Listen up!

"Listen up!" is usually published on Mondays (unless I'm busy breaking my own rules) and involves the act of listening to some pretty awesome music.

Well, I think so, anyhow. It's all played by me, for you. That's right, I'd do that for you.

Here's an index of past "Listen up!" blogs, with the music involved in parenthesis. Some of these had pretty intriguing summations (tag lines) on pianonoise.com when first published, but they are lost to history:

2012-13 October-July
Why so serious?  (organ transcription of Mozart's variations on "Twinkle, twinkle")
Secret Knowledge (Erik Satie's "3 Gnossiennes")
Tickling the Ivories (the last movement of Joe Haydn's piano sonata Hob. 6 in G)
Keep Singing (an arrangement of "How can I keep from singing" for the funeral of a friend)
Onward and up--well, not this time, actually (Scott Joplin's "The Cascades")
Reverse Listening (Vaughan Williams' "Prelude on Rhosymedre")
Coldness and Darkness ( the first movement of Sibelius' Piano Sonata)
Kellemes Karacsonyt! (Bela Bartok's "Romanian Christmas Carols, book 1)
Kellemes Karacsonyt! part two (that's Merry Christmas in Hungarian, by the way) (Bartok's Romanian Christmas Carols, book 2)
More Scary Organ Music for the Holidays (Michael Praetorius's "Summo Parenti Gloria")
Merry Christmas! (Samuel Wesley's "The Christmas Carol Varied as a Rondo for the Pianoforte")
The 13th Day of Christmas (Buxtehude: In dulci jubilo)
The Dresden Connection (Chopin: Waltz in Ab)
Caffeine Society (Haydn: Sonata Hob. 7 in C)
Some Assembly required (a sonata you have to put together yourself: specifically Haydn hob. 8 in G)
The Composer as a ::gasp:: human being (Prokofiev: Children's Pieces, nos. 1-4)
A Blast from the Here and Now  (Haydn: Sonata Hob. 12 movement 2)
Through a Glass Darkly (Prokofiev: Children's Pieces, no. 6)
Must be a real snoozefest (two fugues: Wesley in D, and Bach's little g minor)
The Sonata Principle (Haydn: Sonata, Hob. 5: II. Menuetto)
Toccata Minute? tempo and Widor's celebrated organ Toccata
The Sound of Nostalgia (Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, "Of Strange Lands and People")
The Power of the Obvious (Schumann, part two)
That doesn't really work, does it? Have you tried... (Schumann, part three)
The Beauty of interpretation  (Schumann, part four)
Now and Again (Faure, Nocturne no. 4 in Eb) more music, less blog
[sic] Did he get it wrong? (Massenet: Prelude in C)
Subsidy (Haydn Sonata Hob. 9, movement three) The real cost of lessons and the acknowledgement section
My New Favorite Fugue (Buxtehude, Praeludium in F, BuxWV 145)
Decoration Day thoughts on the Ives work
Where's my agent, anyhow?
Charming, for sure! (Gottschalk: O, My Charmer, Spare Me!)
Some "Notes" for the concert  Gottschalk's Notes of a Pianist make fascinating reading
100 Years Ago Today  We interrupted our regularly scheduled blog series for a silly side trip, courtesy of Erik Satie
Union The Battle of Gettysburg and Gottschalk's experience (Gottschalk: Union)

Summer Break

2013-14 October-July
Mr. Gottschalk and I No two humans are alike, they say. Well, maybe they don't. I do, though.
The Big 3-0-0  Ludwig Krebs is a day older than he was yesterday. (4 pieces from Klavierubung)
Bored, perhaps?  Mozart's minuets and a great mystery--or a small one, anyhow.
Who Really Wrote the 8 short Preludes and Fugues? part one
Who Really Wrote the 8 little Prelude and Fugues? part two
Some Concert! a little post-mortem on the annual autumnal concert by The Chorale
Pianonoise Revealed a backstage look at the instruments and recording equipment I use
Noise noise and more noise Luigi Russolo's futurist manifesto from 1913
Pictures from the Trumpet Recital Jeremy McBain and I gave on Nov 17, 2013
Spatula Monday
What Does this Mean, then?   my Christmas Eve Eve gift to you (Guilmant: Introduction and Variations on an ancient Polish Carol)
That was the Christmas When....   Merry Christmas. I got you a Scarlatti Sonata (k513 in C)
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part one a tour of William Albright's Grand Sonata in Rag, movement one: Scott Joplin's Victory
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part two (Albright: Grand Sonata in Rag: II. Ragtime Turtledove)
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part three memories of Bill Albright and how I got to Illinois
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part four  ahhh, yes....tech rehearsal!
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part five  The Concert
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part six   (Arndt: Nola)
New Year's Eve at The Virginia part seven  Albright: Grand Sonata in Rag: III. Ragtime Behemoth
Speed Records (piano and organ playing as an olympic sport (Nola, Little organ Fugue in g minor, Wachet Auf)
No Reason it couldn't be done on skis, I suppose  a musical biathalon
Marathon more Olympic piano-madness
Surprise! the value of spontaneity
Woa, Nellie! Scott Joplin's Pineapple Rag is faster than I thought it was.
Polite Syncopations  to swing or not to swing (Joplin: Elite Syncopations)
Getting the Feel of it  (Scarlatti: Sonata in F, K. 518)
Depends on who's telling the story  (two versions of Scarlatti k518; mine and a Russian pianist)
You Guys Rock! Satie's Gymnopedie is finally knocked out of the top spot
Why I didn't Blog Today  some pretty vacation pictures
Who Really wrote the 8 short preludes and fugues? part three
piano vs. organ round one
So which is it? playing with all deliberate speed
piano vs. organ round two
You say goodbye, I say hello we bid a temporary adeiu to our pipe organ
Pieces in Dialogue: Buxtehude and Bach (Praeludium in F Bux 145 and Fugue in D Bwv 532)
1001 Themes (Haydn, Sonata Hob. 6: I. Allegro)

Summer Break

2014-15 October through July

Technical difficulties  Thanks We Gather Together
It's not just for shepherds anymore....if at all 
It's got a nice beat...I can tend sheep to it 
History is mystory 
Apparently there's more to this sheep herding thing than I thought 
Pondering 
One holiday party every couple of thousand years ain't so bad 
It's a story but not really 
This one really drones on and on 
Who let the bagpiper in here- 
By invitation only 
And to all a good night  I'm having on off week  Salieri and I
Blame the Equipment
The music around here is clearly going downhill  The thrill of distraction and the agony of the absurd
It's not what it sounds like 
The Tasty Science  
This is how little girls got to play soldiers in the nineteenth century 
Two historical re-enactments of Kotzwara's "Battle of Prague"    
scenes or impressions
You can say that again
Notes on a Very Polite Train wreck   
To be continued
That's enough imagination out of you! 
Roadmap
Let's go back to the beginning

summer break