Hi: i liked the way you did this very much. You seem to have a knack for making the piano easily do what you want it to. KInd of like you and the piano are one seamless unit. But if you dont mind I have a question. When your dealing with venues of different sizes, do you always get a chance to rehearse before hand so you get a feel of where your playing, you know for things like any sound adjustments you might make. Also if you dont , are there clues you have before you sit and play to make those adjustments for the hall your in? Im asking because I have still have trouble with that Myself.Anyway, thanks for the post. I would love to hear more of your playing, Cheers, Becky
Hi (Nathan)!!I have listened to several of the pieces you played here and in YT and my ... you are one excellent pianist. And despite that you have posted and played pieces which are not familiar and popular with the general audience, I am sure you can easily sustain our interest despite our short attention spans as you project your music very well with good clarity of tones. The Sonata in g minor by Q. Kim really has put me on a proper mood before church this Sunday morning. THANKS.May I just second your requirements before a performance. I do not agree with "there are no bad pianos only bad performers" ... but rather subscribe to - a good performance becomes better with a properly maintained piano. When my son Enzo gets invited to perform, sometimes I think we raise eyebrows with our requirements: 1. a chance to practice with a properly tuned and maintained piano and 2. a final tuning 1 or 2 hours before the performance. As his teacher often tells us ... a pianist in an off day with a bad mood who plays with a "bad" piano will surely end up with a "bad" reputation among audiences. emill
This was the same piano that you played the polish songs on? It sounds like another instrument. Wonderful playing. Great sustaining tension. I play it a hair faster. But I got used to your speed. Have you ever tried that crescendo that some pianist recomended somewhere or maybe i heard it in a master class, I don't remember. You begin softly the reprise and gradually make a crescendo to the d-flat major part and then a big diminuendo after that to the end. It's a wonderful effect. They play this a lot in villages here in Italy, and the effect is really that of a band coming from a distance and passing on. I hope this was an excerpt and you played the whole sonata, right?
As far as trying out the piano before, I have played on some real beauties in my life and no amount of practising before would have would have helped me to overcome certain "deficiencies". Nikita Magalof told a funny story once where he came to try out the piano on the day of the concert in some obscure monastary in Portugal somewhere. He found an upright waiting for him. He was dumbfounded and made a big scene and said if he came that night and didn't find a grand piano he would refuse to play. The organizers (the monks of the abbey) were equally dumbfounded and didn't know what to do. When Magalof arrived that evening he found the same upright with a black cover draped over a huge crate that lengthened the upright and made it appear as a grand piano!! He was so touched by their naivete that he went ahead with the concert anyway!