Minuet from Ravel's Sonatine

[karnta]

Minuet (2nd movement from Sonatine - Ravel)

I recorded with a simple tools at home. Forgive me for the broken sound at ff point.
Please comment somehow. 

PS. Additional piece (Gymnopedie no.1) for relaxation

[arbisley]

Hi karnta,

I am also learning this piece at the moment, so it's interesting to hear it played by someone else.

You obviously know the piece fairly well, but since this forum is supposed to be for constructive criticism, I might point out a few things.

Firstly, the sound of the piano. Your piano sounds rather dry and very "hammered" to me. The melody is not legato enough because the other notes of the chord are allowed to be too prominent, and it feels as if the playing is too metronomical. Try to "hear" the moelody by playing it alone, playing with only the upper part of the right hand and the left ahnd very slowly so you can notice every little variation of colour in what you are playing. It might also be a bit too slow, which makes legato playing even more difficult. This is after all a minuet in the neoclassical style, which makes it want to be a solemn dance movement. Note paricularly the staccato notes at the end of the first phrase in the ledt hand: C-F. Don't worry about sustaining the sound of the melody note with the pedal. The important thing is to give it an orchestral feeling to the bass notes, as if they are plucked by the lower string instruments.

Your left hand seems to be weaker than your right hand in the passage where it has the melody. there again, the sound is a bit too disconnected and the melodious flow is interrupted by intervals in between the notes, not all of them come out. I had difficulties learning this part, but just try going over the melody on its own a few times, just the left hand here, again, listening to the sound you are making. The most important thing to remember is that you are trying to play something people want to listen to, so you must practice thinking of how you could play the notes so that people's interest remains constant throughout the piece.

After the first Rall., there is another passage "en dehors". Here the top notes of the left hand are actually the melody notes, and the right hand top notes are a diminution of this, although it might be tempting to think of it the other way around. I wasn't sure whether all the notes played were correct, but I certainly could not hear that ringing tone in the uppermost part of the left hand, as Ravel said "a shining cantabile".

Finally, The final 4 bars need to be played "tres lent", very slowly! leave yourself all the time in the world to appreciate the full resonance of the piano, and don't change pedals quite so brutally at the end. My teacher advised me to do first half pedal, then 1/4 pedal, then 1/8th pedal, or just fluttering it down if you like. It is really a very difficult thing to do to get it just right so that there is a certain amount of sustain left, without blurring the noted of the top lines.

After all of this, I might add that, although you might see that I am only 16 and I could be very arrogant about my own views, I have the good fortune this year of having a teacher in direct lineage form Ravel, e.g., his teacher's teacher learnt from Ravel.
I could add more, but for now, I think this should be enough to help you a little along the way.

Good luck!

[karnta]

Thank you very much for the comment.