What I'm playing this week

On the piano:

Bach Prelude and Fugue, WTCII/2: I'm still working on memorizing the fugue. I know I keep practicing it too fast; I think going through it slowly a number of times will settle it down a lot. But it's close to being learned, after two months. This is the shortest one I've tried, though -- each piece is only a page long, so there's a lot less to learn than the C sharp major from WTCI, for example.

Brahms Op. 118: I've been concentrating on Nos. 1 and 2 this week. No. 1 is still eluding me, and I don't know why. I think it's because I don't understand it.

No. 2, though it's played by kids the world over, is also eluding me. Brahms is just so thick, and when I really try to play every note cleanly, I have trouble with voicing. Memorizing is tricky because there are changes in each repetition of a theme. In this particular piece, the structure is ABA; within the first A, there are two sections. In the second A, the first section of the first A is a variation rather than a repeat, but then the second section is an exact repeat of the parallel section in the first A. The B section also comprises an ABA structure, with the second A a variation on the first.

Gershwin Preludes: I've been feeling very crabby about these pieces. I cannot seem to make them clean. Perhaps I am coming up to the limits of my knowledge of piano technique, and this is the time I should start looking for a teacher.

Chopin Op. 55 No. 1 Nocturne: This is coming back fairly quickly. It feels much less difficult than it did the first time around.

Cello:

Vacation time! I haven't touched it since Sunday.