Chopin 2nd Sonata on youtube

[awesom_o]

 

[awesom_o]

a bit safe maybe

[tds]

i just finished watching it at an internet cafe. the cafe was very loud and noisy so i couldn't really hear very well, not to mention that the headsets were inadequate (cheapo sets to say the least), so really i am not able to give accurate feedback. but from what i could hear, you played with alot of feelings and wasn't it full of beautiful sound and phrases? maybe bit more grandeur and with more passion when needed? the bass can be more too perhaps? again, i might be wrong, wait till i get a better chance of listening to it. or i am sure other people will also comment on this fine performance! best regards, teguh

[furtwaengler]

It makes sense that you'd be presenting the piece which caused Rachmaninov the reservation about his own 2nd Sonata, on which he preceded to mutilate his score! I'll give it a listen later.

[lluiscl]

Great performance!! Congratulations (youtube sound limit more comments)

[rachfan]

I really enjoyed the video.  You made the most of Chopin's melodies and exhibited a fine technique in executing your musical intents.  Excellent!

P.S. Re YouTube: I too shudder when I post recordings at YouTube.  After MovieMaker does its thing, I listen and the recording always sounds just fine.  Then once I upload it and YouTube does its so called "processing" (maybe destruction would be the better term?), the result is never as good as the original that I sent them.  It's discouraging.  

[furtwaengler]

You play very, very well. I'm curious about the repeat going back to the grave instead of four measures later where it's marked in my score, the doppio movimento? I think this is the first time I've heard such, and I am a fan of the repeat, but not back to the grave! I need your insight into this.

[awesom_o]

furtwaengler,

thank you for your kind words.
Apparently the repeat going back to the grave is absolutely authoritative (like you, I was shocked when I first heard it). But many many professors and pianists have confirmed this whenever I bring it up. The repeat is from the beginning of the movement. The idea that it only goes back to the 5th bar is supposedly a misprint from the first (1840) German edition.

You can read a bit about it here.

https://mq.oxfordjournals.org/content/85/3/568.extract

I think Charles Rosen talks about it in one of his books.

Again thank you for your support. Is the audition room subforum usually this quiet?

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for the info. I knew there had to be a good reason for the repeat. It changes things...especially if it's a true doppio movimento. Works with the 2nd ending. This is a good revelation.

Yes, the audition room tends to be quiet unless it is people responding to threads which have no business going public...those in the past have eaten up all the space. There's been much progress, though.

[awesom_o]

hmmm... like sarasanipianocircus?

I notice that Liszt recordings tend to get a fair bit of attention as well. Is this forum more into Liszt than Chopin/Rachmaninoff?

I had thought this forum is filled with terrific pianists more than happy to tear new members' interpretations to shreds in the audition room forum....quite different from PW with its 95% population of adult beginners/low-caliber amateurs/piano-salespeople pushing their wares...

[jwpopp]

Having spent considerable time researching YouTube and Piano Street, I've ultimately guessed that your identity is Car....e Ber.....d.  Is that correct?  I don't mean to intrude, but your work is worthy of greater recognition, in my opinion.

Yours is one of the few performances of this sonata (albeit but one movement)  that have "spoken to my soul", and I thank you for having shared your genius and your fine ear for meaning in Chopin.  This was not a performance, but a heartfelt expression.  Would you have available a recording of all four movements?

I've read a blurb or two about recordings of other Chopin by yourself, but can't find them online.  Hints would be most welcome...

--- John

[awesom_o]

Hello John, and thank you for your kind words of praise. I am indeed Carlisle.

This performance was from many years ago, when my love of solo playing was undiminished.

Since getting a bit older and beginning to compose more seriously, I have turned my attention to the study of other instruments, as solo piano playing no longer gives me any joy.

I am a great enthusiast of piano duet and piano duo, and have recently been doing many rather unusual projects with my partner in those genres.... in addition to the regular repertoire, we have developed a love of symphonic transcriptions. We will soon make a DVD of symphonic music for piano duet, entitled 'Zusammenspiel', featuring Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony and the Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi.

