Danzas Argentinas/Ginastera

[arensky]

The composer's most popular piano work. Not perfect but not so bad. Comments appreciated.  

[birba]

Very very good!  I enjoyed listening to your performance.  I think you captured the image in each piece.  At the end of Viejo caballero play the guitar strums a little bit faster and non legato.  I think you can use a little more rubato in the moza donosa as Ginastera says at the beginning.  Really sensual.  Like Rita Hayworth in Gilda.  The gaucho matrero was excellent.  But control your tempo.  Sometimes I felt as if you were losing control of the horse!  Use very little pedal in the beginning.  Try the first two measures X2 and measures 3 and 4 X3.  Use rythmic pedal only at the beginning.(on the right hand chords).  THEN at the FF, pedal, but don't blur it too much.  In the middle section, rythmic pedaling again (on the chords only).  The final reprise FF, you can ritard a bit the measure before.  Loved the last 5 measures.  Someone told me once to hang on to the pedal a bit at the end.  And, in effect, Ginastera wanted that way.  But I like the secco ending as well.  BRAVO!

[arensky]

Thanks birba!

Hmm, Gilda is one of my top 10 movies of all time. I'm glad I could evoke that image for you

Yeah, matrero is messy in spots, and I only had so much time to capture this. Thanks for your helpful comments, and I will rein my horse in a bit 

[kard]

wow, thanks for the exposure. new stuff to me

[rachfan]

Hi arensky,

Your playing is thoughtful, energetic and lyrical in these dances.  It's all most effective in these colorful pieces.  Excellent!

[goldentone]

These pieces from Ginastera are interesting music, Arensky, and very well played.  Thanks for sharing.

[storyseller]

Very nice. Masterfull playing.

I'm not an expert on Ginastera but the first 2 are better I think. The 3rd is obviusly more demanding technicaly. Not having the scores I "understood" the first 2 while the 3rd sounded more like patchwork, impresive and brilliant yet I didnt get the "dance quality" or a feeling of direction/purpose if you now what I mean...

Then again maybe I should hear it a couple of times more or get the sheets.. 

 

[arensky]

Very nice. Masterfull playing.

I'm not an expert on Ginastera but the first 2 are better I think. The 3rd is obviusly more demanding technicaly. Not having the scores I "understood" the first 2 while the 3rd sounded more like patchwork, impresive and brilliant yet I didnt get the "dance quality" or a feeling of direction/purpose if you now what I mean...

Then again maybe I should hear it a couple of times more or get the sheets..  

  

You are right, my 3rd movement sounds like patchwork. I suddenly had acsses to a great "new" piano (rebuilt Steinway D) and good recording equipment and randomly seized the moment.
Here's what it should really sound like...


https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BB1B7E17F2AF7920&search_query=martha+argerich+ginastera

Thanks everyone for your positive feedback.  

[pianovirus]

I'm not so familiar with these pieces and now it's the first time I listened to them (in your playing) along with the sheet music. These are such great short pieces IMO, and the three complement each other very nicely. Your playing was great, very intense and rhythmic in the first and third piece, and indulging in the sensuous harmonies in the second piece. Bravo! If I may ask - the opening of the viejo boyero (first eight bars) sounded a tiny bit uneven to me. Do you agree or maybe I just "didn't get it"? Btw, I just listened to Ginastera's own recording on Youtube - he plays this one considerably more slowly, but I have to say I prefer your faster tempo here! This piece looks fun with the RH apparently always on white and LH (almost) always on black keys... In any case, very good job!! Thanks for sharing!

[communist]

Dear Arensky,


on no.1, it is very repetitious even though it is short. To make it not sound monotonous you should change speed, rubato etc... to make it more interesting.

in no.2, you have the nice melody in the right hand, but there is that wonderful base. You should bring out the left hand more in certain spots for the polyphony to make it more interesting, this is a good example of how almost everyone is influenced by J.S. Bach. You should also pedal the last note and let the sound die away.

in no.3, one thing similar to no.2 is the polyphony in, you have the apocalyptic left hand along with the melody in the right hand. A crescendo (or at least a larger one) would have made the moment around 1:20 more interesting.

After listening to no.1 I noticed there is another voice you could bring out during the main theme, this one not as interesting as the other 2 but it is still there.

I think these polyphonies unites the 3 as a set and not 3 decisive pieces.

Throughout the whole thing I thought you should have widened your dynamic range; however, your performance was very accurate, clear and technically impressive.


Good job!

[nanabush]

Hey, good job with these three pieces!

I played these a year ago for an exam, and I can remember the amount of frustration it took to learn some of the passages in the third movement.

I like how you play the third movement a lot (very different to how I played it, but it's very interesting).  The melodic right hand part with all of the hectic triads after the first glissando was very clear.

One part in particular, though, needs to be a bit clearer.  My edition doesn't have measure numbers  so I'll try to describe it the best I can:  the 'mordento' halfway down the third page, that goes with the right hand playing the BE - F descending pattern; that part, and the crescendo right after where each hand heads in opposite motion is the part I'm talking about.

For my exam, I hit both 'mordento' parts, but the D+ and Ab+ patterns with the right hand at the crescendo there KILLED me; that is in my opinion the toughest measure in the piece.  Hands separately it's ok, but each part is so independent from another I just couldn't wrap my mind around it under pressure haha.

To make it easier, I put slight 'pauses', just a split second long, giving me enough time to prepare for the next tough part (I'm specifically talking about the mordento --> killer part --> mordento section).  I still wasn't 100% accurate here, but I was making a lot less mistakes.

[arensky]

Thanks everybody for the comments, much appreciated. I'll be playing these on a recital in November and will probably post the newer version, hopefully a video. Thanks again!