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[fnork]

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[rachfan]

Hi fnork,

Your collaboration in this beautiful sonata is artistic, balanced and sympathetic.  An excellent performance!  I particularly like the very lyrical middle movement of the sonata.  Poulenc was a wonderful composer.  Thanks for posting it!

[pianistimo]

Both of you are really well matched.  Only in a couple of places I was wondering if Poulenc wrote for the piano and violin to be at the same volume (basically in the most dissonant areas).  I enjoyed this piece tremendously - and yet long to hear one or the other instrument (perhaps taking turns) - outshine the other in the very small most dissonant areas so that it not become cacophony for a moment.

Maybe, on the other hand, Poulenc meant for this to be a distinct contrast with the more harmonic sounding intervals/harmonics.  But, the violin typically plays slightly louder in these places.  OK.  if the violin typically takes over and plays louder there - what if...what if the piano took the lead in the short areas that have the most dissonances in the first movement that are played with the violin? 

[gerry]

In all fairness, whatever imablance is perceived, I chalk up to the mike placement and/or recording technique. The violin sounds a bit more distant than the piano. A really sterling performance by both of you. I haven't played a lot of Poulenc--right now am working on his Toccata which, interestingly enough, has many motival bits and pieces that I hear in this sonata.

Thanks for sharing.

[fnork]

thanks for comments. pianistimo, I guess you're referring to for instance the first minute and 20 seconds or something before the lyrical 2nd theme comes. he uses the same dynamic for both instruments for most of the time actually, but of course we could've thought a bit more about what should be brought out and what's more background... the opening of this piece is so troublesome in terms of balance...

[pianistimo]

I'm disappointed that the recording isn't there now.  I liked it alot, despite my minute crit.  So, Poulenc actually has them at rather equal volume at those places.  Well, sometimes it's a matter - as gerry says, too - of placement.  I wonder - since we are listening to a recording instead of live - that the instruments might sound perfectly fine with enough distance between.

Recording is probably just as difficult to do right as performing.  It's amazing how little recording things make instruments come 'too close' to one another and sort of cancel each other out.  I know virtually nothing about recording, but I know what I like to hear.  So, i use my normal language to imitate the sounds much like people do with car mechanics. 

[rachfan]

Recording is not easy.  I would rather play to 300 people than face the three microphones in my living room.  It's true.

[fnork]

it's a live recording

[pianistimo]

I understand about 'live recording' - but I mean 'live' live.  In person.  So that one doesn't have to rely on the recording part.  You can distance the two instruments because you can actually pick which one you want to focus on.  In a recording they are sometimes mushed together - with the type of recording.  Although, your recording wasn't bad at all.  I'm trying to say that this was a very very small crit and nothing major.  I'd just like to be able to make a choice because I couldn't distinguish the 'elemental' parts of the sudden group of dissonances.