Chopin - Étude Op. 10 #12

[frankiisko]

Hi to everyone!! Well, I haven't put anything on the forum because of my vacances, but they've finished and I can say I'm active in the pianistic life of everyday haha!!

Well, the recording I want to show you today is the very well-known étude 12 from Chopin. The étude "révolutionnaire". It's the second of the études from Chopin that I play (after the number 1 -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5REIhTQH8RM )

The Godowsky's version of this étude is coming 

Thanks a lot to all of you for your advices and comments and thanks for watching it!! 

[dima_76557]

@ frankiisko

First of all, thank for your effort.

Technique is a much broader concept in Chopin than you give it credit for. I understand that this is a work in progress, so I will not comment on the left-hand part. What I am going to say is meant to be constructive.

I was a bit disappointed with how you approach the right-hand part of this piece. It sounds forced and unnatural at times, not very melodic, because you seem to strive for a metronomically precise rendering, whereby each note of the right hand should fall exactly on a certain note in the left hand, but I don't think that is what Chopin intended. Instead of trying to do what can't be done and swallowing certain important melodic notes in the process, it would pay off to try and play the music BETWEEN the notes (this is a methaphor, much like reading between the lines) with complete independence between the hands and enough freedom and flexibility in the right hand to sing out the patriotic emotions Chopin depicts, at the same time without making it sentimental and without taking too many liberties in the indicated rhythms. That is, as far as I can see, the real challenge in this piece.

I would recommend you to have a look at an article I posted a link to recently:
The craft of Musical Communication.

It is about what we call "intonatsia" in Russia: a clever mix of inflection (musical speech, created through certain tensions between certain intervals as in spoken language), nuance, rhythmic flexibility, balance, transparency, attention to harmony, touch, tone, etc. Affect, in short: not the emotions themselves, but the art of expressing them.

Good luck!