On September 22, 2016, I went to a concert at one of my school's recital halls to see piano soloist Jeffrey Siegel. This was for a music class assignment and I was one of the very few Millennials in a room mostly populated with Baby Boomers and Silent Generation folk. However what I saw was really fascinating and reaffirmed my appreciation for classical-styled music.

The title of the program was called Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel, and it features the man performing and talking about "The Golden Age of the Piano," a time when piano music was at its height and was a lucrative market for aspiring musicians back in the day. He gives an approximate range for this era as being between 1880 and 1920. Jeffrey also introduced earlier Romantic era pieces that inspired musicians and engaged listeners during the golden age.

Before performing each piece, he would provide relevant facts, information, and historical context about the music. This helped give the audience a greater sense of understanding and focus towards the pieces he was performing, making it easier to recognize and comprehend. If there was one thing I could nitpick on, it would be that he could have spent even more time than he did talking about each song, because I found the commentary quite intriguing to listen to.

He also played small samples of the songs in order to help familiarize the audience and entice them into hearing the rest of the music as a whole. One example of this was just before he introduced the last song of the night, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, he played four different melodic lines from the middle of the song and combined them, with one hand playing two melodies each.This was one moment that demonstrated Jeffrey's technical abilities and expertise as a piano player, which made the show more fun to watch overall.

I enjoyed watching his performance as it was very dynamic and expressive, smoothly transitioning between louder and softer bits of music. The set list was well chosen, encompassing the creative and emotional breadth of the compositions that came out of the supposed golden age of piano music. When all was said and done, he held a Q&A session to let the audience interact with him one-on-one and learn more about his upbringing, musical influences, and so forth. A lovely night I should say.

Set List:

1. Minuet in G (1888) - Ignacy Jan Paderewski

2. Spinning Song, Opus 67 No. 4 (1845) - Felix Mendelssohn

3. Humoresque, Opus 101 No. 7 (1894) - Antonin Dvoråk

4. Prelude In G Minor, Opus 23 No.4 in G Minor (1901) - Sergei Rachmaninoff

5. Nocturne in F Sharp, Opus 15 No. 2 (1835) - Frédéric Chopin

6. Navarra (1909) - Isaac Albeniz

INTERMISSION

7. La Plus Que Lente (1910) - Cluade Debussy

8. I Got Rhythm (1930) - George Gershwin

9. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (1853) - Franz Liszt