Impromptu Op.90/4 - Schubert

[babaz]

Hi!

Please, comment it!

Thanks

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQcLzQGE6Q8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQcLzQGE6Q8</a>

[rv]

Good job! Very nice playing. I'd say your rhythm and technique are excellent. You are really fast with all those little phrases. Reminds me a bit of the Rachmaninov version found on youtube.

But IMO a bit too tight in tempo and volume. For example those chords at 0:35-0:45 are so rushed. You could slow down a bit and play them gradually louder.
The middle section is suddenly a lot slower, which gives a strange contrast with the tempo of the rest of the piece. The middle section could also use more dynamics, it's too much the same volume to my taste. Other than that, excellent playing.

I have studied this impromptu as well. I can't play those phrases so fast. It's almost impossible to reproduce those quick 'double notes' on my digital piano because of the way the keys bounce back. I will try to record my own version soon.

[vilius]

Very nice playing. You really seem confident and secure and you can hear that in the piece. Really good work. 

I agree with rv, that the middle section is somewhat lacking of dynamics. Especially the places that are marked forte could be much louder. Also, I suggest you try to play with a bit less pedal. For example, try to lift the pedal where there are rests on the last off-beats in the bars where each "phrase" ends. Otherwise you get this constant stream of relatively high-pitched tones, which could get tiresome, seeing how the piece is somewhat long. Anyway, that could just be me, so I suggest you try that if you want and record it and see what you like best.

Everything else was top notch. Good job!

[ramseytheii]

You have an odd habit, of at the end of each sixteenth note run, waiting for a moment, then playing the chord.  But the phrasing is this glittering, downward spiral, whose energy dissipates on the chord, not inbetween.  In other words it should go to the chord.

When the left hand has that sequential melody, it could be the sound quality of your recording, but I can't hear it.  I can only hear the top, the right hand, but the left hand's part is much more important there.

I urge you to explore the music more, and not be content with just playing the top voice.

The middle section seems to me to be written in a more passionate way than you are playing it.  Aren't there sforzandos printed in a dramatic, dissonant way?  i can't hear them!  It sounds a little too passive.

Schubert's music is such magic.  When it goes from minor to major, the effect is the same, no matter who plays it, it seems.  Schubert - I love you!

I still urge you to make more of that change, in the middle section.  I can't tell if you are feeling it strongly.  I am sure you are, but it doesn't quite come across in the performance, to the outside listener.

Keep up the good work!

Walter Ramsey