Just for Fun - A Fantasy Question for Musicians...?

Question

Now, just imagine this delicious scenario...

A fabulously wealthy person decides that your musical talent is worth supporting...

He/she then offers you the money to buy the musical instrument of your dreams - AND to study with the musician of your choice for a whole year - in any part of the world...all expenses paid!

And so...

1. Which instrument would you buy?
2. Who would you choose to study with?
3. Where is this teacher based?
4. Which piece(s) would you include in your final recital?

First off, I'd buy a bass Dulcian (Renaissance bassoon) built by Robert Cronin. Then I'd go and study with Wouter Verschuren at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague...and my final recital would have to include several of Bertoli's Sonatas - including his stunning Sonata Settima...

Isn't it good to dream? Have fun...I can't wait to hear your juicy musical fantasies!

Hafwen x

Answer 1

Okeey Dokeey...



1. All these people saying Steinway... Sheesh! Who would ever want one of those things if you could have any piano you wanted? I'd pick a Bösendorfer over anything. I'd have to play all of them though to decide which one I like the best...



2. This is tough... I'd choose either Zimerman or Richter.... Sadly the later is deceased... I don't know if Zimerman teaches or not... PRobably doesn't... But this is a fantasy anyway! :]



3. Somewhere warm and bloody humid... Flordia'd be nice... But it has to be a warm place that can have air conditioning to protect my precious piano...



4. I don't know... Could I perform some concertos? I'd do Saint-Saens's 3rd piano concerto and Scriabin's piano concerto... Oh... That's an exotic choice!



Now... for organ?



1. So I can have any organ I want? I hope my fabulously wealthy person has about 70,000,000+ dollars! This has always been a dream of mine... To custom make my own organ! That'd be SOOOO awesome! I'd choose all of my stops and put them where I want them to be... Oh! I'd be so great! As for who'd I'd commission to make this fine instrument... Some stupendous German brand...



2. Can I pick Widor? Or Franck? Or Bach?



3. Wherever this grand organ is is where I'd have to reside...



4. Widors 6th symphony for sure... Hey, how would you like to hear all of Bach's trio sonatas, prelude and fugues, toccata and fugues, and fantasy and fugues all in one sitting? That's what I'd like to do... That might take a mighty long time though... yikes...



Well yes... I'm rather the fantasizing type... If only one day one of these far-fetched dreams would come true... Heheheh =]



Have a superb day Hafwen!



--Schumiszt

Answer 2

You did say fabulously wealthy, Yes? as in fable?



1. A Fiazola Concert Grand – the longest model: condition, especially constructed midi system with a 32 note polyphony playback. / What the hell, also a Bosendorfer Concert Grand - same specifications

+ a celesta + a Clavichord + a double manual harpsichord / & full synthesizer system with the best instrumental samples, including period instruments, ethnic instruments. Real collection of Tibetan singing bowls.



2. Stravinsky’s Muse / Luciano Berio’s Muse



3. Anywhere I choose: Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, a lovely lodge in California’s High Sierras / a house on a high bluff overlooking an ocean. Nowhere tropical or semi-tropical.



4. My already composed forty-minute long suite in thirteen movements for multi-tracked midi piano, at last re-edited and played on an actual acoustic midi piano. / intermission / a twenty-minute long orchestral work, perhaps with mixed electronics, maybe including the above mentioned keyboard instruments as part of the ensemble - this is more in the nature of varioius mixed ensembles with a few tutti..



5. All will be satisfactorily entertained.





Thanks, I feel better now, I think. Or is it more despairing than before?



p.b.

Answer 3

Fun question! When I was a child I had a burning desire to play piano, but after that I had an equal desire to play, of all things, the Veracruz harp. This was when I was about seven. So I would probably take advantage of such a rare opportunity to study that, in Latin America.



Actually, though, the instrument I most want to play now is the one I just started- violin. So I would probably ask to study in China, so that I could visit all over Asia while I was there. I would talk my wealthy patron into paying for my trips as part of my "cultural enrichment." And the final recital- so it's "typical," but I really adore the Mendelssohn. The Sibelius concerto is great too.

Answer 4

Yes, quite a delicious fantasy...



1. Yamaha YCL622 or a Buffet BC1193 - both low-C bass clarinets. Or that gorgeously engraved Basset Horn picked up by a circus musician I once studied who brought it over from Europe, now gathering dust in the display case of my former undergraduate university....



2. Harry Sparnaay



3. The Netherlands - He used to teach at the U of Amsterdam, I don't know if he does anymore :(



4. I love that Mr. Sparnaay premiers "new works" and I'm entranced with his performance of "Jackdaw" - for bass clarinet and computer. Nothing like being your own accompanist.

Answer 5

First scenario:



1) Steinway Concert Grand, Model D, manufactured in Hamburg!

2) Eh...I really don't know. Someone who specialises in Romantic works, because I'm a Romantic nut. EDIT: We have time machines? Oh, then I'll choose Chopin.

3) I would hope I get to pick a teacher based in Europe, since I love the scenery and environment there.

