Beethoven op 78

[fnork]

First movement:

[counterpoint]

I know this sonata very well, and I'm totally perplexed 

this is just incredible good, wow!

[fnork]

ooh thank you very much, I personally felt I just made a decent recording of it  I played it sometime ago and took it up the day before recording it. It's nice to see that you have some things in the fingers without even working on them a lot...

Have you played it yourself? The 2nd movement is fun, never finished that one completely - tricky piece in some places. I just felt that there are other Beethoven sonatas that deserve more attention so I didn't finish the thing - learned Waldstein instead

[kd]

I like it. You have good phrasing, articulation and dynamics. Just a few places where more evenness would be nice (bars 28, 48-49, 63-64 LH, 87). I think that the sforzandos in bars 32, 34, 91, 93 should be louder than two preceding chords, but that's me.
Spotted a few slips but you played it well after a pause after all.

The 2nd movement is fun, never finished that one completely - tricky piece in some places.

Pity.

I personally felt I just made a decent recording of it

Fully agreed.

[fnork]

Thanks- actually this (and some other recordnigs I posted) is intended for audition CD for various summer courses, so I SHOULD HAVE put more work into this thing, but now I don't have time really. Yeah, a few slips, it's somewhat unpianistic, in my opinion at least(like the long left-hand scale passage at the end) - especially the 2nd movement.

Randomly I found a live video with a pianist who studies in Gothenburg (where I'm from originally, but now I study in Stockholm) and who I've heard in concert a few times, I like his tempo in the 2nd movement even if there's always the problem of playing the notes : http://www.kyrkan.com/web/pages/ConcertsVideosFrame.asp

[piano121]

Hi! It´s more than decent imo. Very well done. Despite little slips, it´s very good. I´m impressed by your soft touch, and very good taste for Beethovem. You realy know how to play it. BTW, the piece itself is very beautifull. I think the 1st mov is very interesting, But i like the 2nd as well. It seems realy dificult to me. Did you record this in a studio? it sounds very nice. Thansk for sharing and good luck on your auditions, you are a very good pianist.

[pianistimo]

agreed that you are very spot-on with beethoven.  perhaps a very slight bit too literal of the sf and pp.  i'd bring all the dynamics closer to one another.  you know - like .02%.  not major.  it's just when you play too loud - the extraneous sounds of the piano come through.  i was told to listen for the extraneous sounds and play only to the limit of what that particular piano can do without making them.  that also means always play from the key bed itself and not letting the sounds of fingers hitting the notes happen either.  this helps your recordings immensely.

one place your forte was louder than the fortissimo, but that's a moot point since you play with a lot of feeling.

[fnork]

Thanks for your replies, and I just found out that I GOT IN!!! Wohoo!

Good ideas about how to play when recording, pianistimo - I don't do it too often and probably don't have enough experience yet.

Piano121 - I recorded it in my schools (Royal Academy of music in Stockholm) "big" concert hall which is quite small but the grand there is nice. One problem with playing there is that how it sounds for the audience depends very much on where you sit - in some parts of the hall the sound is not clear, in other parts too sharp etc... very strange! But that's not noticable on recordings of course, since the microphone is close to the instrument.

Some more recordings from the same hall, but live:
http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,24009.0.html

http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,23867.0.html