On Saturday, 24 March, Vera and Isabel gave their Book 3 Recital. Here are their thoughts after the experience!
Isabel:
It was very stressing for me preparing for the recital. I spent a lot of time on it. I had to split my lesson in half so I could practice with Vera. It was very hard on Martini Gavotte because I sometimes messed up my part. I don’t know why but it’s easier for me to play the harmony of Minuet rather than leading Vera on Martini Gavotte. We had our dress rehearsal on the 18th of March, there were a lot of things to improve on and some of them I didn’t do on the recital.
For the recital, first we played Gossec Gavotte then Minuet, then I played Becker Gavotte and Vera played Humoresque, we both played Martini Gavotte, Vera played Gavotte in D major, I played Gavotte in G minor, we both played Bach Bourree and our recital was finished off by Twinkle variations. Something I think we both could work on was dynamics, the good thing was I didn’t mess up Martini Gavotte (because I practiced it 3 times in the morning. Doing more cues was something I could improve on. Hope I can apply what I learnt to my future recitals!
Vera:
While preparing for the recital, I felt very pressured and nervous to do well because if I did badly, it wasn’t just me who would be affected, it would be Isabel too. That’s why whenever I would be playing with Isabel, I would feel very nervous and scared. But once I accepted the fact that it’s okay that I mess up, as long as I tried my best in preparing for the recital, I felt a little less nervous. But I was still anxious at every practice.
On the day of the recital, I was so nervous throughout the entire day. I could barely focus on what I was doing. When I was leaving the house to go to recital, I was so, so, so anxious. I felt like I wanted to through up! But once I was there, the real nerves came in. I was so scared that even when I started playing, I could feel my knees and hands shaking. But as I kept playing, the nerves died down a bit. Even though I was still nervous even after the recital, I felt a lot better than before. I think I have gotten better at managing my anxiety because the last time I was that nervous (achievement week), I still felt sick to my stomach ( due to the nerves) that I barely ate dinner! But this time, I ate dinner and felt way less nervous once it was over!
