Day 6 - Still going strong!

Today was day 6 of my first week of practicing for this recital, and I think all in all it's going fairly well. I find that around 5-6pm it gets to be the beginning of the end for me each day, so I'm really trying to get as much done before then as possible. Today I started around 9:30am, after the technician came to deliver a DVR!!! Finally, I'm joining the 21st century :)

Some notes:

1. Practicing makes my back hurt. Like, a lot. I take breaks and stretch but it still hurts.
2. The first Ravel waltz is not that easy to memorize. I'm a little annoyed that I still haven't even finished one Ravel waltz yet, although to be fair I really have been focusing on the Liszt and Ginastera.
3. For some reason I was scared to start the 1st mvt of Ginastera, but I started it today, and so far it's not so bad. I'm kind of finding that's my reaction to most of the stuff of which I'm scared.
   
4. Speaking of scary, there was a small snake on my back patio today. The handyman kindly took it far, far away.
5. Yes, I have a handyman.
   
6. Those chromatic major thirds at the end of the 2nd mvt of Ginastera are nasty. I have tried several fingerings, and I think I've found the one I like, but I will be doing some research into other chromatic third passages to see if I can come up with anything else.
   

Memory progress as of today, June 23, 2011:

Liszt: 6/9 pages or 67%
Beethoven: 5/11 pages or 45%
Ginastera Mvt 1: 0.6/7 pages or 9%
Ginastera Mvt 2: 5.3/7 pages or 88%
Ginastera Mvt 4: 7/7 pages or 100%!!!
Ravel Waltz No.1 (Adelaide): 2.5/3.5 pages or 71%

Um, if you've noticed that the Chopin isn't here, that's because it should be coming in the mail any day now... It's taking its sweet time, but I'm excited because I decided to splurge and get the new Polish National Edition. I had 20% off with Burt & Co music which helped me make that decision. It's also coming with the Durand edition of the Ravel. I originally purchased the Alfred Masterwork edition of the Ravel (don't judge me!) which is actually cool because it has a ton of background info about the piece, historical context, formal analysis, various recordings, use of the sostenuto pedal, performance suggestions, programming suggestions, and an article by Walter Gieseking called "How Does One Perform Ravel's Piano Music?" Um, to be perfectly honest, I haven't read any of this stuff, except the notes about editorial fingerings. So that is what I plan to do tonight. But getting back to the Durand - I decided to order that just because I think there are a lot of marks in this score that are not original.