Cat-atouille and Cat-atonic

We went to see Ratatouille today and I really enjoyed it. Animated movies seem to be the only films we go to see these days (with an exception for Lord of the Rings). When we got home our cats were being their usual selves - we decided that Marley (our crazy black cat) was really Cat-atouille and Ziggy (the Queen of Comfy) was really Cat-atonic (she does spend most of her day in bed).

My lesson yesterday went well. It really helped to have a mirror so I could see whether I was bowing straight. I may have to break down and buy one. I could hear a marked improvement in tone (yay!); I've spent most of the week concentrating on keeping my wrist in a neutral position and it is starting to pay off. Hopefully within a few weeks I won't have to think about it so much--after practice makes something permanent (thanks Cellodonna for that insight!), I can focus on some other aspect of my playing. Using the mirror I could see how much my bow wandered up and down over the string, and by the end of the lesson I could see it traversing the same spot much more tightly. So that's this week's task - practicing bowing in a straight line!

My chamber group was small today, just a piano trio. I was on piano today, and boy did I get a workout. I haven't really played the piano much in the past few weeks - too much travel, work, and focusing practice time on cello - so when I started warming up this morning I could feel how stiff my fingers were. Actually I'm not really playing the piano much now other than playing for groups. We started out with Clara Schumann's piano trio. I've also been reading through some of her solo piano music (thank you Dover!) as well as music from Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Both composers have been sadly neglected - women weren't really 'allowed' to be composers in their day, a major loss to music. I am looking for Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Trio which I have heard is really wonderful. Clara Schumann's trio was a good warmup for the rest of the morning.

We then moved on to Robert Schumann's piano trios, playing the first 2 trios (No. 1 Op 63 and No.2 Op 80). The first movement of No.1 is a killer rhythm-wise (but all of the rhythm work I've been doing is helping immensely!). The last movement of No. 1 was the most playable, and No. 2, while not easy, was easier to play than No. 1. I like No. 1 better but, wow, I nearly died trying to play the first movement - like always, wish I had more time to practice.... After those 2 trios we were Schumann-ed out and switched to Lalo's third piano trio (op. 26). We've played this one a few times before, and we did the first movement pretty close to tempo, and managed to hang together while killing me on the piano. The 3rd movement is beautiful. We all nearly died on the 4th movement, which we again took close to tempo (why, I don't know...maybe it was because we were running out of time.) I have to admit that it is sounding better; the first time we played it months ago, especially the 2nd movement, it didn't sound much like music. I was ready to toss in the towel after the Schumann; after the Lalo we were done and I was definitely Cat-atonic.....