Detecting pedal use

[stormx]

Hi:

when you listen to piano recordings, do you realize exactly when the damper pedal is being used? 

I´m affraid i cannot .
From times to times, i hear some recordings that seem a little blurred to my ears, and i realize that the pianist is making intensive use of the pedal. But thats all...

[molto-marcato]

If it sounds blurred the pedal is used too much.

[ichiru]

Yeah... it's kinda hard to distinguish the pedal... sometimes my teacher told me that the way I play with the pedal is too blurry, but I don't even recognize how the "clean" voice actually sounds...

[stormx]

Yeah... it's kinda hard to distinguish the pedal... sometimes my teacher told me that the way I play with the pedal is too blurry, but I don't even recognize how the "clean" voice actually sounds...

You know, i am actually the opposite.
I like very clear and clean sounds (that is why Glenn Gould is, in my opinion, the best Bach interpreter !!). I hate sounds that get muddy. But i suppose that, excluding the extremes, there is a wide range of possibilities where something that sounds warm and rich for one pianist may sound blurry to another. 

[henrah]

Sometimes the pedal is used in conjunction with the notes in that it will be audibly invisible. It effectively has no use in these parts, other than holding notes which a pianist would otherwise have to cut short to play the succeeding notes. But sometimes it can produce resonate harmonies that are hard to pick up on, but definately change the sound of the piece.