Piano Forum
Piano Board => Audition Room => Topic started by: cadenceiiv7i on November 25, 2013, 05:53:57 AM
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Hello everyone,
this is a recording of me playing Chopin's "Winter Wind" Etude. (op. 25 no. 11). Sorry about the technical slips; it's a tricky piece.
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Bravo!!
Congratulations on a very high-octane performance of one of Chopin's most difficult Etudes!
Sounding extremely clean, confident, polished, and exciting. Not much in the way of technical slips to speak of; even Sokolov slips off a few keys when he plays this one.
Personally, I play this Etude marginally slower, with slightly more emphasis on the LH melody. It is less pianistically flashy than yours in many ways, but the the wind itself is very icy and intense.
I liked your tempo and I thought your ideas were very convincing throughout.
Keep up the fantastic work. I would love to hear you play more of these!
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Thanks very much!! I'm glad to hear you liked it since I've worked hard on this etude.
And yes, I will definitely pay more attention to the left hand melody rather than the technically challenging right hand.
Just one question, do you have any suggestions as to how to make it sound more icy and intense? I've heard several people tell me that I need more work on my left hand, and sometimes I'm not really sure where to start working, since the right hand is just so distracting.
Thanks again!!
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Your performance was so good, I wouldn't worry too much about consciously changing anything.
I would say... each time you play it, play it at 99% of the tempo you achieved previously, but with 101% more musical intensity. If you do that about 40-50 times over a two-week period, the brisk, chilly autumn breeze will naturally develop into a fearsome winter maelstrom.
It can be very useful to practice this etude with zero pedal.
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Wow this was played with a lot of your own ideas which i see as a huge improvement on your behalf, bravo! Now some ideas and suggestions from me:
Personally I would play this quite a bit faster(in contrast to awesom_o to generate even more excitement and the "wow" factor (in fact I am going to play this at a recital two weeks later hehe).
I feel that the key to playing this piece to sound really exciting and chilly is to use dramatic phrasing, sudden decelerations/accelerations, dynamic changes and think about surprises and building momentum, contrasts between lighter touch and heavier touch, thinner and thicker textures, blurry or crystal clear (I love pressing down the pedal to get some eerier disharmonies in this etude in some places but that's probably just me). You can listen to Andrei Gavrilov's version of this etude for some ideas. He plays it very raw and freely (in contrast to many players who play a bit too beautiful and elegantly for my taste).
Again, Im just trying to give some ideas on interpretation, but ultimately you are the author of your own sound.