Lutoslawski - Two etudes

[fnork]

From a pianofestival this summer.

Youtube:

Videos from the whole festival are now availeble on youtube through this user:

(Only a few availeble so far, more is coming soon)

[fnork]

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[rachfan]

Hi fnork,

I'm not over-familiar with Lutoslwski's piano works, but must say I was highly impressed by your playing of this music.  Absolutely superb.  Bravo!

[fnork]

I enjoyed working on them - I found no 1 to be very tricky though. 2nd isn't nearly as bad, once the left hand work as if it were on "autopilot". We don't have much piano music from Lutoslawski, there's a fabulous piano concerto of course, but in terms of solo repertoire we have these etudes, and "12 folk melodies". A friend of mine played all of those, some lovely little pieces, probably nothing tricky either.

[kard]

Wow. This is my first Lutoslawski experience too . Great material, excellent playing.
I especially liked the first one. Thanks so much for sharing and congrats on your performance.

[fnork]

Thanks! It was written around the same time as the paganini variations - the 2nd study in particular reminds of the variations a lot, with double notes alternating between two white keys and two black keys. Lutoslawski seemed to like this "black-white" idea. As I wrote in another thread, there are recordings from the entire festival temporarily availeble here:


https://www.kyrkan.com/tmp/pianofestival/

I especially recommend listening to Vladimir Ovchinnikovs recital, most of all his Rachmaninoff "Moment musicaux". You cannot see who plays what, but his recital is betwen track 16-25. My teachers recital is between tracks 10-15, I can most of all recommend his Schubert sonata, and also Gunnar de Frumeries 2nd piano sonata.
All other recordings are students playing - me and another of my teachers students, and two of Vladimir Ovchinnikovs students. Videos will come later

[dnephi]

I just want to thanking you for posting those recordings.  I've listened to the Rachmaninoff recordings dozens of times and I can never get enough of the Schubert D959. 

Your playing of these etudes is also admirable, and I think they're a great 20th century homage to Chopin.

[lostinidlewonder]

Great skillful playing! Would like to see the sheets for this.

As for personal opinion goes(since I have no music to refer to), the opening rising pattern needs more clarity, it repeats itself in this first movement. eg: 1:17-1:22 and  1:29-1:34 also some kind of variations of this at 1:00, I feel those rising up patterns need more shape to them, less pedal, make them stand out as an obvious repeating of pattern to the listener. The pedal makes it a little unclear to hear them being repeated figures throughout, even though your recording doesn't makes it hard to observe I am sure making it more clear would be beneficial to the first time listener. Maybe the composer wanted that I don't know! I also felt that some marked notes could have had more bite to them. Could the chords end of the first movement broaden out a little more at all?

2:33 the LH sounds like it would like want to become more detached perhaps? Moving into pattern at 2:44 seemed a little bumpy, the LH after here seems to want to be more marked here too. 2:52 those unique longer notes should perhaps start standing out more so it sounds more connected to the octaves (F#G#B ? ) voice up the top that follow. Could 3:12 be more lighter and fluffy Then 3:20 floats better. Could 3:56 be more stomping perhaps let the longer sounds have the slightest more length to them so they stand out more?

This must have been very fun to play, it sounds like it! Finish the piece by pushing yourself up from the last chord to a stand Then people will know its finished and that uncomfortable silence won't be there. I could hear peoples thoughts.. "Is that the end?" 

[fnork]

Lutoslawski actually writes long pedals in all those places in no 1. As for no 2, um, I should've practiced it more 

[thierry13]

Why was my post deleted? It happenned twice in two totally correct posts.

[lostinidlewonder]

Lutoslawski actually writes long pedals in all those places in no 1. As for no 2, um, I should've practiced it more 

I wouldn't mind to pay to listen to a performance like this, it's pretty good I'm sure it however will become much stronger in the future, which would make it even more worth the money to listen to ahha.

[fnork]

Videos are being uploaded from the festival now, here's the Lutoslawski:

The same user is going to upload the rest of the festival on youtube as well, including the wonderful recital by Vladimir Ovchinnikov. Do not miss it!

[rachfan]

Hi fnork,

I had commented on your audio files last September, but wanted to add that it was great seeing the video version this time.  These two etudes appear to be quite intricate and demanding.  You have a wonderful facility with the keyboard, complete control of touch, and intelligent and appropriate pedaling.  On the pedaling, as Hofmann used to say, knowing when not to pedal is much more important than pedaling, and you clearly understand that.  Your renditions are done with extraordinary precision, but you take risks too, assuring excitement in your playing.  You capture the essence of the music, and, therefore, can put a piece over to an audience very well.  Again, I say bravo!