I love my teacher. I told him I have to make pre-screening tapes in the next few days, and he told me to just play each movement two or three times, take the best one, and be done with it. I mean, it's what I was going to do anyways, but I always appreciate it when a teacher tries to make potentially high-pressure situations easier (and recording certainly counts). Tomorrow I'm doung a gig in Milwaukee, subbing for my friend in his string quartet. I'll be sight-reading everything, and I hear they do some rather complex tempo changes in a few of their numbers (they transcribed a few pop songs, like Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen) so I hope I don't screw them up. Speaking of sight-reading, tonight I played the first two movements of the Brahms Sonata in F for my very first time with my nextdoor neighbor. I'd literally never seen the music before, but my family was over at his place for desert after thanksgiving dinner and he requested to play it. He's really a heckuva pianist when it comes to just reading through music. One of the few pianists I've met who never gets bogged down in notes when reading, always keeps his pulse and the harmonies intact, and that's really good enough. I think it's funny that it's taken me so long to even play Brahms F, let alone work on it, but it was a lot of fun, and I even hit most of the notes, which is good, because there were at least 10 people sitting there listening.
Got a LOT to do this coming week. Looking forward to it being over, cause then it's New York and BOSTON. I love Boston.