ISOLDE TROOST

So here it is - the third and final movement of Mon Livre Rouge! Since this week all the video edits of Mon Livre Rouge are up for the close scrutiny of... well, anyone, really! The solo piano piece, composed by Jannum Kruidhof, was finished in October 2014 and recorded in the very same month. The artists responsible for making it happen are of course the aforementioned composer, plus the incomparable sound engineer Sara Theofilova, aided and abetted by fabulous cameraman Jel

I got the audio file of this recording last week. The video followed this weekend. And I have to say, I'm pretty stunned. I mean, it's something knowing that you're working with professionals, and that the product that's going to come out is going to be something worth showing. But it's something else to actually see it. So yeah, pretty pleased with myself right now. Since I've already told you lot all about the actual recording day, I'll now regale you with the story of me m

It's been a while since this concert. It doesn't make it any less awesome. To be honest, when I first got the score - about two weeks before concert - I did a bit of a deer-in-headlights impression when looking at the rythms, because as catchy as it sounds, the first time you look at it it's gibberish. At least, if your sightreading skills are equal to mine. Then I girded up my loins, so to speak (although I'm not entirely certain a woman's supposed to do that. Pretty sure th

I think I was seven when I got my first library card - old enough (at least in my opinion) to start reading "real books" (those being the ones that don't consist mainly of pictures). The first aforementioned real book I read was C.S. Lewis' "The Silver Chair" - in Dutch, obviously, and retrospectively with rather big letters, but I still remember getting it (and promptly going out to loan four more books, getting quite upset when I found out that was the limit, never mind I c

So, Philip Glass. Not exactly a challenge for any pianist, but made very interesting indeed by the choreography made to it - it's always wonderful to work with dancers. "Solo Piano" (1989) is an album of piano music composed by Philip Glass. It was produced by Kurt Munkacsi. The title of five of the seven tracks, "Metamorphosis", refers to and was inspired by the 1915 short story "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka. The silence duet is, at least for the pianist, to be compared

A couple of years ago, I heard this piece performed, and then didn't rest until I'd hunted down a copy of it. The only one I could find was the rather fancy "Limited Edition" printed by Breitkopf & Härtel in 2002 - pretty green hardcover, gold lettering, the works - which came with an introduction. Part of that is the following: "Even if "Wie die Zeit läuft!" (How time flies!) is not officially designated as a "song without words", this appellation, created by Mendelssohn him

Apparently, I can’t get enough of the Nordic Countries. I would’ve said Scandinavia, but I’ve been told off too often about Finland not being part of it – I really should have paid better attention in geography, because in my head it really does, and evidently I don’t care enough to actively change this mindset. Don’t tell anyone. In any case – Finland! Filled with Fins, as is to be expected, but most importantly containing Elisabeth St-Cyr, Violinist Extraordinaire, who I ha

A proper recording of a new piece is always something very desirable. Therefore Jannum, the composer and instigator of Walking the Wire, and I figured that since I knew “Mon Livre Rouge” anyway, we might as well try and put together a fancy recording at The Hague Conservatoire – I mean, where else is one to find a pretty Steinway D to play? We'd planned to do it last week Wednesday. And then I got the chicken pox. Apparently, I never had them. I'm still not exactly sure who i

And so, after two(ish) weeks of rehearsal, we came to performance day, and it was awesome. Our final “normal” rehearsal had been Wednesday night, in which the Grand Finale was choreographed – to my singing the piece, because the dancers needed a mirror to do the actual choreographing, which was only available in the dance studio, which didn’t have a piano in it. Thus I spent this rehearsal trying to sing a three-part harmony with myself, which probably would’ve gone a lot be

It has been hinted at already, in the cheerful little “next performance” box on the right-hand side of my home page – a concert will be given in De Regentenkamer, The Hague, on Sunday the 12th of October 2014. And not just any concert. A concert featuring the works of composer Jannum Kruidhof and his “Artist Collective” – the bunch of brilliant people he’s convinced to play his music – plus Yours Truly. I myself will be featuring in a rendition of “Points of View”, a funky, j