Schumann, Intermezzo op 26 played by Costanza (12 yrs old)

[costicina]

Hi everybody  
My daugther (12 yrs old) started to learn this piece some  weeks ago. It still needs to be polished,  but she wanted to record and to post it in this forum  as a birthday/Christmas’s present to me (I was born  the 24  December ).

With the help of her father, she managed to upload the recording in our Youtube channell, but neither of them were able to post it in this forum. Since Costanza’s English is almost non-existent , and my husband’s  skills in forums’s matters are not better, they inundated Pianostreet with  a lot of insensate posts. I’m really sorry…  I had to bother Nils with a PM to remedy that mess (thank you, Nils for your patience and kindness!!!).

Nonetheless, I was moved by my daughter’s effort and good will, and decided to post her recording (as bad as it can be)  in   this board.
So far, your advices, suggestions, criticism have been so useful to us: I hope they can  help  Costanza to improve this piece, too (I tresaurize it because it’s a spontaneous gift to  her Dragon Mom…)
 
Thank you in advance for your patience…
P. S. Merry Christmas to you all, and a happy, fruitful   new year with music and piano playing!!!!
Best whishes
Margherita

[pianoplayjl]

Your daughter is a very fast learner in my opinion! I just want to say I think the ending you can make it more rich and colourful. Also I noticed there were some tiny bits where soem notes jumped out over others. The top notes were appropriately sounded out over the middle parts. With just a bit more practice no doubt it will be very impressive.

JL

[costicina]

Thank you, JL!!!
I know, the end of the piece is a mess, and overall Costanza's performance lacks of the necessary "fluidity". I hope to post soon an improved version ot this wonderful Intermezzo.
Margherita

[pianoplayjl]

I recommend studying Claudio Aurrau's recording and taking notes.

JL

[costicina]

Oh, yes!!!
Arrau's intepretation is my favorite one...
I know you too are practicing this  piece. Please, post a recording when you think it's ready. I'm sure you'll do a great job!!!!      

[rachfan]

Hi costicina,

First, for a 12 year old student to be able to get so far in this piece is remarkable.  So my compliments on that!  

You made an important observation in a prior message above--fluidity.  Not that it's bad, for it's actually good, but it could still be even a little better.  A couple of suggestions:

As to balancing the hands, think of the melody as always being in the foreground, while the accompaniment is kept in the background.  So two levels of sound, not including voicing of double notes and chords.  Another way to put this is that the accompaniment needs to be generally quieter and should never compete with the melody which must soar over the accompaniment.

The other practical suggestion would be to recall that for every performance, there need to be a certain number of practice iterations that varies by pianist.  This fosters solid articulation and confidence in the playing.  For example, it might be a ratio of four practice runs to one performance.  Your daughter will already have a sense as to what that is in her own case.  Where there are many intricacies in this piece including the shifting from natural keys onto black keys, slow and somewhat mechanical practice can iron out wrinkles very nicely.  If there is place or a few that are especially difficult, those can be isolated for more intensive practice. The mechanical practice will then facilitate artistic performance. But sometimes even that not sufficient.  Using the actual motions used during performance in practice iterations can also help solidify results.    

Sometimes in her playing, for instance in executing a leap, there is that small hesitation of uncertainty and worry that breaks the fluidity.  First, she can use the metronome to discover the weakest places in the music where continuity loses momentum.  So it's extremely helpful to play through the piece a couple of times with the metronome. (The objective is not to play metronomically, but instead to use the metronome simply as a tool to discover hesitations interrupting the tempo.)  She can then mark those measures for more intensive practice to ensure that the hands are correographed to best advantage, fingering is most effective, the hands "know" their notes and rhythms, and very importantly that she can be anticipatory in meeting the more difficult technical demands as they arise in performance.

By the way, I've always been impressed by the Michelangeli recording of this intermezzo.  

I hope this helps.

P.S. My birthday is the 29th, so how well I know the Christmas/birthday situation.

David

[costicina]

Thank you so much, David!!!
Your remarks and advices are, as always,  very wise and useful. I hope they’ll help Costanza to improve this piece, and her piano playing in general.
She feels this Intermezzo as stormy and passionate, but listening to her recording she too realized that it sounds too loud, “woody”, and the melody line is far from expressive.
If and when we’ll be able to record a better version, we’ll dedicate it to you, as a delayed present for YOUR birthday !!!!      
Again, David, many many thanks
Marherita

[birba]

Well, for a 12-year-old that was really very very good.  This is NOT an easy piece, musically or technically.  It's repititious and can result monotone - and the running 16th note triplets tend to cover up the melody.  But she coped with these problems really well.  When you said she was a beginner I was thinking more on the lines of Beyer!  Has she done any more of the Faschingswank?  David is right.  The Michelangeli recording in superlative.
Se trovo il tempo oggi, le faccio un video!

[costicina]

Magari, maestro!!!
It would be the best gift I could think of for my Chrismas/birthday....Thank you con tutto il cuore for your encouragement. Costanza started her piano lessons three years ago with soi disant "qualified" teachers, but they were awful. So for most of the time la poverina has had only me as a guide (myself a bad amateurish player). With a teacher like you,  Birba, I'm sure she'll flourish!!! (Idea folle: why not? We live in the same city    But I'm afraid your are not at all intersted in my "indecent proposal": never mind)

Mille, mille grazie
Margherita

[hakki]

I very much enjoyed listening to your daughter's recording.
Very good for a 12 year old pianist only playing the piano for 3 years.

