will be. Today I will receive and re-assemble the bike and do the registration, and tomorrow I will do the final preparations of food and plan when, where, and how, I will eat what.
Then, on Saturday, I will go up around 5AM, do a little bit of yoga, eat breakfast and go down to my bike and "place with all my stuff". At 7AM the race starts, at 8.30, I should be done with the swimming, between 9-15.30 I will be on my bike, and between 16-23 I should have plenty of time to finish the final part: the marathon. My main focus this year will just be to finish before the closing at 23, to go through as healthy as possible, and to get the experience of doing the complete race.
Here is a (phone) recording of some of the last minutes of today's rehearsal before leaving Bjärka Säby - the place where I will have my concert tomorrow. As I have written in previous blog posts, this concert will be the fulfillment of an over 20 years old dream: to play all of the 4 ballades by Chopin. What you hear in this video is a segment in the first half of the last ballade, ballade nr 4. As is argued by many, this last ballade is one of the both most difficult and most wonderful of all music pieces ever written. However, no ballade is far behind - neither in difficulty nor in awesomeness - and each ballade is an intricate story of its own. I am looking forward to playing all 4 of them for you tomorrow, or whenever you will get the chance to listen to them (eventually I will also make proper recordings and upload them here).
We have now reached the third clip in the documentary about Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop" speech. The reason we are looking at this particular speech is that it is filled with useful insights for our ultimate goal: to create a set of updated visions, dreams, and ideologies useful for us today, in the internet age, facing our own set of challenges and opportunities.
In the previous clip, we had a look at one insight, and in this clip we are looking at two more:
Insight 1: To look at what is, but to find a perspective that gives inspiration
Martin Luther King had a marvelous ability to find perspectives that allow you to simultaneously look at the situation at hand - which usually is filled with lots of problems and issues - and, at the same time, feel great inspiration to change it.
Insight 2: To use images, analogies, and stories to make your points
One of the main tools he used to obtain the "both/and" view from Insight 1 is to use stories, images, and analogies. In fact, his speeches are made up of almost nothing but these.
In the video above, you hear several parts of the speech that illustrates these two points.
We have now come to the second clip from the second video in the video series on new political dreams, visions, and ideologies. In this clip, we are taking out a first insight from the segment we heard in the first clip, from Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop" speech. This insight is that King makes great use of a historical perspective. Of zooming out, and thereby seeing that change is possible, inevitable even. And that we still are in the middle of this change. And now it is up to us. What do we want to see happen now, in our lifetime?
In this blog post, I want to add a little bit more inspiring examples of the same idea. The first of those is Hans Rosling. Prof Rosling became famous on the world-scene through his first TED talk, and here is a shortened-down version of the essense of this talk: a historical overview of how the world has progressed.
The greatness of this is that you see how the world has evolved, and how it is no longer true that the world is divided into a developed and an undeveloped world, but that country after country, continent after continent, are following in this evolution, and that we in fact are seeing a continous chain of countries, all climbing up the ladder. This gives an important point: if we take care of our ecological impact - using new smart, green technologies - we can all climb up to the upper right corner.
The second example I want to give is from Barack Obama's wonderful wonderful speech on the night that he won the election, in 2008. In the end of this speech, he also takes a historical overview of what has happened in the world through just the life-time of one individual: Ann Nixon Cooper. This overview gives the feeling that change is not only possible, it is inevitable. But how it will change - that is up to us. Us who live in this moment.
"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for
generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast
her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who
stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one
thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a
generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or
planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons
-- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in
America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress;
the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with
that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women's voices
were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up
and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there
was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a
nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of
common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and
tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation
rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was
there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in
Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall
Overcome." Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.
And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen,
and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best
of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.
Yes we can.
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so
much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children
should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky
to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What
progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time, to put our people back to work and open
doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the
cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that
fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe,
we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who
tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that
sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."
One of the things I really like with this age is that everybody can be creative, and that so many creative voices are heard. One example is this youtube channel:
She is a relatively ordinary pianist who primarily works as a teacher. But for this endeavor, she has taken onto herself to create a large amount of videos on various topics that are useful for beginners and intermediates in piano playing. With a positive mind and focused and consistent work there is a market for any message, and so also for this one: there are many potential listeners to her videos. In the video above, she goes through all of the different types of pieces by Chopin, and discusses them in terms of level of difficulty. The 4 ballades - which I will play as my main programme on concerts this autumn - are rated as some of the most difficult pieces he ever wrote, and all of them they have the highest or next-to-highest rating of difficulty.
Apart from this, she also did another overview of the Chopin pieces - this time identifying her favorites. Again the 4 ballades appear, and about the 4th one she says: "If I would choose one piece that encapsulates the entire romantic era, I would chose this one". The 4th ballade is, together with the 1st one, also my own personal favorite. As so often, those two are also the two most difficult ones.
If you want to hear me play and go through all of the 4 ballades, the first and next opportunity is outside of Linköping in beautiful Bjärka Säby, on August 10, at 16.00.
