Mozart - Sonata E flat, Berg - Piano sonata, Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit

[fnork]

Yesterday I recorded a class concert where I played the 2nd round of a competition programme which is coming up soon. Any constructive comments are warmly welcome.

Mozart is very fresh and it was the first time I played the whole thing through in concert, so it was a bit nervous. Berg and Ravel felt better though. For next weeks class concert - Prokofievs third concerto 

The file was too big to upload here, so I had to use megaupload instead -
https://www.megaupload.com/?d=94PJA2YF

[birba]

Any other way you can send this recording?  I can't download it.

[fnork]

Yeah, I just noticed the same thing - for some reason the megaupload link isn´t working, at the moment at least. So I uploaded it at mediafire instead:

https://www.mediafire.com/?s76s4ws0i6a14cc

[birba]

The Windows mediaplayer on my computer doesn't work for some reason.  Can't you just post it directly in pianostreet? 

[fnork]

Well, as the whole performance is in one file, I had to convert it with a much lower bitrate to upload it here - but anyway, here it is:

[birba]

I really liked listening to this.  Of all three, I enjoyed the Ravel most of all.  Unlike a lot of pianists, you observe the strict tempi that Ravel insists on.  The ondine flowed to the very end until that beautiful monologue of the nymph.  I also liked the Gibet.  Remember though, to keep the repeated b-flats unchanging throughout.  Even when the dynamics change from p to pp to ppp, keep that death knell constant.  There were times you played it way too loud.  In fact, the piece as a whole should be more static and never more than a mf at the most.  Which only comes once, actually, in the whole piece.
Bravo for the Scarbo.  Reconsider, though, your tempo.  The beginning is way too fast.  It's modéré.  One eighth note should equal one measure in the following flight.  I would reccomend you play the repeated notes with one finger.  Close to the keyboard and not releasing the key completely, so that you have sustained sound without the pedal.  This metronomic proportion should remain immutable throughout.  Ravel is a stickler for this.  Then when the allargando comes at the end at the FFF, the moins vite is much more effective.  It was an exciting performance, though.
The Mozart was very good.  I prefer the embellishments on the beat in the first movement.  I love this piece.  It's so underplayed.  The minuet is too fast, I think.  And there's more contrast with the last movement if you keep it really like a minuet.
The Berg I like least of all.  I think I can say what I feel without you being offended, right?  I assume you're a professional pianist and you know you can't please all the people all the time!
It's your tone when you play forte.  It sounds too aggressive at times.  Like you're pushing the keys down too fast and hard.  I've never played the piece but I always enjoy listening to it.  It's like Addio to romanticism.  A last fatal attempt to carry chromaticism to the extreme to express every human emotion.  I feel it should be warmer in sound, etc. etc. etc.  But this is only MY impression!
You're a very very fine pianist and I enjoyed listening to you!

[fnork]

Thanks for listening, and thanks for the insightful comments.
I do agree about the bell in le gibet being too loud at times. What I was trying to achieve was to always have a certain "depth" in the tone, especially when there are accents, but overall it came out too loud in a few spots. Indeed, the introduction of scarbo was rather quick. I do take the repeated notes with the same finger already, however - perhaps I have to work on more clarity. After the intro, it took a few pages until I had settled down with a solid and steady tempo (somehow it happens sooooo easily that you play too fast for the first few pages, being nervous and all. It was in fact 2nd time I ever played scarbo in public - first time was one and a half year ago), I´m quite happy I managed to get most of the notes in the whole repeated-notes-and-jumping-around episode that leads up to the first climax

I guess you meant "moins vif" and not "moins vite" btw? Cause I can´t find any moins vite in my score at least, and in the place you´re talking about there is a moins vif. Yep, I could definitely take my time there and slow down a bit more.

Hah, I´m perfectly fine with you not liking my Berg. In fact I don´t think it´s possible to please everyone in this piece anyway, people have quite different takes on it. (that being said, I do quite like for instance Glenn Goulds recording myself, although I could never imagine playing it so damn slowly myself) I hear what you´re saying about my tone in forte, and that´s what I´ve been told a lot before already. However, when I had this in mind as I played it in a class lesson last week, people told me that I need to play louder and "scream" more in the loudest passages, so to speak. In fact, I think this is what the piece calls for. The way it is written, some of the FFF-passages are to be played on the higher register of the piano, where the tone dies away very quickly. Having a "nice tone" is something I´m willing to sacrifice for a convincing performance. But I see your point.

Glad you liked Mozart! It feels damn fresh still, but it´s a lot of fun to play.

Thanks again for the comments! More recordings of the other competition rounds programmes will come soon...

[birba]

Ah, this was a competition round, was it?  Well, then, you have more of my admiration then before!
Bravo!

[fnork]

oh really? well, yes, it´s pretty tough keeping the whole programme going simultaneously. The rest of the programme includes Prokofievs 3rd concerto, first movement of Griegs concerto, bach p&f c#minor book 1, etudes by chopin (op 10:4) and debussy (pour les accords), one chopin nocturne (op 27:1) and one lyric piece by grieg (march of the dwarfs). I´ve basically just started looking at the last two mentioned pieces and the grieg concerto - hopefully 2 weeks is enough time.

[fnork]

if it wasn´t clear - this isn´t a recording from the ACTUAL competition. The competition starts on 6th of november. This was just some sort of run-through of one of the competition rounds at a class concert in my academy. Don´t ask me how but for next class concert (on thursday) I´m planning to play both the first round and the prokofiev concerto. Lets see how that goes... (I´ll post it here too if the recording won´t turn out to be awful)

[birba]

Post it anyway!  You gotta live with it!  (Look who's talking...)

[fnork]

Heh, we´ll see. I might post it. If I stay in the practise room non-stop until thursday...

[fnork]

Well, unfortunately my friend didn´t manage to record the performance yesterday, so in the meantime, I´m just bumping this thread I might make a few recordings during the next few days though