Hi matter,Yours is a very fine performance indeed. I really enjoyed listening. Bravo!A few thoughts:In the opening of the piece, the quarter notes in the LH really don't shine as much as they should. They're hidden away in there. Yes, they're marked tenuto, but only because of the severe limitations in our music notation system. Debussy stated that what he really intended there was a "bells effect". Thus, those notes are actually melodic so are to be more prominent in dynamic than the RH. To play them as such means to render a good striking accent and NOT to hold those notes to their full value. The bell motif returns again in the LH in part A2, au Mouvt on page 3, and needs to be treated the same way for consistency. In part B at the top of page 5, you have an extraordinary clarity and precise eveness in executing those 64th notes. (Hats, off, I wish I could do that!) What Debussy said he was aiming for, though, was what he called a "wave of tone". So the result, in my opinion, has to be produced by taking the liberty (which he would approve) to play the figures even more rapidly, such that the notes touch one another giving rise to a sonorous, harmonic, vibrating effect rather than a mathematically perfect and super-clean reading of the 64ths. (One of the hallmarks of impressionism is that it's a departure from some of the rules of romanticism. And notation was often inadequate to reflect that. For example, Debussy detested melodic voicing of chords as usually done in romantic works. He instead luxuriated in having all of the harmonic tones equally played to enrich the chords.)Kudos on the transition, En animant, in having full control over the RH while producing the wonderful crescendo in the LH octaves. For me, that is the hardest part of the piece, and I still struggle with it. Great job! Finally, something more controversial: In the coda (despite performance practices), I've been experimenting with playing the broken octaves downward rather than upward--and I like it! Same with the one in two hands in the second to last measure. After all, doesn't water flow or drip downward with gravity? Try it just to see see what you think of it. If you dislike it, that's ok too.Great playing!
Hi matter,Thanks for the suggestions on that section in "Reflets". Yes, I have done the dotted rhythms which help. Also hands alone practice, but maybe not enough. (That's when the crucial finger centering on the keys you mention could best be observed.) I've haven't yet tried the escalating upticks with the metronome though (I recall that Ruth Schlenczynska advocates that approach too). I do have a trusty Franz electric metronome sitting on the music desk, so I'll give it a try. But here's the problem: Somehow when I'm at that section, I'm concentrating on keeping the RH clear, even, accurate and subordinate to the LH so that the LH can move forward with its featured crescendo. Then it messes up! The derailing occurs in the fourth measure where the A's are natural (I penciled a bracket around that measure, ha-ha!). Then once I'm distracted by the RH error, the LH crescendo fizzles. May I ask what you use for RH fingering in that particular measure? Thanks!
"matter",I started listening, then I thought of a few things, then I was simply swayed. This is a very enjoyable performance. I am out of my place if I criticise this.Many thanks!prongated
Hi matter,Lovely! This is such a difficult piece, and you play it really well. Beautiful clarity and rippling sounds in the arpeggios! I have played Reflets, and have had all sorts of troubles with it, so I truly appreciate your accomplishment here.Rachfan, interestingly, I have also done those broken octaves top-down! I like them that way.I have no concrete suggestions--it sounds a little self-conscious, which you mentioned happens when you set the recorder (Understandable! This exact thing always happens to me if I try to record myself.) I would only say, think "looser" and a even bit more free with rubato such that the "impressions"--a swirl here, a reflected image there--really shine.Great work!Teresa