Schumann's Carnaval op. 9 (first movement)

[thesixthsensemusic]

Hello there,

I've spent most of the last months learning, amongst other things, pieces from the Carnaval. This is the first recording I made of any of them, more are to follow but I am eager to check out how my first attempt sits with the PS community;

This was a significant challenge to learn, and there's still too many wrong notes but no derailments. The recording quality is not great. Unfortunately I pressed the wrong button on my Clavinova so the MIDI I thought I was recording for audio playback was not recorded after all or else I'd have added the audio straight from the piano as an mp3.

Thanks in advance for listening and possible feedback,

kindest regards, Peter

[j_menz]

Very nice indeed.  The recording quality hides rather too much of the subtleties of this piece, so I do hope we get to hear a better recording at some point. And the whole Carnaval!

I was surprised to hear that you found it a significant challenge to learn, after your Ballades. Maybe you're the reverse of me - I always think Chopin makes no sense, whereas Schumann seems quite logical (which given he was completely bonkers may not reflect well on my own mental strength).

[thesixthsensemusic]

Thank you for listening! Well, there's quite a number of places where this piece contains strange rhythm changes (even a couple of non-3/4 bars in the coda) or sudden outbursts starting from a virtual standstill after a completely different passage than what comes after. That combined with me not knowing it by ear as well as I do with the Ballades made it tougher. Of course it's only 4 pages but it was a tough nut to crack.

I will record the rest once it's done with. I haven't yet learned nrs. 16 (including the unnumbered Paganini Intermezzo), and 20 yet, and only today began polishing nrs. 9 and 15, which were a nightmare to study, but I finally got the technical side more or less over and done with now.

I'll record nrs. 2-8 first thing tomorrow, will keep you posted.

Again thanks for the encouragement.