This video is the first part of the little documentary I made about Martin Luther King's mountaintop speech. In this part, I do two things:
i) I go through the first story in his speech, the one where he explains that his own time is the best time he can imagine to live in
ii) I show a little bit of the inspiring environment I was in, when I made this part of the video.
In this short blog post, I will just add a few extra things to this video.
First, regarding the clip from the speech: it contains one of my favorite quotes of all times, and I don't really mention why in the video. The quote is "only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars". As will become clear in the following videos, that's a typical Martin Luther King quote. The reason why I love this quote so much is that it reminds you that when things seem bleak for some reason - either in your personal life or in society - smaller positive gestures are seen more clearly. When you feel down as hell, and somebody gives you a smile, that can make all the difference in the world. Or perhaps even more importantly, your own small acts of kindness are more obviously visible - you can make more of a difference! - when things look bleak. Therefore, dark times are inspiring times! They are times when even small efforts in the right direction may become shining little stars, that suddenly are seen quite clearly.
Second, regarding the environment I was in. It was in the island where my very cool aunt lives. In her life, she started her own clothing company when she was in her 20s. In the beginning, she did all of the designs herself, and her husband took all of the pictures. However, over the years, her enterprise has grown and grown, and she has 22 shops that sell in >16 different countries. She is still, at 76 years old, at the heart of both the business empire and the design process. And much of that design has been done on this island. So the environment is very inspiring for that reason. But the environment was also really great for other reasons. First because it was isolated: not so much to do on an island, and the only natural thing to do is to let what is inside you come out. Second, because it was with family and friends. I really believe that any sound change in our society must come from us finding a way of living where we can act in a sound way, both in regards to our function in society at large, and with a warm and nurturing support-network of family and friends. Below you see a couple of pictures from this visit.
Did you hear about Martin Luther King, but haven't actually listened to any of his speeches? Or have you heard them, thought about them, and would like to think a little bit more about what makes them so great, and what we could use from them also today? Then this video may be for you. I have done it over the last two weeks approximately, and it ended up being a little mini-documentary. For those of you who don't have the time to listen to it all, parts of it will be posted and discussed in more detail in the days and weeks to come.
I have now started a new video series - on the importance of creating new dreams and forward-looking ideologies that allows us to move towards things, instead of fighting against things. Here is the first video, please enjoy! :)
Outside of Linköping where I live there is a small place called Bjärka Säby. It is situated in a very beautiful part of our surroundings, with waters and wonderful forrest-filled land-scapes flowing up and down the hills. Most importantly, however, Bjärka Säby, is a place with a castle, and in that castle is a room with an excellent grand piano.
Bjärka Säby seen from a helicopter (picture taken from here)
The castle at Bjärka Säby. The concert hall is in the middle on the top floor
I have given concerts on that piano a few times before, and I must say that both the concert surroundings and the piano itself are among my favorites for giving concerts. The surroundings are inspiring, and the piano has a wonderful dynamic range, technique, and sensitivity, which really allows you to express yourself in a way that really reflects your deepest thoughts of the piece you are playing.
For this reason, I am very happy to announce that I will have a concert in Bjärka Säby in a couple of weeks from now: on August 10. The concert will be first in my new programme: the 4 ballades by Chopin. To play all of these 4 ballades in one concert is another long-held dream of mine (20 years, at the least) so this concert will be a realization of several dreams. Therefore, if you can and want, please feel free to come and listen!
Welcome!
Gunnar
Picture from the concert today, on stage are three sisters, performing Bach and Schumann.
Programme with all the concerts at Bjärka Säby this summer.
This autumn will be the start of a new phase of my piano career: one
where I will behave a little bit more like a "normal" concert pianist.
More specifically: most of the successful ones usually have a single
solo program (or at least a single core of a program) which they play in
many different cities during a couple of months, perhaps even up to a
year. Then they change that program, and go through some updated version
of the same cities again, with their new program. This is e.g. what my
currently living idols - Yuja Wang and Grigory Sokolov - do, as do many
others.
Yuja Wang playing the 24 preludes by Chopin. She first played this in Stockholm earlier this year (I was there to listen), and has since then played this program at least 10 different times in different cities shortly thereafter. She will most likely keep doing this a couple of months, and then move on to some other program.
The advantage of this way of performing is that you get
the chance to play the same program many times, and really get into the
depth of the pieces, by refining and diving deeper and deeper into them
for each concert - and by polishing sections of the pieces up that you
want to improve between each concert. In the last couple of years, I
have myself been in a different phase than this: one where I instead
have been building up myself as a pianist. I have been making the
transition from behaving like a chamber musician, who mostly play
together with others, to a soloist, who mostly play solo recitals. As
part of this, I have been building up a large collection of pieces that I
know more or less by heart, i.e. that I have played at least once or
twice by heart in concerts. This learning has also involved a steep
growth in other aspects, such as technically (because many of these
pieces I have learnt are quite demanding), memory-wise, etc.