I'm afraid I never recorded the op. 35 or op. 58 Sonatas properly, although I would perhaps like to in the future. I did make a rather nice recording of the op. 10 and op. 25 Etudes, however. I posted many of them in .mp3 format on this site, although you can purchase the higher-resolution .wav files here:

https://carlisleberesford.bandcamp.com/

Your financial support helps me to buy a very beautiful harpsichord which my friends Dawn and Den over at https://www.claviersbaroques.com/ are currently building for me. 

I now mostly practice the recorder and the cello. I'm hoping to do a masters degree on the cello relatively soon.

[abielikesu]

Thanks for sharing this fine performance.

[faulty_damper]

I still don't understand what the piece is about.  The best understanding I have so far is that in well-temperament (or whatever the tuning in Chopin's day) the minor third of B-flat Minor (B-flat to D-flat) was quite contracted and had a very anguished character with the extra beats.  This would be the reason why the motive repeatedly and incessantly sounds the minor third, to make that tonal quality obvious.  Thus, the purpose was really to express a tonal mood, not really a full musical idea.  If this is the case, then the movement is just one long tonal experiment, one that I think fails in equal temperament.

My criticisms:
Grave should be considered one musical idea.  As such, the phrase starts from the beginning to Doppio movimento.  Thus, performance should be much faster to contain that idea as one phrase.  Further, the first three notes sound like three notes - like spelling a word instead of saying it. That makes comprehension more difficult and unmusical. Grave doesn't necessarily mean slow tempo and it should not be understood as a tempo marking.

The last chord at the end of the exposition, the dominant 7th, must sound like a dominant back to the opening Grave.  There was no voicing (or power) at all so when it recapped, the D-flat octave was acoustically disjointed.

Overall, it could be much faster.  Ideas dragged on longer than necessary which slowed forward momentum.

[awesom_o]

Thanks for sharing this fine performance.

You're welcome, abielikesu! It was a very long time ago, the day I gave this performance! Back then, I hadn't yet studied Chopin's music with much depth of perception, although I certainly loved performing alone on stage!

Nowadays, I prefer to share the stage with a friend or two! I enjoy composing new music, but somehow the experience of doing so has turned my path away from that of the traditional concert pianist. 

I'm not well-suited to the practice of concert-pianism in the usual sense of the term! Very, very few people actually are, and a huge number of people want to be. 

It seems fun from a distance, but once you get up close, you realize what it actually is and what it really means, and you then have to make a serious decision about whether concertizing is a line of work you truly want to pursue.

In my case, there were other ways that I would prefer to share my musical energy with the world! The day this video was taken, however, I hadn't yet discovered what I truly wanted out of life! 

[senanserat]

In my humble opinion it was very good, he only thing I noticed was a bit of loudness in the bass Aside from that I loved the whole interpretation it was moving and awe inspiring and I can only hope to one day match your skills.

Thanks for sharing

[emill]

X.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x....  This performance was from many years ago, when my love of solo playing was undiminished. Since getting a bit older and beginning to compose more seriously, I have turned my attention to the study of other instruments, as solo piano playing no longer gives me any joy.

I have always admired your playing and your participation and am a bit "shocked" especially the part "as solo piano playing no longer gives me any joy". I would  never have guessed.  Just curious, was this a sudden change resulting from something that came or affected you BIG or did it come slowly over the years as a natural process resulting from experiences.... that you began to realize you found more joy in other things, more than solo playing? ... but really, no more joy at all?

[awesom_o]

It was gradual. As I made progress as a composer, I began to see the stage from a different perspective. I realized that I prefer other instruments for solo work, and I began to devote myself to playing them. I still compose as much as I can for piano solo, and recently I've been doing quite a lot of solo-playing for a commercial recording project. But with the piano, I mostly focus on ensemble-playing, particularly piano 4-hands and 2 pianos.