Chopin - Etude op 10 no 12

[zheer]

For some reason i still find this Etude very difficult to play , so lots of wrong notes and well you know. 

[chromatickler]

hahaha 2'40 wiz rezpecable fury

[dickreuter]

Good start, but you use way too much pedal, because you're trying to hide the wrong notes. Try to practice it slowlier and without pedal. And most important of all, don't forget the melody! You may also put some more pianos into it.
It may even sound faster when you play it slowlier but more precise.

[zheer]

It may even sound faster when you play it slowlier but more precise.

  I try not to think in tempo anymore but more about what chopin tought "we are concerned with the end result, the goal the responce evoked in the listner,not the means used to evoke it"

[Siberian Husky]

needs mor clarity..agreeing with whoever suggested laying off the pedal..other than that..sweet

[pianogeek_cz]

After listening to it several times...

General points:
-As has been said several times: way too much pedal. The g1-g2 octave in the RH opening theme can't be heard because of the LH hammering away under pedal all the way from Chord 1. Bar 11, the two c minor chords don't sound like two chords - thank the pedal. Same thing in bar 17 - I couldn't hear the sixteenth octave. There are more places like that, but it's always the same problem. I've posted it a few minutes back, half-pedal is the way to go.
-Don't know whether it's the pedal, recording or interpretation, but the LH is waay to strong in places (bar 25: I had trouble discerning the melody, and I knew what I was "looking" for...)
-Rhythm: Sometimes you play the dotted eight-sixteenth group almost as two eights. Distinguish them! It sounds very fast that way even if you play piano (trust me, I've tried...).

Some particular things:
-Both hands run bars 5-6: The accents lie on the beat, although the thing starts halfway to beat 2. When you accentuate some of the notes in the middle of the beat, it sounds disconnected, not like a single run with a target.
-What happened to the tempo in bars 25-26? It's all right playing behind the beat, but this sudden tempo change sounds disturbing (at least to me).
-Bars 34-35: Try playing the chord on the 2nd beat a bit stronger. The whole passage from the last beat of bar 33 is directed towards the low f and the f minor chord, I don't see a reason to pull back...
-Bar 38: Whoa, half of a beat is missing - the next bar came way too early (I've been struggling with this same thing quite a bit, metronome is the best solution).
-Bar 57: I kind of miss the chord on the 2nd beat.
-Bar 68: Same as bar 38.
-I was lost in bars 73-80, try accentuating the beats in the chromatic passage a little bit, then I feel that bars 75 and 77 should've been given a bit more time...

These things are rather a matter of taste, but I think there might be at least some objectivity in them:
-The ending run: Isn't it Allegro con fuoco + Appassionato? Waay too slow to my liking. Deliver the blow!
-The last chord: It might be - probably is - personal taste, but I'd make it staccato - it makes the piece much more consistent, you (better, I) wouldn't like it to trail off, in one moment (start) it's there, after exhilerating 2:40 it suddenly stops... I'm quite sure it would deliver a stronger effect/response of the listener. Imagine the moment the thing suddenly stops - two seconds before the people realize it's over... the strongest possible moment, silence right after playing stops. This way, they could think "Ah, okay, so when he lets go of the pedal we'll clap." (I'm not taking into account that a lot of the piano people know this piece, these will know that the end is coming anyway... )

I hope it helps.

(This might sound like a lot of criticism, but I know very well how much work it takes just to get it to this stage... How long have you been practicing this piece? It took me some four months to get to this stage... Other three to get past it...  Will be performing it on an all-Prague teen pianist concert on May 15th... I'll try to post my recording soon...)

*thumbs up* G'luck working on it! It's quite a monster...

[zheer]

Thanks pianogeek, for your comments . I learnt the notes for this etude around 11 years ago, but i re-learned and recorded this etude in around  2 hours.

   Good luck with your competition and tell us haw it went.

[gyzzzmo]

A bit messy yes Thought it sounds nice and angry. Bit less pedal maybe and try to play it a bit slower, maybe with metronome first.

[dnephi]

Get tempo you can do. Metronome it.  Start at ♪=160.  Then get that good.  Move it up to Quarter note=85.  Then get it to be in half notes.  Get 76=half note.  But just do it slowly without pedal to get it mechanical.  Then go back and make it musical and expressive.

[gyzzzmo]

pianogeek has said it all 

[pianistimo]

u definately show passion for the revolutionary etude.  chopin wrote this when the russians were overtaking warsaw.  also, he dedicated this etude to liszt since it shows a lot of virtuosity.

i'd  like to hear a little more dynamic range and more sneakiness in the left hand - basically a sort of wave effect that keeps growing.  u have a wave that is constant and so the listener feels left on the shore instead of sucked intot he ocean. 

also, i'd like to hear a very plaintive rubato near the end where the lh modulates so beautifully.  that place is like a break in the clouds for a momentary moment.  that is the climax, to me.

i've always thought of these types of pieces as slights of hand.  u really need some teacher's advice on pieces like this to accomplish the feats u are setting out to do without showing any sign of difficulty.  there's a natural tension that will occur (esp. in the right hand - by looking at the melody as something to put tension into).  what u really are aiming at is the OPPOSITe.  a good BOLD sound from the rh with little or NO tension.  it's a sort of 'dead' hand approach.  when u have natural weight (as u are already finding) - u have a good natural sound out of the piano.  now HOW TO MOVE ur hand with this dead weight.  that's where MINIMAL movement comes in.  u don't want to wave ur hand up and down unnecessarily - so just like finding the pedal point for the pedal - u start learning to minimize those up and down movements of the hand and make it more like a tremor. 

maybe i shouldn't give advice on chopin - since i can't even play this etude.  but, for what it's worth - if i was trying to teach this -  i'd put a finger under ur wrist and as u started playing the melody going up - i'd gradually lift ur wrist.  i would see an orbit starting to occur when u reach the peak of each turn.