Chopin: Op 25 No 6 (Etude in thirds)

[pianohopper]

Seeing as my reputation in the Audition Room can't get much lower, what have I got to lose?  A recording of myself playing the Chopin etude Op. 25 No. 6, G# minor.  (The Etude in Thirds.)  Comments are welcome.  Played this for a recital Tuesday, but that recording was not good quality-- plus I don't have it yet. 

[zheer]

What a risky thing to do playing this in a recital. You are doing ok with this Etude sounde uneven in some places. The tempo is very good however you fail badly in creating the true character of this music. Has to be more dreamy, more atmospheric. Since i have playd this etude i know haw difficult it is. With the bass chords i feel that it may be a good idea to play them stoccato under the sustaining pedal all the time. Now that you have learnt the notes i gess you can work on the music. All the best ( from the worst critic on planet earth )

[rimv2]

Wow, how horrible...you can play a piece that many only dream of playing...and now you make a horrid recording of it and show it on the internet... it is evident why you have the reputation you do 

oh and by the way

to nilsjohan:

this is an insult to every pianist on this forum

[rimv2]

What a risky thing to do playing this in a recital. You are doing ok with this Etude sounde uneven in some places. The tempo is very good however you fail badly in creating the true character of this music. Has to be more dreamy, more atmospheric. Since i have playd this etude i know haw difficult it is. With the bass chords i feel that it may be a good idea to play them stoccato under the sustaining pedal all the time. Now that you have learnt the notes i gess you can work on the music. All the best ( from the worst critic on planet earth )

Risky would be playing godowsky trascription of this piece in a recital. It sounds like this person has a good grasp of this piece

[gaer]

The tempo is very good however you fail badly in creating the true character of this music. Has to be more dreamy, more atmospheric.

I have never been able to play this Etude. It could be a lack of determination, but I have always found it horribly awkward. Something always breaks down.

I agree that the etude has to be more dreamy, atmospheric, as you put it, and I'm aware there are some places where notes are not together, other problems, but as a teacher I am also aware that the notes are there, and I feel that if I could play it that well, which I can't, I could get the rest, over time, by slowing down the tempo a bit, practicing sections, returning to it every few months, then gradually adding the other missing things.

I won't upload anything here until I think it is finished or as close to finished as I can get, but I'm 57 years old and don't want to put myself on the line, showing what I have not yet mastered.

But in my opinion this place, the Audition Room, is not only for people who are polished performers or even very advanced students. It's also a place to "try things out". I think this etude, by the same player, could be very fine within 5 years, maybe in less time, so I have to look at things differently. Some of the sections seemed nailed, technically, at full speed. That's a good start, to me. The sections that weren't quite right were not totally off the mark, so it's not a matter of going back and completely fixing something that can't work.

Finally, in my opinion, a very mechanical, technical attempt at a mastery of an etude is not necessarily a bad way to go about it, so long as there is not something very, very wrong technically. If the fingering is right, if the notes are there, the rest may and often does come later.

I often practice sections for a very long time deliberately ignoring anything musical that is not going to cause a technical problem later.

Again, it's not my way to show anything until I think I have it mastered, but I am overly self-cirtical and extremely shy. I think there is room here for people showing where they are at, now, and I'm glad you seem to have made your comments with that in mind.

Gary

[teresa_b]

Hi piano hopper,

I agree with Gary's post above.  I can't play this, and have never even attempted it!  I admire your technique, and I agree, you can polish this over some time to get the "atmospheric" quality. 

I agree that it's worth working on some of these etudes even if you can't get them down the first time.  I studied Op 10 no 8 and never got it perfected, but I know if I decide to do it again, I probably could at some point.  I've worked on things and found that years later, I had missed nuances I didn't know I didn't know!   (Esp. in Brahms.)

keep up the great work--
Teresa