Two Etudes Tableaux

[gaer]

Warning: electric keyboard. Not a piano. All those who hate "fake" pianos, please don't flame me.

1) I live in a small apartment with my wife and family, in a condo. I have very little privacy at home, any time.
2) I have neighbors on both sides and overhead. Any loud noises are a no go. Even if I had a good piano, I would have no time to pratice. Ever.
3) I did have a Yamaha grand. It was destroyed along with almost everything I owned in a fire.
4) The only free time I have when I have the energy to play is around midnight and later. I record and edit using earphones.

I know that nothing will ever take the place of a fine piano. But perhaps at least some people will find the sound quality less objectionable than that of poor pianos.

Here are two Etudes I recorded in 1999, but I just re-recorded them, trying for a better mix.

One is a wild ride, but the other is very, very personal to me. While making these recordings, I had help from people around the world who gave me suggestions about recordings to listen to and things that I could improve.

Gary

EDIT: I just found out how to upload to this site, which is why the download numbers have been reset to zero.

[wzkit]

I haven't played these pieces myself so I can't comment on the specifics, but just wanted to say I thought the playing was really really good, electric keyboard or not. Personally I wish I had the fingers to play Op 33 no.6, and I think you executed those fleet fingered runs perfectly - no mean feat.

I really liked your A minor etude - to some extent it reminds me of Richter playing it. I loved the way you phrased, the way you brought out the melodies, and inner voices. The way you would hold back just a little, like a sigh. Its all very musical to me. And to me, I think you've got the Rachmaninoff "feel" just right.

Bravo!

[zheer]

WAW that was perfection,i heard the first Etude only and it is just as goods as Richter inturpretation of it.It is also a lot more difficult to play on a electric piano i find that the keys are not as responsive.You clearly  are supremely gifted,is music your career.All the best.

[bearzinthehood]

Wow is the word alright.  I loved your interpretation in both pieces.  Amazing that you could coax that out of a digital piano.

[palika dunno]

the first one sounds sped up. is it? if not it's really astounding.

[gaer]

the first one sounds sped up. is it? if not it's really astounding.

Not sped up. But done in small sections with MANY, MANY, MANY takes.

The same thing is done in studio recordings, but you can't do it as radically, and people are around to watch you, so you get self-conscious. When you are alone, no time limit, you can try and try and try again, and if you think you have a 20% chance of pulling off a touch spot once, you can go for it, throwing all caution to the wind. Then, if you have a train wreck, you lose nothing but time.

You can split anything up when using midi. However, it's devilishly hard to kept the concept you want, because it can get fragmented, and that kills music. So the really hard part is mental. You have to keep in mind exactly what you hear in your mind and make sure that it happens.

To perform this live, I'd have to quit teaching and pratice 8 hours a day, perform regularly and take a youth potion.

The first thing that goes when you don't have time to practice a lot is endurance. I can play with as much power and speed as I could when I was still playing seriously, and in fact I can play faster today because I know more about how to do it, but only in very short bursts.

I HOPE that I presented a convincing interpretation, because that's the real challenge. At the time I recorded this, I had not heard Richter, so it's really my own ideas. But once I heard Richter play it, I was totally convinced by a couple things he did. One was to crescendo three bars before the end. Rachmaninov has p there, no crescendo, and it does NOT work because if you do it, you have no sound in the bass to resonate loud enough to play the final two bars in the RH, which are marked mf going down to p.

The writing is so "thick" that it can sound like pure mud if you don't take tremendous care to shape everything and highlight only what is important.

Gary

[quantum]

Wonderful!  I loved both of them.   

Beautiful interpretation, plus they were played on a digital.  Double wow!

Imagine what you could do on an accoustic. 

[allthumbs]

Beautifully played indeed! You are a gifted pianist. I really enjoyed listening to both pieces immensely.

Thanks for sharing your recordings.

Cheers

allthumbs

[kelly_kelly]

The first was AMAZING, and the second one was supremely beautiful. I wish I could play like that  .

[flo]

Hi,

that's really beautiful ! But you should bring a special care to the beginning of your pieces. Op33-6 second chord : not together ! Op39-2, when the RH comes : not together... on the very first note.... and the problem is repeated, measure 14 for example.
It becomes really awful here :


Several years ago, I went with a friend hear a concert from his teacher. In the first 5 minutes, nothing was together. This is the plague of the pianist.
 

[dorfmouse]

I'd like to thank you for posting these. I'd never really listened with much attention to Rachmaninov before, somehow having got it in my mind that it's all crash bang fireworks stuff ....pure ignorance obviously! The Op 39 A min Etude put paid to that idea, with those lovely long expressive lines and even in the denser section the notes like filigree. I loved the G Min prelude you posted later too. You certainly are managing to introduce fine music to people as you said in that post.  I for one feel a new addiction coming on!

[gaer]

To all the people who took the time to comment, I want to say "Thank you".

Fortunately (I guess) more people have downloaded my files and those of others than have commented.

Gary

[virtuoso_735]

Your playing is so exact and beautiful.   What can I say?