Chopin Etude Op 10 No 3

[aragonaise]

Hi all.

This is my virgin recording. Please feel free to offer your harshest criticisms.

Thank you for listening.


https://www.savefile.com/files/6226228

[flo]

Hi,
from a pure technical point of view, nothing is "together". The notes in chords are not together, and so the LH is not together with the RH.
It is very important to play things together, or your piece looks like nothing.
Well, it is harsh... but you were asking for it.
Maybe you can try to play the 2 hands separate, and record it, so that we can see where are the worst problems. With the 2 hands, it is difficult to hear where is the origin of the problem. If it is the fact of playing the 2 hands, or if nothing is together even separate.

[rafant]

There are beautiful things. I liked your phrasing, the rubato and the nuances in the dynamics. Yes, there are certain micro-arpeggios along all the piece, and I would suspect maybe a bad habit, which you must become conscious of, and then to work disciplinedly to correct it.
There is also something indefinitely wrong with the piano sound, but I am not able of identify it. Maybe it is an old piano? Try to move the mic placement toward the trebble, since the sound is a little too dark, or try to use another mic.
Waiting for more recordings of other pieces. Kind regards.

[gaer]

Hi,
from a pure technical point of view, nothing is "together". The notes in chords are not together, and so the LH is not together with the RH.
It is very important to play things together, or your piece looks like nothing.
Well, it is harsh... but you were asking for it.

Good grief. I hope you never teach anyone, because with "help" like this, the only thing you will do is destory people. NOTHING is together? Since I read your response before listening, I expected something horrnedous. I understand your point, but I think it is overstated, and I also think it is only common sense and simple kindness to point out something positive too.

In my experience some of the best pianists I've heard have not always struck notes together at all times. To condemn a performance on this basis alone, as far as I'm concerned, is not seeing the forest for the trees.

I heard some places rushed, some notes that were blurred so that I was not sure if they were right or not, and at times the melody just disappeared. I think I could probably come up with a hundred small criticisms, maybe a couple huge ones too, but I found a lot to like also. And as I've said repeatedly, if I had a few students who played as well as some of the recordings I hear on this forum, I'd be very, very happy.

Sure, things can always be improved. And yes, if someone asks for criticism, we can assume that such a person is ready to hear many ideas about what is wrong.

But please, can't we have some balance?

Gary

[zheer]

Well said Gary, playing the piano is a personal thing, one can be heart with careless remarks.

[rafant]

Well, about Flo's comments, it's not that bad. I prefer to think of them as I would about my own teacher's sincere corrections, which I am always hungry and grateful of. Moreover, Flo gave a solution together with his remarks.

[aragonaise]

Hi all,
thanks for the comments given.

To Flo: where is it exactly the notes are not together? I would love to correct that.

To Rafant: By "micro-appegios" do you mean the notes are not together? And yes, the piano is very old. The sound is very brittle, and the recording is not done very well. I have since bought a new piano, the Yamaha U1 silent, and will do more recordings on that instead.

To Gaer: The melody disappeared in the middle section? So when we play chords, we must make sure the melody note rings out louder and clearer than all others AT ALL TIMES?  That must mean our fifth finger must be very strong!

and to all, how may I improve the piece to bring it to concert performance level (if it ever happens!)

[rafant]

Yes, that was what I meant. Wasn´t you aware indeed of the lack of simultaneousness? Ummm. Maybe it's a piano fault. I'll better wait until you submit a new recording of the same piece using your new piano. If there are not microarpeggios anymore, then the piece is already at performance level, imho.

[gaer]

To Gaer: The melody disappeared in the middle section? So when we play chords, we must make sure the melody note rings out louder and clearer than all others AT ALL TIMES?  That must mean our fifth finger must be very strong!

and to all, how may I improve the piece to bring it to concert performance level (if it ever happens!)

Measure 7: Right before the grace note (short appogiatura), it sounds as if you put in an extra E before the A#. This doesn't mean that your notes are not together, which I'm telling you for a fact was an absurd criticism because you are NOT hiting your notes apart all the time or even most of the time. It's just that when you do it, it's quite obvious. And in measure 8 your rehit the F# in the melody. It is tied. Wrong notes in measure 8. In measure 9, I only hear E in the RH on the first beat, no G#. This is what I mean by "losing the melody". Same thing in measure 10, but this time on beat 2. I can only hear E, so the G# is missing. But those may be mistakes, misreadings or simply minor memory lapses. In general, you ARE getting the melody, and it is true that the weak fingers of the RH most often play the most important (melody) notes.

Measure 17: why suddenly soft? Perhaps my score has an error. According to what I have, it should be a peak, then coming back down (decresc.) throught the end of 20. The first chord of measure 21 is not held full value. You hold it at most 3 16ths, and it must be at least a quarter. The animato section does not start until beat two.

Measure 23, again you lose the top notes of the RH on the second beat.

Now, I'm really picking things apart. To some extent, things like this happen to the best players, at least on bad days, when they play live and things go wrong, but these kinds of "lapses", when they occur too often, make a potentially fine performance into one that is promising but not quite there yet.

One big comment. In the really rought spots, and you know where they are, you are rushing. It is not that they can't be played that fast, or shouldn't be, but if you would slow down a bit and nail the notes, you would be much more convincing.

As I said, there is a lot to like, but make sure you always play the melody, watch out for wrong notes, don't hurry beyond your ability now, and the most important thing of all—don't ever cut the last note short, which sounds as though you are angry and gave up. What happened at the end???

And I don't think hands separate practice is going to help much, because I think most of your problems are happening when the hands are together, and since you can already play it all, I'd work with the hands together but slower, listening carefully. Just my opinion.

Good luck,

Gary

[goansongo]

Hi,
from a pure technical point of view, nothing is "together". The notes in chords are not together, and so the LH is not together with the RH.
It is very important to play things together, or your piece looks like nothing.
Well, it is harsh... but you were asking for it.
Maybe you can try to play the 2 hands separate, and record it, so that we can see where are the worst problems. With the 2 hands, it is difficult to hear where is the origin of the problem. If it is the fact of playing the 2 hands, or if nothing is together even separate.

Hahaha, seriously, saying that "nothing is together" is stretching it...

[aragonaise]

Thanks all for the kind comments, especially gaer.

I will post a new recording of the same piece soon, with all your advices incorporated of coz!

To gaer:

Measure 17: why suddenly soft? Perhaps my score has an error. According to what I have, it should be a peak, then coming back down (decresc.)

No, there was no error in your score. I tot I would want to play around with the psyche of the listener. Just as everyone would be expecting a peak, I refused to oblige, and let the tension ebb slowly in heartbreakingly soft, subtle manner in the next few bars instead. I dunno if its okay to do such things. Am I doing anything blasphemous here?

Anyway, thank you for dedicating so much of your time helping all aspiring pianists in this forum.  You must really love music a lot to share the joy with others.

[applelover]

there is something about how you played it which is nice, not sure what, good job.  one comment is, it seems like there is a little emphasis and emotion missing, like you don't hold the notes long enough.