Shostakovich makes me happy.

I haven't done nearly enough music practice as I ought to have done this week; especially piano (which I always put on the back burner, much to the delight of my teacher).
I suppose it's due to the 'holiday' that I always expect after anything major happens in my musical calendar. Last week was our local music festivals - I got entered in to all of the usual piano classes: classical, romantic et cetera. And having entered so many was eligible to compete in the "esteemed" festival final. There were only three of us chosen to participate and having watched them performed at earlier classes I was in complete awe of how they managed to make immense Chopin nocturnes and Beethoven sonatas sound like a complete doddle.
I'd chosen to perform Grieg's Summer Evening (one his luscious Lyric Pieces, which I thoroughly recommend, not only to listen to, but to perform) and Shostakovich's Fugue 5. As a mathematician I get on very well with fugues; the way that the subjects intertwine constantly yet manage to hold their own never ceases to appeal to me (and I always admire composers clever enough to set pen to paper).
I didn't play as well as I would have liked but the adjudicator seemed to enjoy my performance because to my great surprise (still), he chose me to win the class. I'm still not entirely sure how I won; my pieces were nothing compared to the other competitors' - although seeing as the adjudicator, Timothy Barratt (a man whom I am in complete awe of), had put the outcome in my favour, I wasn't in a position to argue!

Well this is my feeble excuse for my lack of practice. However, I doubt any of my teachers will find it a feasible one...