4) Ha, this one's easy. Chopin's 1st Piano Concerto.



Second scenario:



1) I wouldn't need to buy one, because I already have it (voice). Yay!

2) Outrageous as this may seem, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. She's my favourite singer, and I love her personality too. Such passion for her art and future singers. And she does give masterclasses all over the world, so it's not like she can't teach. Hahahaha.

3) UK, I think :)

4) I don't just want to give a recital, I want to sing in a complete production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro - as either Susanna or Countess!

Answer 6

Like every (smart) pianist out there, I would buy a Steinway Concert Grand Piano, Model D. I would choose to study with Lang Lang. Yeah, you can make fun of me if you want. But his sense of depth in piano literature and musicality is brilliant. Last I heard he's doing a residency with the London Symphony Orchestra. Final recital would include Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and Rachmaninoff.

Answer 7

1. Since I'm a singer, I'd get a piano. Probably a Steinway, although I don't know a lot about pianos, so I'd do some research. It'd have to be a 9-ft grand though.

2. I'd study bel canto technique with Cecilia Bartoli . . .

3. . . .in Italy. Probably in Roma or Milano.

4. Do I have to have a recital? I'd rather sing the tital role in La Cenerentola with an all-star cast.

Answer 8

Hallo,Hafwen.Thank you for that really wonderful question.



1)I would like to buy the "Guarnieri del Gesu"violin that Niccolo Paganini

played during his lifetime.

2)I would study with Tartini,Paganini and Nigel Kennedy(As this is fantasy,time machines are available and studying with Tartini and Paganini would be possible)

3)We would study at different places in old and modern Europe.

4)And now the recital:I would take the "Bella's Lullaby" with me in the time machine and handle it over to Tartini and Paganini.They both write

a Real Classical Piece from the stuff called:"The Art of really genuine composing and performing a classical piece of music - The genuine Bellas Lullaby - 50 Variations on a theme by Carter Burwell for violin

and orchestra - performed in the style and manner of Nigel Kennedy.



Best wishes from Heidelberg/Germany.

Answer 9

Heya Hafwin, this is a great question. Star for you *clap clap*

It's a great dream!

1) I'd get a violin, just because it's one of the few instruments I have not yet attempted. Or maybe a harp ... It's a touch decision. I'll stick to the violin, just because it makes a really pretty sound.

2) Joshua Bell. He is AMAZING!

But you know, I can dream and go with Bach ...

3) Clair De Lune, Mendelssohn in E minor or Turkish Rondo for something random and fun :)



This was great!

Answer 10

1. 15 course baroque arch-lute.... or a thirteen course baroque lute with a theorboed top. (P.S I created the word theorboed, but I am referring to a certain style.) and I would have a restored original instrument. (They are about $250000 at least!)

2. Luca Pianca.

3. Switzerland or Italy. (Hopefully Italy, I adore all the beautiful architecture in northern italy, and being in such a picturesque spot would inspire be to paint.)

4. Vivaldi's Concerto for lute in D major of course! and Telemann Chaconne (Ok, the main instrument is a traverso, but the lute part is beautiful!)



That is of course without my time machine! With a time machine I would learn lute and violin. I would learn the lute from the elderly (nearly dead) Francesca Caccini in Italy, and then skip a few years and study Violin with Vivaldi while he was in Germany.



Hmm... maybe a better idea is to use this time machine to go back to when I was eight years old, and NOT quit recorder, then I could go study with Giovanni Antonini in Milan.





And if I could have any instrument in the world (other than a lute) it would be a LUTE HARPSICHORD! or an oboe...





EDIT:

No offense intended when I say this, but I couldnt stop laughing when I read "I would study bel canto technique with Cecilia Bartoli." She has awful technique and if I were to give you any advice it would be DONT DO WHAT SHE DOES!!!! She is my favourite mezzo though.... Ah contradictions are annoying!



EDIT:



Schumiszt - On your enormous custom built organ, could you play me "Fuga in C major" by Pachelbel? pretty please?





EDIT:



Ok I forgot about my voice... oops!



1. I have it already.

2. Nicola Porpora. Ok, his opera company in London was not nearly as sucessful as Handels, and his compositions lack variety, but he was certainly a good singing teacher. (Even if only one of his students is now well known - Farinelli...)

3. London of course... and even though Handel was his rival, I would secretly sing with/for Handel too...

4. Porporas aria: Il pastor se torna aprile... and for the complete opposite: HANDEL! maybe the aria Venti Turbini?



Cheers!

Answer 11

Hi =) Yeah your question is really interesting =) And here's my dream...



1. I would get a Steinway grand piano (huge grand one, not baby sized and the latest manufacturing)

2. I would choose to learn with Lang Lang (he's the best pianist i've ever seen and heard, and his styles are magnificent!) and I'll think of ways to prolong my contract with him whenever, where ever)

3. He's based in London Symphony Orchestra and resides in LA

4. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2, Chopin's Revolutionary Etude,

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody Op.40, Warsaw Concerto and the Cornish Rhapsody by Beth.



Can i add a 5th and 6th?



