Heidelberg Piano

Dear friends of piano music, it was just a completely harmless tooth extraction, a wisdom tooth that was a bit too big, but since I didn't feel like waiting an entire hour for the next train, I ran to the station. Unfortunately, I also had a bit of a cold, so I had to cough on the train. In the eyes of my fellow travelers, sheer horror was reflected when a rush of blood spilled into a white handkerchief while coughing ....... You automatically think of a serious illness when someone coughs blood. At the time, of course, I immediately thought of Chopin, who, like so many of his contemporaries, had tuberculosis since he was a child. The Prelude in E minor was one of the pieces played at his funeral in Paris, on the La Madeleine organ. Death was always present in Chopin's life. At the age of 16 he accompanied his younger sister to a lung sanatorium. Knowing that he was suffering from the same disease, he saw the doctors try to help her with bloodletting, leeches and bladder plaste

  Dear friends of piano music, Schubert and I, we have a lot in common. We are both completely lost without glasses, small in stature (although Schubert was a good bit shorter, just as tall as my grandmother), both of us as a teacher's child did not like going to school and worked as teachers ourselves later.   But that's where the similarities stop. I am already considerably older than Schubert was allowed to become. We are afraid of Corona, even more afraid of being hit by both diseases during a flu epidemic. That is certainly bad and not without risk, but how dreadful it must be to have syphilis and Typhoid fever at the same time is beyond my imagination. How much death was part of life at the time is illustrated by the fact that of Schubert's 15 siblings only 4 reached adulthood. It is unimaginable how women at the risk of their lives gave birth to one child after the other, only to watch them die again. Schubert, on the other hand, is immortal, his 600 songs alone ar

  Dear friends of piano music, Almost a year ago I started uploading recordings of piano works to YouTube. Since it is a video platform, a picture is required in addition to the music, at least a static picture, or better moving pictures. It's a challenge, but I am happy to accept it. I spend a lot of time choosing a picture that goes with the music, because it either illustrates the music or comments on it. That is not always easy. Sometimes it works better, sometimes it's just a beautiful picture to beautiful music. Apparently this picture ("Spring Song") by Paul Hey went particularly well with Chopin's waltz (A mimor, B. 150 Op. posth.). Just enjoy and dream.

  Ansbach is a beautiful city in Franconia, the northern part of Bavaria, Germany. Does Ansbach have anything to do with Bach, except that it has “Bach” in its name, that there is a Bach square and a Bach monument here? Bach was never in Ansbach in his life. Nevertheless, there have been Bach festivals here for a long time. And there is another connection: In a cantata (Non sa che sia dolor e BWV 209) the city “Ansbach” appears. The cantata is probably dedicated to a lawyer returning to his hometown of Ansbach, who studied in Leipzig. The poet of the cantata is unknown. The awkward Italian suggests a German author. Like everywhere else in the world, Bach is revered in Ansbach. There doesn't have to be a special reason for this. His music is enough.