Flight of The Bumblebee Rimsky-Korsakov / Cziffra / Pop (VIDEO)

[barnardo]

I shared this remix with friends at Christmas... after having learnt and recorded the Cziffra arrangement properly last year.
Hope you enjoy this sillier version!
For those who know the Georges Cziffra arrangement I have added a couple of bars for my version on the final page plus a bar pause after the contrary motion run (drum fill!), and I never do the repeat (that would be madness!). I omit three grace notes on page 3 at this tempo, and play the opening appoggiatura as a crotchet upbeat so I can start very crisply at speed!
Of course I created video from several camera angles later. Used a dslr camera on video mode, but sadly forgot the higher def setting.

For this re-recording I needed to keep a very strict tempo (to fit the drums) so I recorded the piano in several takes using a Clavinova clp440 with Synthogy Ivory II American (Steinway) Concert D samples to a metronome click.
Then I added the sleigh-bell sound and drum loops in Logic. Finally edited the video in iMovie.

[furtwaengler]

Great job! This is one of the most hilarious, bizarre, and mind boggling things I have seen...who could imagine it? Reading the title I had no idea what to expect, and you must be a madman (in a good way) going through all the work to sync things up....but I will not say it's not worth the effort...This is a tremendously entertaining clip! 

[barnardo]

Thanks for saying! The editing did take a couple of days, with a bit of forethought, and learning and practising the piece took a hundred times longer!

[starstruck5]

   Is this speeded up?  Doesn't sound natural to me -

[chapplin]

I think it's not fast-forward. It looks just fine when u can see his head, the blinking and head nodding isn't unatural at all. and synching that with the hands in the fast tempo. it seems like he just got da chops! good job

[camille101]

This is seriously as technically perfect as Yuja.  Bravo !

[barnardo]

This is seriously as technically perfect as Yuja.  Bravo !

Oh I'm most flattered by that! Pushing this to the mm of 200 meant being ridiculously fired up, and I totally and humbly envy the sublime flexibility of miss Yuja Wang's wrists despite the intense concentration on her face - (see YouTube.)! My own recording on CD without the daft percussion, is two touches more relaxed than this video, and probably needs to be no quicker! But Cziffra really did present a challenge in his arrangement if you want to play the melody quickly smoothly and evenly like Rimsky intended, but with the textures that Cziffra used. I think Rachmaninov's version is rather more musically sensitive to the original, though it burns less calories ;-) this version was intended for a Xmas party where the kids would do the sleigh bells.

[liszt1022]

It's an interesting take. If you are going to record at a slower speed and increase the tempo post-production, you should really be up-front about it. That way we can focus on the remix aspect instead of the technical one.

[barnardo]

Oh... well its a shame if it sounds sped up to you, but it was just my intention to share something and I wrote about the production with honest detail.
The piano was all recorded at this speed (the samples may sound with very bright attack admittedly), but edited together from shortish takes because it was hard to achieve. The video is me playing along to that audio, and you can easily see where my video edits are from standing starts rather than a continuous performance!
Ignore me if you think I'd want to trick you, but I won't argue further.

[liszt1022]

It doesn't sound sped up, it looks sped up. There's no way your wrists can come up and down the way it appears at that tempo, there's too much motion. If you don't want to argue further that's fine, but that's my reason.
Well, I suppose it sounds sped up in the way that if you're not in the top 1% of 1% of pianists, you're not going to be that accurate and even, but the sound is more subjective than the look.

[barnardo]

Thanks for that post! I can relate to what you say about the video. You are welcome to have your own opinion based on evidence! My software ( iMovie) does have a double speed adjustment option somewhere but I'm saying I've never ever tried it and have no expectations what would happen to the sound and quality  if I did!
To trill between octave stretches like that is very hard on tendons until you a) toughen up and b) manage to unlock the wrists.the actual speed wouldn't be unusual for small intervals, but a bit of practise everyday and it is quite achievable including changing chords I promise!

In some sections like the first page the video looks less natural (jerky?) , and I think the frame rate might be insufficient ( it's 24 or 25 fps depending on if I pressed PAL or NTSC when asked) and I don't know technically what happens when ithe video gets coded over at YouTube. Im sure resolution could play tricks with the eyes at least.  The quality makes it look a bit strange, that's what I think. Ill admit my 'playing along' to the audio gets a bit lazy in some shots (weary retakes) and my LH weaker fingers are not working very well bringing out the bass in the first section (because they don't have to!) , on the page 3 where the LH first plays the tune with a RH counterpoint My fingers 4 and 5 don't always reach the top notes you can hear I noticed!

I just happened to use a funny facebook shared video I had already made to try a post on Pianostreet. I realised it wasn't a work in progress for comment, and was in highly questionable taste! Any one as old as me will remember the appalling hooked-on-classics records that were an 80s fad, and the joke was to clown around with a tune that has a history of being abused in speed demos. I love playing it anyway.

As for the remix and editing, I hope no one would disagree with me when I admit that it is amateur and hurried. I hate video editing but at least I didnt lose the whole project this time. The bumblebee has been an encore piece for most of this year, and I am certainly not a 'top' pianist, but I hope a very hard working and experienced musician in my own way!

I'd rather make friends on Pianostreet so I'll share a work in progress next time!

[emill]

BRAVO!!!!
 
despite some editing this is one mean accomplishment!!!

BRAVO.