Bach Prelude and Fugue in Cm, BWV 847 (VIDEO)

[liszt85]

I recorded this video after Thanksgiving (2011), when I bought my Panasonic FZ150 camera. I thought some of you might enjoy this. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

(There is a little bit of an audio-video lag that creeps in about halfway through the piece).

[birba]

bravo.  exemplary bach.
That said, what are you playing on?!  I could swear at more then one point (like the end of the prelude) that you were playing on a forte-piano or clavichord.  Then the sound sort of became a regular pianoforte, then turned into a harpsichord...Am I hearing things?!?!?

[liszt85]

bravo.  exemplary bach.
That said, what are you playing on?!  I could swear at more then one point (like the end of the prelude) that you were playing on a forte-piano or clavichord.  Then the sound sort of became a regular pianoforte, then turned into a harpsichord...Am I hearing things?!?!?

That's just an ordinary Yamaha P22 upright piano (that underwent quite some bashing in a Church, which is where I bought it from). All I did was add some reverb. The piano is also slightly out of tune, so the sound is probably not very clean.. maybe that's the sound you heard? Also, at the end of the prelude, I kinda messed up on that mordent. So I played a less clean sound there. Other than that, I'm not sure what you're hearing.. I bet its the reverb, which is probably a tad excessive. I was playing around with a plug-in that I installed with audacity.

[birba]

At any rate, it fit in with the music!

[liszt85]

At any rate, it fit in with the music!

Glad to hear that, because that's what I thought when I decided on the level of reverb. Some people find it excessive, I think it does a good job. With the recorder near the piano in a real small room like mine, the sound can be dry. The acoustic space matters a lot when creating music such as this.. you need a cooperative room too.

[chuck75]

Reverb aside, a really excellent performance, basically quite nicely disciplined.

[pianoplayjl]

Brilliant dispay of musicality. I have to admit, you played it much better than I did and showed that prelude doesn't have to be played fast to sound good. I usually play it fast  . Nice voicing with the fugue too.

JL

[liszt85]

Thanks chuck75 and pianoplayjl.

[matterintospirit]

a beautiful feel for the music liszt85

[commissiona]

Liszt85, I love how you play this piece and the sound of that piano for it.  I have a Yamaha P22 myself (made in 1971) and used to play that c minor prelude on it a long while back, so it brings back some memories.

Although I love my piano and I'm very lucky to have it, one major problem I had (and still have) with the piano is the stiffness of the keys, which I never completely got used to, so it makes pieces like this sound sloppy when I play it.  These days I nearly always play on a syth on low volume as to not disturb my wife and baby, so unfortunately it doesn't get played much  .

Just curious - Do you find your Yamaha to have the same heaviness/stiffness and you were able to overcome the issue just by getting used to the instrument and playing it a lot, or is yours just perhaps made a little differently? 

Anyway, again, I really enjoyed the video and I'll probably start playing that Prelude (+ the fugue this time, hopefully) again in the near future.  Thanks!

[liszt85]

Just curious - Do you find your Yamaha to have the same heaviness/stiffness and you were able to overcome the issue just by getting used to the instrument and playing it a lot, or is yours just perhaps made a little differently? 

Mine is a 1988 P22. Surprisingly, even after all the abuse it took in that Church, it has held up pretty well. The keys aren't stiff and its fairly easy to play. I installed a dampp-chaser as soon as I got it into my apartment to avoid humidity related issues. I suggest you get a registered piano technician (RPT) to look at your piano. A simple regulation might do the trick.. and maybe install a dampp-chaser if he recommends it. That will hopefully solve your problem. Humidity fluctuations can also cause stiffness (due to various factors) to creep in. An RPT will be able to explain this better. Good luck.

[commissiona]

Very cool, liszt85, thank you!

I'll look into that.  We've moved this piano a couple of times along with a few very unusual weather events within the past 4 years, so it'll certainly need a good tuning anyway, so I'll ask about it then.  I'm not familiar with a dampp-chaser but researched it a little after reading your reply, and I can see how that would be useful. 

Well, thanks again, your suggestions are definitely enough to get me started.  Have an excellent week!