On rest and the ship of Theseus question

Sharon's Weekly Head Dump

Because the work (playing the piano) I thoughtlessly chose to pursue as a young invincible teen requires my brain, muscles, and fine motor control to all be in top working order, I have had to accept that taking proper care of my corporeal form is a burden my adult self must bear. I have tried mentally beating myself up when my body is not up to the work and, surprises on surprises, that somehow does not magically make me want to do things!

I started out this week ready to dive into doing all the work and plowing through all the projects, and then sometime around 1:30 PM on Monday my body went “no ❤️” and that was that.

🎹 sharon su 🎹 @doodlyroses

why do I always have to listen to my body, can’t my body listen to me for a change

12:45 AM ∙ Jan 28, 2023

Taking time to rest is so anathema to everything I know that it felt really radical this week to take things more slowly and practice less, but I know from past experience that pushing through the tiredness just means I’ll hit a wall and feel really crappy later. It also helped that I’d seen these posts from Hilary Hahn, whose musings on practicing are genuinely great:

Hilary Hahn @violincase

2/3 A day off still can count as practice without your even trying to be compensatory about it. If you know it’s better for you to take the day, and it won’t create too much stress tomorrow (hence the intentional aspect), there’s no need to practice to say you practiced.

5:48 AM ∙ Jan 21, 2023

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Hilary Hahn @violincase

3/3 Rest days and cross training days are critical for athletes. They should be for musicians, too.

5:49 AM ∙ Jan 21, 2023

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If world-famous, multi-Grammy-winning superstar violinist Hilary Hahn takes days off, well then, so can I!

Chamber thoughts

Last Friday I went to see the Takács Quartet with Jeremy Denk; I go to the symphony a lot (if you couldn’t tell) but I rarely go to chamber music concerts, for some reason.

My two non-musical thoughts, as I waited for the concert to start:

1. Prompted by my reading that the Takács Quartet was founded in 1975, and the cellist, András Fejér, is the sole original member: when ensembles completely turn over, can they truly be considered the same ensemble?? Where do we stand on the Ship of Theseus question as it applies to string quartets?

2. The next time I look at all the young upstart prodigies in classical music and feel super old by comparison, I just need to buy tickets to a chamber concert, apparently. I was the youngest person in attendance as far as I could see, and I felt extremely youthful. Obviously this trick only works while I am still considered a young person. After that, I have no idea what I am to do.

Everything the Takács Quartet played was absolutely delightful. Their performance of the Haydn “Lobkowitz” quartet was brimming with the type of humor that I so often miss when I hear people playing Haydn, and I also really liked the Robert Schumann piano quintet???

I also got to hear Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s string quartet for the first time, and it was superbly done. No recording truly does it justice, but here’s one recent performance of it by the Mistral Quartet:

That’s it for now, folks—I am TIRED. My brain is asking me to please stop producing words. Have a good weekend, and see you next Friday! 🎹