A sight reading app for sore eyes

Picture the scene. You're taking your Grade 5 piano and the exam is going OK so far. You've played one baroque piece fairly monotonously, but probably well enough to pass. You've given the classical piano sonata movement a bit more flair but there were some quite nasty mistakes in the upper right hand. Then you've dashed off the final 20th century piece with an air of celebration totally missing from the first two pieces.

The pass or fail hangs in the balance, then – as it does after some frankly patchy scales and arpeggios. It's time for the bit we all hate – the sight reading. With piano for some reason sight reading is even worse, it being over two staves, and sure enough you're struggling early on and wanting to go back and correct things. How to improve this examination banana skin?

The answer, at long last, appears to have been found. Previously sight reading practice was restricted to a one minute glare at something on paper from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, followed by an attempt to get the two hands playing together in something you might call rhythm. But suddenly that sort of practice has become far more attractive due to a rather clever iPad app. You put the iPad on its side, on the piano music stand, cue up a piece of music according to your standard, set the metronome for the tempo you want to try and perform the music at – and then it counts you in.

Suddenly it all makes sense. The music disappears from the screen as you play it, which makes you think forward as a performer, a notion helped by the priceless Daniel Barenboim quote that "by definition, sight reading means playing bar one with your eyes while your brain is on bar five". The only disadvantage with this is not being able to go back at all and correct anything – naturally – but it means that over a few practice sessions that notion will probably be removed.

The man responsible for this innovation is Dr Christopher Wiltshire, who owns Wessar, the company releasing the app. Himself a former examiner, Wiltshire jokes that he initially developed the app to relieve the pain experienced by his colleagues in test conditions, but the benefits to pupils are obvious and immense, beyond the obvious short term gain of passing your exam.

Wessar will soon develop the app for other, 'single line' instruments, and can claim a comfortable victory with its first instrumental instalment. It's surprisingly involving, and sight reading – which was easily bottom of the class in the six exam 'movements' – moves strongly towards the top. It's an example of how music and technology can be used together for good – and those painful sight reading parts of the exam, which, as you may have guessed, was my own, could soon be consigned to the memory dump.

The Richest of 3-course Meals

For the second time, David McVicar's production of Richard Strauss's three act comedy Der Rosenkavalier comes to London and the ENO, bringing with it fantastically opulent sets, beautiful soprano singing and a grade one rogue in John Tomlinson. But what of the music itself, presented to London audiences for the first time a mere 99 years ago?

One thing is for certain - Der Rosenkavalier is one of the composer's most popular works, even when taking into account the symphonic poems. Its frequent use of the waltz is ironic, given the unrelated Strauss family and their unprecedented success with the form in 1860s Vienna, but here Richard works it very cleverly so that each use of the distinctive rhythmic form is incorporated into his own style.

For Der Rosenkavalier is musically rich, so rich that many people at last Saturday's first night were mentally exhausted by the time the three sopranos, Sarah Connelly, Sophie Bevan and Amanda Roocroft, floated in to the trio with which the opera closes. The reason for this is wholly down to Strauss, who fills his musical box of chocolates almost to saturation point. Often there will be two very different melodies going on at once, interweaving within the same range – so following them using the libretto proves very difficult as the similar voice types get tangled up. It's a mark of the composer's genius that he can work several tunes simultaneously without losing track of any of them, and even then if you were to remove the lines for voices altogether the writing for orchestra would suffice.

This, too, is rich, tapping in to the extravagance of the symphonic poems Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel. But although Der Rosenkavalier is seen as a light, frothy comedy, and the treble rich music bears that out, there is a certain heaviness to it, the sort that comes from too much champagne or an overindulgence on the cherry brandy liquors. The horns – brilliantly played on this occasion by the members of the ENO orchestra – have a lot of the best tunes, as they do in the symphonic poems – but Strauss's very particular kind of orchestral colouring means they are brought through at the top of the pile.

The only trouble with this densely packed music is listening to it for four hours – as the title of this post suggests, it is akin to eating the richest of three course meals in a fine hotel, and having chocolates afterwards. The head can only take so much – yet there is much to savour and recall at length afterwards. Moments such as when Sophie Bevan hits the high 'B' when the rose is presented to her – a floated note worth the evening's outing alone – or when Sarah Connolly and Amanda Roocroft declare their various passions in the opening act.

It's the first act this proves the most difficult where the movement of the plot is concerned, the story slow to catch fire, but the second act gathers pace and interest. The waltz scenes are delightful, helped by Tomlinson's ham-fisted dancing as the rogue, the Baron Ochs of Lerchenau, and the presentation of the rose itself from Connolly's Octavian to Bevan's Sophie is the most obviously, truly beautiful music here. For sure, Der Rosenkavalier is well worth seeing, but should come with a health warning of what musical overindulgence can bring. You'll be craving bread and water afterwards!