Recorded today. Piano was just tuned, and the hammers reshaped a bit. The scale is now more even between the bichord / trichord break. The tone changed a bit as a result, much more rounded. The una-corda doesn't have as pronounced effect as before, I'm guessing as there is less a difference between the compacted areas of felt on the hammers. I was trying to get some more variation in timbre within the phrasing, but not as much came out as I wanted it to. Maybe it's just this new voicing on the piano?Brahms - Intermezzo Op.118/2Mic: (2x) Studio Projects B1Interface: Edirol UA-25Piano: Yamaha C3Enjoy!
Nice music. Shouldf it afford wider modulation? You stay mp (I did not have a look to the score). Anyway, I enjoyed your interpretation.
I was just expressing my own interrogation. I just listened to the same work interpreted by Hélène Grimaud. Look at both audio files here below: Quantum left, Grimaud right. Yes this work may afford more modulation. Is it better? Just a matter of personal appreciation.
Gary, you have good ears! Yes that was a reading mistake on my part. For some reason I thought that D was natural because the following D in the next bar was sharp. I just didn't look back two chords to find the sharp.
Mic: (2x) Studio Projects B1Interface: Edirol UA-25
leahcim, I didn't mess with the tone in the audio editor - no reberb or other effects. It's pretty much what the mics + Edirol picked up. I did however normalize to 100% in order to maximize the dynamic range of the wav file.
I strongly think there is a little of excess in expresion, with your crescendos, just try to not play them in a Rachmaninoff way. this intermezzo is like a quiet lake in a grey afternoon, clear, melancolic, lonely, inspiring, yearning...
Ah, but here you get into taste, the personal view of the music and so on. I liked this recording. I might like the other recordings you mention too, but that's the great thing about the piano. It's not a competition (which is why all piano competitions turn me off totally and most of the winners, but that's another subject). Too many people have already decided how something should be played while listening to a new interpretation rather than making an effort to understand a new (or different) point of view. I didn't hear Rachmaninov at all. I heard very clearly etched melody and countermelody, which might be overstated to some people, but I think it worked. Sounded like fine Brahms to me. Gary
In many high quality pianos, when you increase the volume the piano also responds with a change of tone colour - it is this tone colour change that also greatly aids the listeners preception of loud and soft. I'm not hearing enough of it in my recording.