5. I would love to perform someday in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, or Berlin Phil Orch, or the London Symphony Orchestra, or Russia Philharmonic playing Tchaikovsky! ^_^



6. I would love to perform all over the world, receiving standing ovations, especially in Carnegie Hall and suddenly someone wealthy had an eye on my playing and sponsors me to Juilliard or the Vienna Conservatory!!!!!!!!



Well well....as you said, that's just fantasies....lol =)



Cheers ~

Answer 12

1. I would buy a grand piano. Probably Steinway (cliche?) Or I'd buy the piano that is in Grieg's home. Oh, how I want to touch it!



2. I would study with...hm...either

Leif Ove Andsnes -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmc-Ga8R3gA

or

Steffen Horn -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4NhDIFC8oE



3. Hmm, New Zealand, Australia or Norway. The top three places I want to visit sometime hah



4. Maybe Raff's Piano Concerto, or Griegs, or one of Saint-Saens (the 1st or 5th probably) or Chopin's First. Or one of Rachmaninov's.

Also, Nocturnes by Chopin, and Preludes by Rachmaninov.







It's a fantasy, right?

Answer 13

Each time I answer one of your deliciously-worded questions and I think you can't possibly get anymore creative, you surprise me, Hafwen. =)



1. A del Gesú violin.



2. Jascha Heifetz and Vivaldi(because I stole Switch's time machine).



3. Lithuania and Italy.



4. Classics (most of them cliché) such as the Sibelius concerto in D minor and the Vitali Chaconne.

Answer 14

I'd get myself a badass harpsichord, custom-built with the help of Jukka Tiensuu's designs. Then I would kidnap Trevor Pinnock and make him teach me in Hamburg. My final recital would be really Rameau-heavy with a good mix of my own stuff.



Or maybe I would go camp out in a German church to play a Silbermann organ and have a weird Messaien/Buxtehude mix.

Answer 15

1. Violin

2. I have no idea.

3. Italy during the winter and England in the summer

4. Something classical, beautiful, and inspiring OR the tango piece off of the movie True Lies

Answer 16

1. I'm like Orla. I would study composition.

2. I'm like Switch. I would travel through time so I could study with Nadie Boulanger.

3. Paris.

4. I'm working on an Emily Dickinson song cycle and a children's opera right now.

Answer 17

1. I'm tempted to say that I would stick with my gagliano, but I would probably get a stradivari- even though I've heard some gagliano's outmatch them.



2 Itzhak Perlman, best violinist alive



3- well, he travels all over the world for concerts, so I'd have to go with him.



I would play several works of paganini and Sarasate, and finish it with the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto.



Fun question!

Answer 18

1 Double Bass

2 Gary Karr

3 I am not sure where he is based

4 Dragonetti Concerto for Bass

Answer 19

Hello, Hafwen!

Interesting question!

I would choose to buy a Steinway grand piano (of course, manufactured, production 2009).

I would like to study with Evgeny Kissin. (I know he doesn't teach, but he is my favorite pianist.

And I would like to play in the final concert all Chopin studies.

Cheers!

Answer 20

The depth of your imagination "hafwen", exceeds even the speed of light. You and Herr Einstein would have enjoyed conversing, you have much in common.



1) a conductor's baton - haven't any idea what brand.



2) Christian Thielemann



3) The Festspielhaus, Bayreuth, Germany



4) a complete performance of Wagner's "Die Gotterdammerung".



Christian Thielemann has been chosen as music adviser to Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner - both great-granddaughters of Richard - who were chosen by the 21 member Board of Directors of the Bayreuth Festivals, to be co-directors of the annual Festivals in 9-01-08; and Thielemann it's is presumed, will conduct the performances of the 2009 Festival.



I would be in absolute heaven. You said this was fantasy, right? I've never conducted an orchestra in my life; and no doubt, it would be utterly ridiculous for me to attempt "Die Gotterdammerung".



Alberich

Answer 21

the instruments would be violin and viola and who else but Pinchas Zukermann since teaches in NYC its back to the really big city for me with my Amati violin and 1717 Motagana viola.... the recital would be 2 pieces what else but Harold in Italy ... for violin it's harder to decide but the Khachaturian violin concerto

Answer 22

Ooh! Fun question!



1. A lyre. I love greek mythology, and lyre was the symbol of one of my favorite Greek gods, Apollo. The lyre seems to epitomize music in greek mythology, plus it just looks so elegant.

2. Apollo himself! (You did say this was fantasy!)

3. Why Mt. Olympus of course! Where else!

4. Erm...there isn't much for the lyre today...



This was a lot of fun! Thanks for the entertainment Hafwen!

Answer 23

1. an Amati or Stradivari Violin

2. since this is fantasy (and we have time machines) I would study with Vivaldi and Bach

3. Italy and Germany

4. I would have written them and my teachers would be very impressed.

Answer 24

1. a gibson les paul with the recording thing attached lmao

2. either all-american-rejects, or muse or paramore (all sooo talented)

3. ameraica (i love there) lol

4.i do my own music so i would just do some of my own stuff lol