Brahms Op 116

[arielpiano]

Here are the first three parts of the Op 116 Fantasies

A.

[birba]

Exceptional playing for one so young.  Bravo!  Maybe it's the acoustics but the sound, in general, was sort of muddled.  You have to be careful of the pedaling.  Keep your ears atune because the pedaling we've learned at home isn't always what's best in a concert hall.  
But what a mature interpretation of Brahms! How old are you anyway?!

[pianisten1989]

Stupid young people coming here, and play better than we do! In the old days... *thinking back to when was thing young, and didn't even know who Brahms was*

[rachfan]

Hi pianisten,

I started watching Arielpiano's videos when he was too small to sit on the bench, so leaned back against it to reach the pedals as he played virtuosic pieces by Liszt, and very well too! Yes, it boggles my mind.  And yes, when I see Arielpiano or hear Becky in this forum, I feel like selling my piano and never playing another note!

I'm much older than you, but I think back to the 1950s when I started piano at age 8 with a wonderful teacher with a conservatory training, who had built a fine reputation, and who was in very high demand.  For the most part for the first three years I played mostly easier pieces by the master and minor composers plus "teaching pieces" along with technical exercises.  At the time there seemed to be a prevailing consciousness about levels--beginners, intermediate pianists, and early advanced pianists.  And gradings of difficulty in the repertoire held prominence too.  I played for 10 years in the National Piano Playing Auditions sponsored by the National Guild of Piano Teachers, which had a syllabus of repertoire and piano theory requirements that I had to meet every year with 10 or more memorized pieces to be played for an outside adjudicator from the Guild.  It was certainly an effective way to progress and learn the piano in a structured way which included goals and achievement.

Today, I sense that there is a entirely different way of teaching that has nothing to do with levels, grades of difficulty, and measured progress.  It appears to me that now an excellent teacher takes an obviously very talented student, opens up Liszt's "La Leggierezza" and then says, "Probably this piece would be a good starting point for you." Evidently it works, because the kids develop a mindset that there is no such thing as a difficult piece to play, and then they just go on from there, never having seen a "teaching piece" or easier classical piece of music.  Maybe I'm exaggerating or have it all wrong, but this is my sense as to how very talented students learn how to play the piano these days.  

[rachfan]

Hi arielpiano,

Bravo!  Brahms' music is challenging, but you turned in an impressive performance nonetheless.  Awesome!

[arielpiano]

Thanks for all the feedback. Some of the muddle in this piece has to do with the recording. Somehow the sound was not right in this video and we don't know how to fix it. It will have to wait for the next opportunity, when I hope to record the entire Op 116 (all 7 parts of the Fantasies).
This is indeed a challenging piece, not so much technically as musically.

[Derek]

Hi, do you still improvise? I remember your posting an improvisation you made when you were about 6. New improvisations are always welcome in the improvisations room =)