Ok. I think the program is coming together. Bach prelude and fugue from WTC book 1 no 20 in A minor BWV865; Beethoven sonata in C major op 2 no 3; Cloches a travers les feuilles - Debussy and the fourth is still a problem.It will either be rachmaninov Etude Tableux op 39 No 1 in C minor or Chopin Ballade No 4.

I had a good lesson today. We spoke some more about possible exam programs. Arthur told me yet another horror story of a student learning the wrong repertoire.

As it stands at the moment it will be a Bach prelude and fugue, a Beethoven sonata, a Rachmaninov etude from Et. Tab. and Debussy's Cloches etc. I'm a bit worried about not playing Chopin.

Being on hols at present is good because I can practice when I'm not tired.

Finally, I can leave the Brahms rhapsody behind or should I say 'for the time being'. It was driving me and I'm sure, my neighbours bananas.

I may have a permanent new lesson time at 3.30 pm rather than 5.30 pm, which will suit me much better. For one thing, I'll be able to walk there instead of driving, even in winter.

We're building an L mus program for late next year. I'd like to be playing at that standard but I've told Arthur I'll completely rely on his advice as to when it is all going pear shaped.

I've just had cable TV installed and discovered the Lifestyle food channel and the History channel which may put a few dents in my practice time until the novelty of the new channels wears off.

Another long gap between posts. This one will be in memory of Nancy Weir who passed away on the 14th.

Well, a whole two months gone by with packing, moving home and unpacking. In the new place, the piano is now in a better position, in a larger room with better light and so there is some progress. The Chopin ballade is nearly fluent, the Scarlatti sonatas are well on the way.

Unfortunately I missed the majority of this years' Sydney International Piano competition. Arthur says they may show some of the fifth round, the concertos, on telly soon.

Recently, David Helfgott played in Brisbane. I saw him at the University of Queensland in the late eighties. His playing then was technically brilliant but emotionally void. I did not ever want to hear him again.

Everything is about the same. Some small improvements here and there. Starting the Minuet now.

For the small amount of practice done, the lesson went well. Arthur is off this week to examine in Maryborough and will say hello to my old teacher Glenda. Looking forward to hearing Gavrylyuk play next Saturday evening.

Now we're getting somewhere. Arthur asked me to double the speed of the coda of the Chopin ballade. It actually went ok. Brahms is now my friend; well, not quite bosom buddies but we can be civil.

April was a bit of a loss: Arthur away one week and then me away and then down with a cold. All is well now. I need to work on the speed of the coda of the ballade. There is a new Scarlatti sonata to start too.

Last Sunday was the last lesson before the Easter break:

Zimble play. Zimble good. Da.

All went quite well yesterday. The Brahms is still a problem. Apparently some people can't stand Brahms. I don't think I mind it but it is difficult.

Tomorrow night Steven Osborne is playing at the Conservatorium. Looking forward to that a lot. It's terrific that people like S.O. come to play here. One day I'd love to hear someone like Lang Lang or Argerich. I think perhaps they don't know how much an Oz audience would appreciate them or maybe they think we would clap between movements.

Overall, a bit better week.

The Brahms Rhapsodie Op 119 no 4 still has me stumped. It seems to me he changes register and inverts chords just for the sake of it. I'm sure it isn't just for the sake of it but at present I don't see the rhyme or the reason. Perhaps the answer is in the definition.

Rhapsody:

1. an enthusiastic...

(Wow, "rhabdomancy": the use of a diving rod. Didn't know that one. Too long for scrabble though.)

...or extravagant utterance or composition. Well, that's right: it is that.

2. a piece of music in one extended movement, usually emotional in character. I'll give it that too but it doesn't say anything about the tearing out of the hair.

Brahms and I shall battle on.

I should mention last Sunday but I've been trying to block it out. Nothing went well. When I panic, I cannot sight read and the score appears to me as though it's written in a foreign language. I no longer hear the melody in my head. It doesn't happen like this all the time and that's part of the problem : the unpredictability of it. I can start a piece just fine then it is as though something flicks a switch in my mind and I go blank. On the positive side of things the neck is better.

Just got back from my lesson. For the little amount of practice done through the week, it went tolerably well. Learning to sight read from left hand to right is helpful - was doing it back to front.

Had to laugh after the first two pages of the Scarlatti sonata. It's the Longo 325 (K98 in E minor). It's supposed to be allegrissimo but my version is dirge-issimo - about a hundredth of the appropriate tempo. Oh well, slow is better than not at all.

I was snooping around Wikipedia and saw the Bisson photograph of Chopin, possibly taken in the year of his death, 1849. He looks very unwell. He's bulked up with several layers and a coat. He has the hollowing of the cheeks, typical of someone with chronic hypoxia. I wonder if he had "clubbed" finger tips as he looks to be almost trying to hide his hands.

What a wonderful link to the 19th century is this photo. Just like the recorded snippet of Brahms speaking over an early telephone and recordings of Rachmaninov playing his own works, it brings the man alive in a way the oil portraits, death masks and busts cannot.

I enjoyed my lesson this afternoon. I wasn't sure it would go well because I've had a recurrence of a left cervical nerve root impingement that sends pain down my left arm and into my back. It started about ten days ago and after three trips to the physiotherapist it is finally starting to settle. Mind you, it's my own jolly fault because I don't sit up straight enough when I'm at the desk or driving the car.

Anyway, the Chopin ballade went well enough including the second page of the coda and the other smaller pieces, the Scarlatti sonata and a Czerny etude are coming along.

I really get a lot of inspiration from watching other people who are artists. For instance, just last week I was watching a documentary about the Sydney theatre company staging Hedda Gabler, with Cate Blanchett in the title role. All the people they interviewed had this incredibly honest enthusiasm about them and a curiosity about what the development of the play would unearth. Talking about what they were doing, they had no fear in their voices.

So, I tried to remember that feeling and it helped me to go and really want to play. Maybe there's a key in that somewhere.

I had learnt the first page and a half of the Suite Bergamasque (SB). It isn't that practically difficult but I'm sure the difficulty is in the nuances and colours.

Still no start on the new Scarlatti sonatas. If I was an ancient pyramid builder, I'd still be there today with people honking their camels at me to get my stone blocks out of their way.

The Chopin ballade is getting a move on now. It strikes me as funny how a piece will sort of suddenly gel. The two Rachmaninov preludes have done that.

Tickets for SIPCA (Sydney International Piano Competition) will be on sale soon. Haven't completely made up my mind whether to go or not. There's a lot of extra stuff that you hear on the radio that you don't here if you are actually there eg. interviews with the judges etc.

The lesson on the 27th was fine. I have a recording of Kathryn Stott playing the Debussy. Arthur gave me Richter's live performance to compare. It is wonderful.

Of the Chopin, I need to tackle the next two bars of the coda - the bit with all the thirds.

I decided on two more Scarlatti sonatas. The first is K98 in E minor - allegrissimo. The other is the F minor K 466 - andante moderato. I have Horowitz playing the first and Pletnev the second. It's good to study the score with the CD recordings away from the piano and then leave the CD's whilst learning the notes and then come back to them later.

The four Rachmaninov preludes now make a nice set to play over twenty to thirty minutes or so.

First lesson for 2008 yesterday. I hadn't learnt a great deal over the Christmas break but I had been playing every day so the technique was ISQ and some things were better. Sheet music is so expensive here because it is all imported but I think I'll buy the Suite Bergamasque. With the postage costs there's not much difference to buy online and unless you are getting an urtext edition or something like that, you could get stung with crappy editing.