And what a nice present it is for Christmas!

I wish you and all your family a prosperous, happy New Year.

regards,

[birba]

[costicina]

To Hakki: thank you so much for your kind words, you are really nice!!!     

To Birba: I really don't know how to thank you: the tutorial videos you made for Costanza are unvaluable.. they made me insanely happy. Che maestro straordinario, e che persona squisita!!!!
GRAZIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

[birba]

Mi sono pure divertito a farle!   
Spero che possano essere utile per Costanza.

[costicina]

Ovviamente SIIIIIII!!!    
I hope to post soon an improved version of this piece. We’ll do our best to deserve your  precious gift.
Vorrei tanto che Lei possa essere orgoglioso della sua nuova allieva “virtuale”. She'll owe to you watever progress she will be able to make with her Schumann.
Grazie ancora e ancora e ancora….

[starstruck5]

Much about this I enjoyed - I hadn't heard this piece before to be honest!  Made me feel like I want to learn it! 

[rachfan]

Hello again, Costanza and Margherita,

I just watched birba's two videos.  He's not only an extraordinary musician and artist, but a wonderful teacher too.  Anytime I watch one of his helping videos, it's just like being in a master class!  It inspires me.

He reminded me  of a couple of things I neglected to say in my first response here.  I had mentioned layering the sound to enable the melody (in the foreground) to soar over the accompaniment, which must be quieter in general (in the background).  

What I forgot to add, and what birba demonstrated so well, is the complication when the right hand (and/or sometimes the left hand too) carries BOTH melody and accompaniment within the SAME hand. That notwithstanding, the melody must still be dominant over the accompaniment within the hand. I thought that his demonstration of a practice technique to master that challenge was superb. This particular technique is essential to one's pianism, as this situation arises quite often in the more advanced piano literature.

I'm glad that birba mentioned the need for the supple hand.  I would add that the wrist needs to be flexible as well to assist lateral and vertical motions.  While the wrists are normally neutrally and naturally extended, there are many moments when the flexibility of the wrists must be called into play to assist the choreography of the hands on the keyboard.  As he pointed out so well, sometimes music cannot be played by the fingers alone.  It often requires more of the playing mechanism--hand, wrist, forearm upper arm, etc.

I cannot say enough about his emphasis on slow practice while using exaggeration.  It's an indispensable part of effective practicing.

I just wanted to add those extra thoughts.

David  

[costicina]

To Starstruck5: thank you for listening! If you really are going to learn this piece, please, post your performance: I’m sure it’ll be amazing good, and an example for Costanza!!

To David: Thank you sooo much, you are always so helpful with your thoughful and detailled advices. With two outstanding pianists and teachers like you and Birba, I’m sure Costanza will be able to improve this Intermezzo. I hope to post soon a recording with a better version. Whatever progess she will make, it’ll be your deed. We'll do our best to make you proud of your "virtual" pupil  
Really, I’m so grateful to both of you!!!!

P.S.
As a first step, I helped Costanza to re-write the score with Personal Composer (a notation software), without the accompainment part. I remember that Bernhard used to suggest this trick as a tool to understand/memorize the structure of  “layered” pieces like this. She started then to practice the melody  line slow, exaggerating the dynamics and the hands movements, as you suggested. So far, it’s going very well…
Thank you again
Margherita

[birba]

Hadn't thought about that!  Good idea!  (rewriting the score).  What Rachfan pointed out and  that I failed to really demonstrate is the melody and accompaniment in the same hand.  Slow work and exaggeration of the "peso" della melodia (usually the fifth finger), e la leggerezza del'accompagnamento.

[costicina]

Mmm!!! 
Relearning a piece from scratch with a new approacch is going to be more troublesome than we thought…
But we won’t give up. In the process, Costanza is learning patience, determination and perseverance as well, and that’s a good thing.

We wish you a happy, wonderful  new year!!!!
Thank you again
Margherita

[rachfan]

Hi Margherita,

Happy New Year to you and Costanza!

I watched birba's videos again tonight, as they are excellent.  There is so much good information there.

He made a very important point (twice actually) about "finishing the phrase" and demonstrated that at the keyboard.  This is so important, especially in lyrical music of the Romantic Age, that I wanted to expand on it a little.  In executing that finishing motion, I like to think of it as a gentle raising of the forearm and wrist in order to lift the hand completely off the final note(s) at the end of a phrase.  In other words, we "taper off" (affievolirsi) the phrase.  That allows two things to happen: 1) The lifting off motion momentarily relaxes the arm, wrist and hand, and 2) The playing apparatus can then anticipate, position and prepare the hand to drop into the next phrase, very often on a downbeat. So when we think of the motions of phrasing, a phrase really consists of a down-motion to begin the phrase, followed by an up-motion to finish it.  At the micro level, consider a simple two-note slur, which is a down motion on the first note and then an up motion after the second note to finish it.  A longer phrase uses that very same principle. It makes the sound of phrases more coherent and  beautiful.

David

[costicina]

A useful, interesting advice/reflexion....what a good way to start the new year!!!!!     

Thank you so much, David

Margherita