Clair de lune - Debussy

[tiago3m]

Hi, I'd love to hear your opinion on my Clair de lune interpretation. Is one of my favorites piano pieces.

Thanks

[jugular]

Hi tiago3m! I worked on this piece a few years back and it is still one of my favourite pieces to listen to. You performed this piece excellently; allow me to make a few comments regarding the performance.

I think you can be a bit more expressive in the beginning. It's marked Andante tres expressif (at a walking speed; very expressive), and it felt a bit metronomic at some points to me as opposed to a feeling of liberty. With this being said, you can manipulate the time of the notes (rubato) in order to envoke that feeling of liberty in the performer. Make sure, however, that you maintain the original time value of the notes as to not create a rhythm of your own:  pay careful attention to the dotted quarters in the beginning, it sounds as if you're playing them for 2 small beats instead of 3.

In the tempo rubato section at the beginning, there's an expression marking in the 5th bar marked "peu a peu cresc. et anime":  get louder and more animated (lively; excitedly) little by little. You made the crescendo happen, but it didn't sound very lively- it sounded as if you had the same expression at the start of the section. I'd suggest increasing the tempo here in a "stringendo" fashion, to give it a more excited feeling.

The last thing I want to point out is the Calmato section (around page 4). Calmato doesn't necessarily mean to slow down, it's just a directive to play a section in a...calm manner! It sounded as if the tempo suddenly shifted to half-speed when you reached this section, so remember to maintain the tempo but the mood is shifted to a calm one.

Your arpeggios and glissandos sounded very clean and fluid, I very much enjoyed hearing them throughout the performance- you've got a solid left hand! Great job with melody control as well, it is a tough to maintain the melody throughout this piece but you executed it brilliantly!

Keep it up