THE PLAYLIST: MASOCHISTIC PIANISTS

Satanic climaxes, perilous fireworks, duelling fencers: there's nothing quite so seductive to piano students as a nearly unplayable piece of music. Irving Wardle finds some models on iTunes ... From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Summer 2009 Piano students tend to be difficulty snobs for whom nothing is worth playing unless it’s unplayable. It’s a thrill akin to bull-fighting to look down at a page of Liszt and then observe some reckless newcomer or leathery old slogger heading into the minefield of double-flats, octave marathons, multiple time-signatures, and copious droppings of demisemiquaver fly-shit. If some music arises from this collision, so much the better, as in the following gladiatorial items. LIGETI: ETUDES Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Sony Classical 1996)Proceed to Track XIII, “L’escalier du diable”, and surrender to those deadly feet coming up the ladder again and again until they reach the top with a satanic climax which ebbs away into the longest dying fall in piano literature.

Top 6 Sites that Inspire and Educate If you’re a professional who likes to be intellectually stimulated and you enjoy keeping up with the latest news and breaking trends, the internet provides you with an endless choice of carefully curated sites to visit. Today, we bring you six of them that we believe are leaps and bounds above the rest. These sites will not only educate you on topics ranging from business and technology to art and design, they’ll motivate you to find your own, original ideas and see them through. They’re culturally relevant, they’re idea driven and most of all, they’re deeply inspirational. TED is short for three incredibly important subjects in our modern world; technology, entertainment and design. Tip: Download TED’s free iPad app to browse through 800 videos by date, popularity or keyword. 2. Brain Pickings started from very humble beginnings. Tip: With over 63K Twitter followers, Brainpicker has a strong audience…and for good reason. 4. 5.

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