Hi, have a competition in a month, recorded this today, let me know how you like it/what'd you do differently/etc. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xSTM...ature=youtu.be

Love Chopin 01... nice choice.

I am not sure I am(or anyone else here) is qualified to pass judgement on a competition level performance... but suffice to say what gets me sometimes are players(most often very young children) that are super proficient in a piece and preform it flawlessly only to leave the listener/viewer dry and mechanical... extreme lack of soul.

In my estimation, this is usually because the performance is to robotic and to speedy... I like variation in speed and delivery as long as it is palatable and enhances the performance. I think most of that comes with the maturity of the player.

needless to say, you are a superb musician.

what piano are you playing?

Thanks Schu. I've been working pretty hard on making sure my interpretation is musical and genuine. Have been experimenting with a lot of different phrasing etc. What spots in particular do you think "lack soul?" I definitely agree that not all of it is polished interpretation-wise.

Piano is in my teacher's studio at my university. Brand new grant Steinway (teacher is a Steinway sponsored artist) - it's an amazing piano. It's a little dull in the upper register right now but after it has a few more years on it it'll be perfect imo. It's action is a lot lighter than most Steinways but it's still really easy to control in softer spots. Besides the few Hamberg Steinways and a particular Bosendorfer it's my favorite piano I've played, definitely the best piano I've ever had regular access to.

wood does take time to "open up"... I would kill to own a piano like that, and i don't even play piano

"action" on an instrument, has a lot to do with the way a performance comes across in my humble O... everyone has there preference. I prefer a heavy action because it suits my style of aggressive playing technique and when it all comes together, the sound really projects power.

I will have to go back and rewatch once more... but I did have a "feeling" of "Lightness" in just a couple passages. that is just an impression I got and not at all passing of judgment on such a gifted player such as yourself. Mainly I felt the longer scales were slightly... soft'ish for lack of a better word. I don't know the original intent of those passages, but that was an impression I got.

perhaps Chopin was trying to create more impact between the heavier parts and the lighter parts of the piece by keeping those movements separated by sonic distance.

I am searching for descriptive words now... not a good thing.

Hey dude: probably the more important thing someone could really comment on is the dynamics of the performance, but i think with this video/audio quality its kind of hard to really capture the dynamics of the performance (the audio is distorting at times, so its kind of maxed out the whole time and is self-limiting) so its kind of hard for me to really comment on that aspect of the performance.

that said, as it relates to the rhythmic elements you're killing those faster arpeggios for sure + your left hand control is really working well doing a great job to be sure to not overstate it's presence in parts and drawing it out in other places (sorry im lacking specific locations for this).

I think the only thing I might say you could do more to make the piece your own is perhaps a slight bit more rhythmic embellishment perhaps? You do a great job keeping time, but maybe you can stretch certain parts rhythmically (in the first movement for example during the juxtaposition at the outset of the piece say), pushing and pulling a bit more ahead and behind the beat.

The one thing i've always liked about Chopin, especially in the Nocturne's at least, is the room he has in the music itself that lends itself towards conveying emotion through subtle rhythmic changes (sort of like a dynamic range i guess, huh?). Quick example, and you're kidn of doing this already but around 9:15 at the beginning of the downward Arpeg. i think you can build up pace just a bit more using the left hand to anchor w/ a touch more legato and your right hand picking up pace for run. There's no necessity and its rather subjective but i've always enjoyed really pushing Chopin's pieces rhythmically in that sort of way to draw out the sort of yearning and wanting that melodically exists within a lot of his compositions.

Dont take it as these are huge glaring things though - you did an amazing job, would definitely listen to your performance again for sure.

If you're so inclined get a hold of a better audio recording device though - Roland through its Edirol makes a decent portable recording device that i believe records straight to USB in half decent quality.

So again, awesome job dude!

I don't mind pianos with heavier actions for the most part, especially for softer and more delicate pieces. But for a piece this demanding technically a lot of my accuracy goes to **** in the grueling sections if the action is heavy. Combine that with my sweaty hands when I'm nervous + becoming more nervous after missing notes and you've got yourself a vicious positive feedback loop.

The light scales you're referring to are probably in the first section after the tranquillo passagework stuff, no? I can't open the vid right now but it's probably like 2 minutes in. That was an adjustment I made very recently at the suggestion of my teacher - I used to play that section (the parts marked forte anyway) really cutting and with a huge release of intensity, but he suggested a slower buildup to the crashing chords + octaves in the bass that follow, and I think I agree with him. The second time those scales come back, in the third solo section, I play them with a lot more intensity, because there's really no other "big" part the scales lead to before modulating and going into the second theme in G.

tl;dr they were soft on purpose but I can definitely see why your interpret them differently. My teacher back home actually advised playing that section more like you're suggesting.

Edit: also, thought it'd be cool to mention - my teacher at school actually studied this piece when he was at Juliard, with one of the winners of the Chopin competition in Warsaw. So I trust his input, lol, but its always nice to have second opinions.

Yeah, the audio kinda sucks. Sorry about that. I really should get something nicer to record with than my phone.

I've been experimenting with extremes in this regard. I used to play very very metronomically, then I switched it up and was using all sorts of rubato in the expressive sections. I think I went too far in that extreme though, so I've cut a lot of it back. At the beginning especially, it's pretty straight-forward tempo wise, and that's on purpose. What I'm going for is to set up the first sounding of the first theme straight-forwardly, then go into more expressive derivations of the theme as it appears later in the piece. I definitely see where you're coming from, though.


Thanks! I'll probably end up posting it one more time, right before the competition, then hopefully I can get a recording of the competition itself.