Dave Plays the Piano and Something Hilarious Happens

Quite a bit has happened since my last post. Most majorly, I had my piano recital on Sunday, which was quite eventful. (Notice that already in this post I have spelled the word "quite" correctly twice now!) There was a pretty good turnout for a Sunday evening during May Term; there was about 50-60 people in attendance. My whole family was there, as well as several DRL friends, and most of the track team dominated the balcony (thanks guys!). My recital partner, Sarah, played 3 amazing pieces on the violin. I played a piece by Gottschalk, a Haydn sonata, and Prokofiev's Diabolical Suggestion. Everything went well until the last piece. The Prokofiev piece is very fast and rhythmic; once the piece gets started it's pretty much a non-stop roller coaster to the finish. The piece was going great....until I got to the last page. At that point, I totally blanked (I was playing it from memory). However, as I pounded random chords, I thought, "Just go back a page and try it again, Dave." So I did. However, as I approached the spot for the second time, I once again came to the realization that I could not for the life of me remember how the piece was supposed to end. That's a lie; I knew it was supposed to end quietly. However, it's much easier to convince people you are not improvising by playing extremely loud and fast than by playing extremely fast and quiet. So, at this point completely flustered and wanting only to get off the stage as fast as I could to preserve any sense of dignity that my teacher still felt towards me, I played a two sweeping glissandos, nailed the top and bottom note of the piano "karate-chop" style, bowed, and walked off the stage. I think only my teacher and I knew what had just happened. I thought it was hilarious. Thankfully, at the reception following the recital, he told me, "Those kind of things happen," and he complimented me for not resorting to other more obvious behaviors when one forgets their piece at a recital (i.e. fainting, texting, building a tree fort, etc....). All in all, it was a good experience, and I'm thankful to Sarah for coming up with the idea of us doing a recital together.