Did you know that the phrase, “warts and all,” is attributed to Oliver Cromwell, in his instructions to the portrait artist, Sir Peter Lely? According to the Free Dictionary, Cromwell ordered Lely “not to flatter him, but to paint him with any and all physicial imperfections . . . “warts and all.”
Nowadays, when we use the phrase “warts and all,” we mean to leave skin imperfections “in” and not to use software such as Photoshop to correct skin tone or edit out blemishes.
In this case I’m using “warts and all” to describe the recording of my concert which I’ve just posted online, after breaking up the raw tape into individual tracks. I’ve heard that audio engineers can do amazing things with sound these days—even correct wrong notes! Well, none of that happened with my concert tape, and I openly confess that there are flaws! (It maddens me that the performance wasn’t absolutely “perfect”! People say, though, that only God is perfect and we are all flawed human beings.) Okay, I freely admit this! I’m guessing that’s what happens when you are not a full-time musician and can’t devote 6-8 hours of your day practicing!
Here are the “unedited” sound files below:
Here are more comments which people have sent to me:
“That was truly a great performance last night. Congratulations for playing so magnificently throughout such a tour de force. You won’t be surprised to know that I had never even heard of the work before—the brief choral interludes provided a nice balance. A splendid concert. Thanks for introducing us, and I’m sure many others there, to it.” -I.C.
[We] were touched by the concert and the rapport with those of us fortunate in attendance. Even with the shortened octet, the experience held my attention. I was glad to see from this morning’s insanity blog that we weren’t the only ones so moved. I remarked to Allen [Bauchle] my noticing that for someone “retired” you are not in any one place long enough to let the dust settle. He said, “Well, that’s part of who Kathy is!” The lives you’ve touched and influenced have certainly produced ever widening circles of love and friendship. May it so be here and after. -J.C.
“Stupendous job tonight! I especially enjoyed the Allein Gott…trio (beautifully played), Christ Unser Herr, and the joyous, almost funny, Jesus Christus, Unser Heiland. And I thought the “St. Anne” fugue was masterful! So nice to hear the organ sounding “Bachish.” Hope you get a well deserved rest for at least a couple of days!” -M.R.
In case you were driving past the Lutheran Church of Honolulu this past week, and heard strains of Bach wafting through the air, guess what. . . if you thought you heard Clavierübung, you guessed right! I cannot rest on my laurels! I’ve got to keep most of the pieces in my fingers, because yes, I’ll be playing much of it again.
On November 13 at 6:00 pm at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, I will be the guest organist on their monthly organ recital following Vespers, and surprise, surprise, I’ve chosen to present selections from Clavierübung. If you click here, you can see my name listed in the roster of organ recitalists for their 31st season, 2016-2017. Wow, what an illustrious group of organists! I’m w-a-a-a-y outta my league!
