I woke this morning full of grand plans for the public holiday only to discover the power was off. Not only was it off it stayed that way until midday. So no washing, no ironing (as if I was going to iron anyway), no netflix and no blogging! And I was a day behind again.

The one thing I could not get out of was violin practice. No electricity needed for that. Just me, my violin and some music. I’ve somewhat stupidly and optimistically entered myself for my AMus exam in August. That means from now until then a day cannot pass without a practice session. (Well except for yesterday when I had a headache…but I did some mental thinking about practice. IT COUNTS OKAY).

But this morning….I focused on my Beethoven sonata and my Brahms sonata. Yes. My program includes two sonatas (not the full things, just 1st two movements, and 1st movement respectively). Radical apparently. They are at once astonishingly beautiful and bastards of things to play. It is getting more difficult as I master my part to practise without a pianist on hand at all times. Because what violin sonatas are – are really violin and piano sonatas. Duets. And the pianist gets the raw end of the deal with many more notes and technical challenges than the violinist. But it is essential to practise together because the work has been written that way. For now, I have to manage by playing the piano part in my mind as I play the violin.

And for those playing along at home my other pieces for my exam are the last two movements of Bach’s Sonata in C (unaccompanied) and the Appassionata by Suk. This is a fabulous piece which I was not familiar with at all until I started learning it. Here’s a version that I like.

If I can play it half that well I’ll be thrilled.