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
