Hi prongated,
I know it's a while since you posted this. I first listened to it in December, but I was too caught up in my own efforts with the piece to listen impartially (as it were) to your fine performance.
Most of all I would like to tell you that your playing of the piece as a whole works very well. You hold enough back early on that the listener is excited to hear more at all times. The opening has a slightly whimsical quality that makes me unsure where you're going, and I find this very effective. This is even more true when it comes to the sfogato, where you take us far away before coming back, and the return to tempo is beautifully gradual.
You ask what listeners might do differently, and at the risk of being presumptuous I'll offer a few thoughts.
I am trying to present the first theme with the greatest simplicity possible. That is not to say that your version is elaborate, but I for me it might sound even less like "Chopin" and more like a simple song he might have heard. This might leave still more room for development later. I love your dynamic control, and wonder if you have tried bars 28 & 29 with the dynamics as marked? Almost all playings I hear follow somewhat what you have done, each bar starting gently and building all the way through in intensity. It seems to me that with the dynamics as marked we can feel a boat on the wave (or the wave itself) building quite strongly but failing to crest fullyand move on. I think of a big intake of breath ( cresc. and accent) and a surprisingly gentle exhale, (the dim. mark). When the same bars reappear with the octave bass (88,89) they aren't marked with a hairpin down. This time they are more certainly part of a great oceanic building to climax.
In the next theme you achieve a mysterious feeling while preserving the steady rythm of the inner voice and bass, and this is very effective. To me, this might be a hair piu piu mosso, particularly in the forte sections following the long trills. Again, I think of things always seeming to build- to become more excitato as the sea enters the sailor's blood.
I love your playing of bars 61 through 69, but it is very different from my conception of them. I think that here we have another Venetian song, but this time a more sprightly one. The huge left hand when this tune returns means that it's perhaps not neccessary to hold back the tempo the first time and still achieve great contrast. Again, what you have done with the two versions works beautifully, I'm merely saying what I would do differently.
The next sections I find virtually "perfect", particularly the sfogato bit, and I only do things differently because I'm not capable of playing them remotely so well! From bar 103 on, I think of things being more agitato, but I'm not sure I should have listened to your recording, since it's making me doubt my reading! Bar 110 blows me away! That run seems to release all remaining energy and delivers us to the calando superbly.
Again, I could not have enjoyed your playing more. I found it far more interesting than any versions by big names I've listened to on the iternet. Many thanks.
Sasha Cooke
Topic: Chopin: Barcarolle