Rach: Paganini Rhapsody (9.16.2012 solo only)

[furiouzpianist]

Steinway piano.

I will play this in a concerto competition on Thursday. Kindly let me know what you think.

Hope you all had a great summer,

this is piece is quite awkward for me, BTW (maybe for everyone except Rachmaninoff himself??)

-TM

[49410enrique]

audio? video? pantomime?

edit.

i see it now. thanks

[furiouzpianist]

hehe, yeah, I guess the post appeared before the recording was uploaded! But it is all up now..........

[49410enrique]

it all sounds good and smooth, expressive, everything i would want to play. but it's a competition so at the end of the day it also depends on what kind of game the other 'kids' bring but you sound great i wouldn't be worried, just go in and have fun playing this thing and play your hand well.

will you play w piano II ? you've got all the rehearsing done right? you feel good about entraces and have back up plans i.e. contingencies on how to handle 'disasters' should they happend , i.e where to skip ahead to, etc?

[furiouzpianist]

will you play w piano II ? you've got all the rehearsing done right? you feel good about entrances and have back up plans i.e. contingencies on how to handle 'disasters' should they happen , i.e where to skip ahead to, etc?

yes, I will play with the second piano (a friend of mine who is also doing the competition with this piece will play the second part for me, and when he plays on Friday, I will play the second part for him as well. We rehearsed a great deal over the past month. I know the music pretty well (I learned the piece back in 2006) so I am not too worried about disasters regarding the ensemble.

Thanks for listening! I am anxious to get back to learning new solo repertoire!

[rachfan]

Hi furiouz,

I've listened to this rhapsody for decades, but this is the first time I've ever heard the piano part by itself. It was revealing!  There were times, for example, when I had always assumed that the piano was in the foreground with the melody, but learned now that it was actually playing more accompaniment giving the lead to the orchestra.  I do have the score here, of course, but long ago only fooled around with sections that I most enjoyed.

You have a marvelous dexterity and clarity of playing which you combine with expressiveness that should be very well received at the competition. I wish you the best of luck.  After listening to your fine rendition tonight, you certainly have my respect!

David

[sclive]

I agree-excellent playing! Great articulation, great control of your rhythm! So clean. I could only listen to first half, but will come back later to hear the rest. Few tiny details only for me: on your soft notes, especially in the early part, those notes cannot be TOO soft. They must always have an energy and a focus (which they frequently did, just a few were too "private" for my taste). One other tiny thing - on the variation with the slow chords, I want the notes in the R and L to sound simultaneously, as though the chord is one thing and not several things (assembled notes).

Your playing is very fine!

[starstruck5]

Very very good -both playing and recording -it sounded wonderful -like I was inside the piano -

[furiouzpianist]

yes, in that chordal variation I wanted to bring out some individual notes in the chord, but maybe not as much as Moiseiwitsch does in his recordings. At any rate, I will work a bit on in, and make sure that the chord sound perfectly "vertical".

I find that recording at 48 khz 24 bit WAV (on my Zoom recorder) sounds much better even when I down-sample everything to 44.1 khz 16 bit MP3 for uploading.

[sclive]

Listened to the rest tonight. Excellent!! You made that poor old maid piano feel pretty again. Good luck!!!!

[furiouzpianist]

Listened to the rest tonight. Excellent!! You made that poor old maid piano feel pretty again. Good luck!!!!

thank you fior listening and your comments!!!

They will tell me the cuts today, and will play the first round tomorrow. It is a competition at Julliard (where I am doing my Masters).

[furiouzpianist]

played today - it went very well, almost no wrong notes, but I didn't make the finals. Disappointing, but at least I can pounce on my solo repertoire (all new!): Bach/Busoni Chaconne, Beethoven Sonata Op. 2/3, Chopin Sonata No. 2, Prokofiev Sonata No. 6.

A ridiculous combination! And, I have to play the Beethoven in a masterclass on October 8th, and I barely looked at the score!!!

Thank you for all the support, as always!

Regards,

TM

[emill]

Wow!! this is GOOD .... clear and convincing.  After listening to your playing, I seem to like much more this Rach-Paganini than the Liszt-Paganini Etude No. 6, which my son is starting to practice for  a recital this early December. Perhaps it is the cohesiveness and fluidity of your playing. THANKS!!

[furiouzpianist]

Wow!! this is GOOD .... clear and convincing.  After listening to your playing, I seem to like much more this Rach-Paganini than the Liszt-Paganini Etude No. 6, which my son is starting to practice for  a recital this early December. Perhaps it is the cohesiveness and fluidity of your playing. THANKS!!

Hi,

thanks for listening! I think the Liszt Paganini Etude No. 6 is the best variations written on this theme, actually. There are 2 version, I think your son is probably doing the 1850's one. I hope you post your son's performance, he is a virtuoso!

Regards,

TM