Nevertheless, this phase of mine is now at its end, and I now have a
large enough repertoire, and skill set, to move on to the next phase:
the more conventional concert pianist phase. In short, I now feel ready
to start bringing these pieces that I already learnt into a more formal
and deeper setting - into slightly bigger concerts, and on real tours.
My big benefit in this compared to most other pianists, is that it will
be quite easy for me to start this next phase. I am already travelling
enough in my science to fulfill also my desire to tour as a pianist
(around 2 months a year, and perhaps 10-15 cities), and all of these
travels are already payed for by my work. I have also already started to
explore the combination of giving concerts while on science tours, and
have started to build up contacts and ideas for how this can happen. The
other reason why I expect this to be much easier for me, compared to
most other pianists, is that I already have a good income, much better
than most pianists in Sweden in fact, and I therefore don't need to
think about finding people and venues who can pay me quite substantial
amounts of money for this. I just need to find nice places to play, and
think of nice creative environments where my music really is desired,
where audiences will want to listen. Kind of like I did already with my
lunch concerts in Linköping, and with my family soirees, which are two
concepts that can be multiplied easily by bringing them to all of the
universities and cities that I anyway visit.
The first program
that I have put together is actually in itself a dream I have had for
many years, 20 years if not more: to play all of Chopin's ballades.
These ballades are absolutely wonderful, and quite demanding, so it is
really a program of a "grown up" pianist. At least the first half of
such a program. Just as an example: "Yundi played these 4 ballades at
his solo recital in Stockholm a couple of months ago (before break;
after break he played the 24 preludes, which I also played a couple of
years ago). After this, in 2018, I plan to move on to a program with 3
new Beethoven sonatas (probably in the Spring), and a program with the
title "Baroque and the 21st century" (probably in the autumn). Both of
those latter programs will be two-act programs, i.e. they require a
break in the middle, and will take in total about 2h, even though
shorter versions of course are possible as well.
As part of this
endeavor, I have now put together a little flyer and am already in
contact with friends and colleagues in several different cities where I
will play my ballades, both in the US, UK, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.
If you are, or know somebody more who might be, having a nice concert
venue and audience where the 4 ballades of Chopin would be appreciated,
during the autumn, or where some of the other two programs would fit in
during 2018, please feel free to distribute this to them. And if you
have comments on how you think that the flyer can be improved, such
comments are of course welcome as well :)
When the sun reaches its
highest this year, on the astronomical midsummer's eve at lunch time, I
will hold my next lunch concert. I will play the piano music by Chopin,
written on his own solstice as a composer - his last Ballade, nr 4. To
set the stage for that, I will also play the preceding Ballade, nr 3,
another beautiful piece, as well as a short movement from one of
Beethoven's most famous sonatas.
The Ballades are in many
ways my favorite pieces by Chopin, and both his first and last Ballade
are among my own top 5 piano pieces ever written. I am therefore
happy to also announce that I will be playing all of his 4 Ballades at
another concert, later in the summer: on August 10 at 16.00 in the
castle of Bjärka Säby. (link)
The concert now on Wednesday is in some ways a warming up for that
concert (it will e.g. be the first time I play his Ballade nr 3), and I
will then be playing that full concert several more times, both here in
Sweden and abroad. This summer therefore in many ways marks the start of
a new phase in my career, and I am looking forward to celebrating the
symbolic pre-start of it with those of you want now on Wednesday.
Where: Berzelius-salen, close to the HU library, hospital area, Linköping When: Wednesday June 21, 12.20-12.50 What: Lunchconcert Who: Pianist Gunnar Cedersund Prize: Free of charge
I love the internet, and all our various recording technologies available today, which allow us to capture all of the many golden moments that are being created every day - and then share it with the rest of the world. One of the things I like particularily much is when improvised meetings happen that just clicks into place without preparations.
In dancing this happens so often on the dance floor, when you can dance with a stranger, with whom you never danced before, but you anyway immediately click, and have the most wonderful experience together - an experience you know that both of you will remember and cherish for the rest of your lives. In that sense, I like improvised dancing, or - in terms of competitions - Jack and Jill style competitions the best, because then you can really see inspiration as it gradually manifests itself in physical form. Here is just one of many examples of an improvised dancing in my new favorite dance - West Coast Swing - with two of my favorite improvisational dancers: Tatiana Mollman and Maxence Martin.
In music, I equally much admire the people who can improvise, and create music on the spot. But - being a classical musician - I want to say that the same type of new meetings can happen also by playing classical music together with a new person, or, in fact, every time you play for a new audience (because a meeting with an audience is very much also a meeting). Regarding music, there is also a special form of meetings that can happen, and perhaps especially in modern pop music: that the performers invite people from the audience up on the stage, to play along with them, or to themselves play a song for the artist. Below are two great such moments: one with Adele, who invites two guys up on stage, and one with Billy Joel, who brings up a pianist from the audience.
The final video I wanted to share with you today shows an improvised duet with a fan and a star, orchestrated by Ellen. In all of these videos, you see how people can come together, and create magic just by being awesome. Or, as a comment in one of the videos said: "Time, dedication and preparedness meets opportunity and BAM! Lifetime experience."
