Liszt: Ballade No. 2

[donjuan]

hope you like it!  Please comment on stuff to improve because I'm playing this piece at a music festival with Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in early May.

thanks!

donjuan

[donjuan]

oh crap... the recording is all messed up... it's higher pitched for some reason.  audacity must have messed up somehow..

hold on, Ill try to fix it

[donjuan]

never mind; I think it's just something screwy with my computer.  Download it and let me know if it sounds higher pitched than it should be.

thanks

[emmdoubleew]

This is very good donjuan, although for some reason the recording seems to phase in and out, as if you put your microphone on a merry-go-round. Have you ever heard Stephen Hough's interpretation? I can send it to you if you want.

Gj 

[donjuan]

"phase in and out?" i don't know what that means... but was the pitch normal on what you downloaded?

thanks, but I already have Hough's recording.  -->great, btw -the first one that I heard.

[emmdoubleew]

"phase in and out?" i don't know what that means... but was the pitch normal on what you downloaded?

The pitch was normal, but it would randomly get really quiet, and it didn't sound like dynamics, just pretty randomly.

[donjuan]

can you give me a time range (for example, say "it gets unexpectedly quiet at 6:34-6:37")  I want to know if it is just my playing, or if something went awry with the recording.
thanks

[emmdoubleew]

can you give me a time range (for example, say "it gets unexpectedly quiet at 6:34-6:37")  I want to know if it is just my playing, or if something went awry with the recording.
thanks

Around :09-:10, it gets really muffled all of a sudden for half a second, and it keeps doing that throughout the recording.

[donjuan]

well, it could be the microphone's inability to pick up resonance, but in all likelihood it's just my conscious pedal change for the left hand chromatic passage.  I quess was trying to have the droning, aching, rumble get louder as it ascends and then suddenly a 'loud' silence at the top of the phrase, and then a crescendo and decrescendo as it falls back down.  But I don't do this every time, or else it would be an annoying mannerism.  Although now that you mention it, it might just already be considered one..

Perhaps a more logical choice of dynamics would be to have it crescendo as it ascends and decrescendo as it descends, and keep the pedal on lightly during the whole passage.  I wish Liszt left some kind of indication..

Thank you for your response; I value your telling me if something I do comes off as weird to a listener.

[wzkit]

I don't find it a mannerism at all. In fact, I find your control of dynamics to be a very rare, and VERY admirable technical strength. If there's something I would have preferred would perhaps have been to take a longer time to slowly savour each note in the lyrical section (especially leading up to the final climax). The dynamic range could have been wider too, but I think that's a function of your instrument. It would be great to hear you on a well prepared concert grand. 

Then again, I'm deeply influenced by Horowitz's recording (from the Met), which to my mind, is one of THE most impressive piano recordings I've heard to date. I especially love the way he brings out the drama and storyline, and lets it unfold naturally, and the way he makes use of sonorities (notwithstanding the doctored piano). Incidentally, I spoke to Hough a few years ago, and he thought Horowitz's recording was vulgar! Tedd Joselson and Konstantin Scherbakov do not agree though

Overall, you make a strong musical case for it though. Keep up the good work!