Liszt - Reminiscences de Don Juan for 2 pianos

[amanfang]

Performed live on a Bosendorfer Imperial and a 7 ft Yamaha.  So, yes, there is some imbalance.  Plus the stage guy tripped on the sound wire during intermission, and I don't know if that did anything to it.  Some ensemble issues at the beginning, and a few wrong notes here and there, otherwise I was satisfied with it.  Jamaican Rumba at the end for an encore if you wait past the clapping.

[donjuan]

Thanks so much for posting the recording!

props to you for playing Don Juan in public.  certainly not the easiest work for 2 pianos.  Demanding both technically, musically, and emotionally.  I dont think I will ever be able to play such a piece in public, so there it is- you are a much bigger pianist than I will ever be.  I say this as a pianist.

As an honest listener however,

It really doesnt sound ready for performance, man... especially the slow parts in how they just hang up in the air and dont progress anywhere.  As a result, the audience gets lost, bored, and not sure where the music is going or how it is going to end.  You can hear it in the hesitated applause.  People's hands should be itching to clap at the end of a piece such as this, but it just didnt happen.

You mention ensemble issues at the beginning, but I am hearing them in about 85% of the music.  Not just in timing, but in dynamics too- like in some parts, it feels like one person wants to crescendo, but the other guy doesnt feel it yet.  This isnt a dance! No one should be 'leading.'  It could be planned out a little more, I think.  Sometimes, someone decides to play a jarring, marked chord out of the blue, and it destroys the unity.  This happened in the slow bits with legato and evenness issues mostly.  This problem with balance was certainly not helped by the great difference in the pianos, thats for sure. -quite possibly not your fault.

Also- dont worry about being so careful in the cadenzas.  Here, accelerandos and stringendos and rallantandos, and so forth are very important.  A Liszt cadenza is not a cadenza unless it can (temporarily) break free of that which is more or less static.  It's a moment for the audience to take a breath and start from new when you come out of the cadenza. 

The Rumba was better, ensemble-wise.  However, it was still pretty dull, musically.  Just like in Don Juan, you ended the piece with the same temperament as when you started.  Someone (you and/or your partner) was simply not feeling it.

But still, big props to you to play Don Juan.  Working on such a piece to completion is monumental in itself.  Just keep at it and it will be good some day. 

[amanfang]

Thank you for your comments.  I will disagree with your thinking of not together 85% of the time, but that's just me.  I will still blame the difference of the pianos for much of our dynamic level.  On top of that, my partner plays heavier anyways, vs my lighter touch, and then she was on the Bos because she had piano 1, so I was already struggling to get any sound.  Listening to the recording, my sound is very weak in comparison.  We didn't get much time together in the hall, so anyways.... This is not to say that I don't entirely blame everything on the pianos, of course we could do more dynamically, etc.  Plus for everything that just "happens" when you play for other people, much less with another person.  This was actually my first ensemble program, and my first Liszt piece.   

As for the Rumba - it is marked to be played una corda throughout, and begins and ends pp.  I don't think the dynamics ever were louder than mf, and that was one small part at the height of a crescendo.  We interpreted it as a rumba that wants to just let loose, but yet is subdued and understated. 

Anyway, thanks for the comments.