[VIDEO] La campanella

Hi there,
this is my performance at the National Young Performer Award recently in New Zealand. I'm an international student, but not exchange, and i'm year 12.

please leave some thoughts after watching, and all comments are welcomed.
I hope you guys enjoy!

http://www.filelodge.com/files/706/La%20campanella.wmv

one suggestion I can make is the tempo.. try raising it up a notch.

It also felt very monotone to me,, try adding some dynamics...

other than that,, keep polishing it up... you're almost there,,, at 12,, I'm sure everyone will agree, it's pretty impressive.

thanks about ur suggestion.
by the way, i'm year 12 student not 12 years old.

guperm,

La Campanella is one of the most technical demanding pieces, and is a piece I have been working on for 1.5 years (No where near completion). You have the technique, but try playing it faster. By playing this piece slow, you lose the feel of this piece; its agressivenss and its excitement on the variations on the theme: La Campanella largely revolves around a theme (not so much a theme, but you get the picture), and by playing it slowly, it becomes boring: its like repeating yourself again and again. At first, I thought you were mirroring Yundi Li's style of playing La Campanella: starting slow and speeding up to amaze the audience. However, you still have to significantly quicken your tempo; it sounds rather boring. To give you an idea, a good recording of this piece would be something like 4:30 (Nojima); your 6:13 was too long.

However, I must credit you on completing the demanding technical aspects of this piece. Apart from the rare occasional wrong note, you have played it perfectly, but too slowly, as I just said. Put more feeling into it: There is a delicate feeling in it, but you still lack the aggressiveness, especially in the last part; there is that aggression in it, but try more.

You could also listen to transcripts of recording of La Campanella by Nojima or Yundi: it will help.

Hope I was of help
Victor Ching

thanks a lot Victor, its an interesting suggestion. However, playing slowly is my intention, its not because I couldnt cope with the quicker tempi, but from my humble opinion, everyone plays it too fast. Im not imitating anyone, even though Yundi Li has an influence on the way i interpret.

what do you think of pulling the speed down a bit from the benchmark, would it sound unprepared?

Regards
guperm

guperm,

Playing it slowly dosen't make you sound unprepared-it could be easily seen that a lot of work has been done on this piece; on the contrary, I think it makes you sound too careful. This careful and delicate tone of La Campanella largely compromises the agression and excitement I think Lizst intended this piece to be.

However, I have to agree with you: everyone plays La Campanella too fast. With that, the song looses all feeling - La Campanella, meaning the bell, is adapted from the last movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto Number 2 in B minor, that imitates the ringing of the bell. I suppose you could interpret it both ways at the same time: by playing it at times fast (aggression - violent clanging of the bell) and at suitable times, delicately (like the soft tingling of bells), you give a suitable contrast.

Coming back to your question, maybe you could record a faster version and post it up here: we could then see whether playing it slowly makes it sound unprepared

Victor Ching

ur comments are great, victor. I couldn't play the piano at the moment because I injured my left hand, so it would take a big while to heal, regarding what the doctor said.

but its worth reading ur comment anyways.
any other comment from anyone else? please let me know how you feel.

thanks

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