Chopin Fantasie Impromptu

[thijsu]

He all,

I'm 22 and an amateur pianist from the Netherlands, never went to any official music school, just my weekly lessons with my piano teacher. Still I would love to have your opinions about the following piece. I'm gonna play this at a competition for amateur pianists in october. I also recorded Rachmaninoff op.23 nr.5 and Schuberts 2nd impromptu op.90 which I'm gonna play there too, but I thought let's start with this one . Thanks already!

So shoot... 

[pianistimo]

if you're 16 or 18 - ok.  but there's a lot of bumps in this.  move yourself from amateur to professional.  don't be satisified with amateur.  get another teacher.  one that doesn't work with amateurs.  work it carefully.  22 is a time to be proud of what you are doing.  this would be like a doctor accidentally stepping on the feet of a small patient.

*pianistimo goes back to sightreading difficult pieces.

ok. critique.  well...hmm.  ok lets start at the beginning.  if this were in juries - they would listen for eveness of all the notes.  no huge speeding or slowing.  make it really smoothly phrased by barely phrasing (if you know what i mean).  too much phrasing sounds phony.

i was told to make one piece sound like a kite was flying and never lost wind under itself.  you know, dropped to the ground.  here , most of this is flying but occasionally - there is a drop.  the drop takes away all that you did before.  that is why chopin is so terribly difficult for most people.

also, it requires huge amounts of relaxation to play all those notes in a comparatively short amount of time and evenly.  forget about trying to impress by speeding and slowing.  go through this piece almost as if you are in space (nobody is listening and you are not trying to impress anyone) - and you are just watching what is going by in space.  kind of like in a rocket.

[thijsu]

if you're 16 or......of like in a rocket.

Thanks for your comment! The problem is though that I got a late start, I only started piano playing a lot more serious when I was about 18/19. Before that I played too, but only relatively 'easy' pieces which were doable with about 15 min practice a day... It didn't even cross my mind playing a piece like this at the age you refer to .

I think I know what you mean by the phrasing. The way I play it now, the piece consists of small sections (phrases), while it should be one unified piece where you hear the overall story instead of a focuss on all the small chapters in it.

I also have to play the notes in (especially) the left hand more even, and get more controll over them... lots to do

[pianistimo]

don't get me wrong - i think you've got talent. sometimes it's just tweaking things.  the normal practice routine is just repeating mindlessly the notes - but more difficult teachers (which can make you cry) - tell you what you need to be thinking about and expect CHANGE each lesson.  if you play it the same way you played last week - it's like - go home!  come back when something is different.  things like this used to frustrate me because i needed advice as to HOW to change something.  that is what good teachers do for you.  they give you technical advice. 

[teresa_b]

I think you play this very nicely!    During the fast inner and outer sections I can feel where you are going, your phrasing and dynamics are good.  If you would like a suggestion or two, here are mine:

In the main melody (1st bar of RH part, and similar ones) I hear too much emphasis on the last 16th note of the bar--there is a tendency to put too much weight on that note, when it needs to be light, as it's the last beat of a rising arpeggio, and is basically a sort of suspension leading to the first beat of next measure. 

The slow part is lovely--a little bit metronomic.  In this part I lose a little bit where you are going.  Be more loose and flowing with the RH melody, so we hear this romantic love song, not too much self-consciousness about LH and RH being together, etc. 

An "Impromptu" is just that--with Chopin's style in mind, take plenty of liberties and make it sound as though you just sat down and let your emotions carry you away! 

Good work!
Teresa

[thijsu]

Thanks!  Your second suggestion is a very good one I think, but very hard to get that one nicely. Lately I've been listening to a lot of 'pro's' playing this piece (especially the middle part), and they all do it wayyy different! Some even skip part of it! So I think the hardest part of this piece is the slow section and to get a clear vision of how I want it to sound... got a month left to find my own sound before it's gotta come out of me

[storyseller]

I like it, it's a very good job considering how little time you play the piano.

Juries wont be too happy though with the unstable tempo and the unevenness of the left hand - if you'd play this way in a concert it wouldn't heart so much if done in small quantities. Maybe it would be even refreshing after hearing this piece played so "perfectly" 1000 times before. It's an improvisation after all- but for a competition.... 

Then I'd like to suggest to play the mordents in the middle part on beat and the 2 grace note after the main otherwise it's like stealing time from the note before the ornamented one, but this is maybe personal taste.

[thijsu]

hehe luckily this piece is for the semi-finals, and if I would reach those i'd already be satisfied ... first round is the schubert impromptu and Rach, which I both have more control over.

Started working with the metronome and no pedal for the fast sections again, to get the tempo of them more even. I noticed immediately i hadn't done that for a while...

About your last comment, there are so many ways you can play that part, it's finding your own (musically correct) way I think. But I'll give it a try! 

[thijsu]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let the people who commented on this topic a while back know that I made it to the finals this thursday and got third place there!

I had to play the first part of beethovens second piano concerto (including cadenz) with a full orchestra of about 60 people, and after the break I played the fantasie impromptu (The piece by which this topic was started).

There was an audience of about 1300/1400 people so the nerves got to me a little bit 

here is the video my brother made from somewhere in the audience:

Thanks for the comments before, I think it helped a lot 

[communist]

better than Grisells

[pianistimo]

wow.  Thanks for bumping this!  I'm impressed too!  So glad to hear it went so well!  love how you segue into the middle section, too.  You know - you should seriously study music!

[thijsu]

thanks, means a lot!

The problem is that when I had to make my carreer choice, music didn't even cross my mind because I didn't play that much... Now a couple of years later I'm thinking had I only started playing earlier, I might have chosen to study music at the time 

But who knows, my current study at the university is done in 1,5 years. Meanwhile I just try to keep playing as much as I can, and MAYBE I try studying music after that.. tough choice but I have the feeling I won't forgive myself if I never try and just start working in the IT business when I'm done with this study.