You can travel to a beautiful place and decide to stay there for a week. Or leave next day to another beautiful place, and leave again etc.
Why? Because you are excited to see something new. Although you hardly saw the first place, you want to discover new things. Because you are eager and excited to go on. Nothing wrong with that! But that’s why you didn’t see the well with fresh water at the first place. And you didn’t see the pineapple wood, and the lake that was waiting for you to swim.
This little story is how it feels to stay at the first page of the Italian Concerto. I discovered new things, like diving in a deep lake without knowing how deep it is. You can swim further and further, wanting to reach the bottom. Then you really have to get back to breath, because it is endless.
I keep myself awake by doing little ‘games’ like: I am going to observe mainly the 5th finger of the right hand. From bar 5 to 12 of the third movement (Presto) I suddenly noticed that the little finger is very busy, and has an important role: it plays the downward scale of B flat. Did I ever notice? In a way: yes. But only with my brain. Now I ‘feel’ it like I ‘am’ my little finger. Also it is the first time I consciously noticed this E flat in bar 6. It doesn’t belong in the scale of F. Of course: it belongs in the scale of B flat, the fourth tone in F. But in a way it is ‘shocking’ because you would expect an E. So why is it there? Maybe it is a prediction for the E flat in the second theme that starts in bar 25. Like a short announcement that this is going to happen.
I also noticed bar 10 en 11: in two bars the E flat changes again in bar 11 in a normal E.
While slowing down, with just one page, I see more. It’a bit like the difference between cycling or driving a car. When you cycle, you see more of the surroundings. And when you walk, even more.
Of course this study session was not only rose scent and moonshine. I also met:
1. Impatience. I really had to hold myself back to play further on the second page. I told myself I couldn’t enter that room, because the floor was still wet
2. Distraction. Thinking about what to do after the practise.
3. Sleepiness. This only occurs when my mind is drifting off. What helps, is having a clear focus. Like: observe the fingering, or listen only to the left hand
3. Longing for coffee (I just went to grab one, towards the end!)
and several thoughts about other things. But everytime I went back to where I came from, with my full attention.