The Suzuki piano repertoire has recently been updated with new pieces all of which are included in this recording as well as Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations On An Original Theme, WoO8O.
Valery’s warmth and love for the music shines through her expressive performances on this CD.
Soon to be available on CDBaby, Amazon and iTunes.
I’m going to look for this CD. I’m long overdue in searching for things in my life that I loved. Going to the Suzuki piano institute, “Piano Camp”, at Queen’s University in the late 70’s early 80’s is an experience that I’ll never forget, and was one of the happiest times in my 47 years.
I was just a rough-and-tumble kid from upstate N.Y. that had more people telling him to follow his talent in wrestling than piano-playing. Even though I turned out to be a generalist to the fullest extent and probably can’t specialize in anything… not to forget that injuries from various activities have left me with little of the control I used to have with my fingers… I still dream of playing the piano well enough to melt people’s hearts, and leave them completely lost in the music. That’s where I prefer to be.
I learned songs through the Suzuki books up to about book 4 I think, but I learned more from book 5 on my own that I thought were beautiful. Unfortunately my mind was so distracted and influenced by 15 years old I drifted away from taking lessons.
By my 20’s I was in the Air Force and started to re-teach myself many of those songs and a few others in classical and pop. I didn’t quite have the emotion in my playing that I had as a kid. Others mostly improve in some ways as they go on in life; I seem to peak at the tender age of 14! That’s when my piano teacher told me that Valery Lloyd-Watts mentioned I played with more emotion than any young boy she had ever heard. No joke. I heard that after I had sort of decided I wasn’t happy feeling torn between piano and sports, and didn’t want to do anything for any adult. I just wanted to hang out with the young girls I met at Kingston, and maybe be a paleontologist studying fossils in the Gobi desert some day. Crazy and drifting as usual.
Eventually I found a piano to buy, and found a CD of the Suzuki songs I could buy. I knew I learned far more easily listening to Valery than reading off the page. It takes me years to find the notes sometimes.
The CD was not Valery playing, however. It was some young guy obviously chosen because he could play other things really well, and in his interpretation of the Suzuki songs were interesting and sounded like athletic playing, but I preferred Valery’s. It could be the old “first time is best version” phenomenon, but I truly believe the way Valery plays those songs naturally follows the notes the way our minds should hear them. It’s just right. I only know those songs from the vinyl records from 1980.
Now maybe I can find the CD and start all over.
Cheers Valery.
–Erik