Appassionata 1st movement

[andrewkoay]

hehe this is the only piece I recorded properly (with a good mic!) a few years back... before the university and job. the good recordings really expose all your weaknesses LOL....

[thesixthsensemusic]

Are you implying you're not playing on this level anymore or are you implying you've got more experience by saying 'before uni and the job'?

This sounds pretty damn good TBH! At points this work is ferociously difficult and even in those spots you were in full control.

[andrewkoay]

Thanks for the comment! Hehe I wasn't trying to imply anything, just that I miss the days where I can practise as much as I want (uni and the job robbed me of most of my practice time). If anything, I think I'm physically stronger than before which I think helped a lot in terms of finger and arm strength and endurance, but it would take some while before I can get the touch, accuracy and interpretation back (or maybe not at all if I don't find time for regular practice)...

[kalirren]

Wow.  Powerfully orthodox, I'd say.  Excellent clarity in structure and in detail.  Balance could use some work - sometimes one hand gets louder when the other hand should get softer sooner, and this traps you in forte.  All in all, this is a better recording than the Master's student live performance I heard last year.

Some particular comments:

The transitions between the middles of the trills and the way they resolve could be smoother, in general.  Several seem inadequately prepared.

Nice job with the beginning of the repeated notes & transition to A-flat key near measure 40.  That's a fairly loosely constrained part of the piece, and your interpretation is more compelling and creative than many that I have found on Youtube. You do what I wish I would had thought of myself there, especially with the pedal.  Did you also do Autograph study?

When coming out of the second theme into the part just before the trills leading into the first closing theme, there's a crescendo into a piano followed by a subito forte in both exp. and recap.  As it stands, I find the subito forte a bit jarring, disconnected.  In the recording you achieved the subito by taking extra time between the two sets of falling octaves in the right hand, and a large increase in volume, mostly in the RH.  I think this part is better executed rhythmically straight, and in a more LH-driven fashion: that is to say, with a very sharp dropoff in the LH volume to achieve piano on the 6-3 chord, and less decrescendo in the RH.  That way, when the LH comes back to join the RH for the second pair of octaves subito forte, the continuity of melodic line in the RH is less disrupted.

The first entrance of the first closing theme (the one with the broken chords in both hands, not the descending thirds in LH) in both exp. and recap. is single forte only.  Only in the second repetition, one octave up, does it attain fortissimo.  I hear two identical dynamic levels in the recording.  (It might also be my playback device.  I'm not on the most sensitive setup here.)

In the very beginning of the extended diminished seventh broken chord that marks the end of the development, there are two measures of music where the left hand stops on a note, and leaves rhythmic space, before right hand answers with its arpeggio.  In your recording I hear those being played continuously.  I think the call-and-response between LH and RH, growing more and more impatient as that space between them lengthens, are important there.  I would follow the rhythm given in the score.

Such impressive clarity in the coda!  I wish I could do that!

[andrewkoay]

Hi kalirren!

Thanks for listening and providing your detailed comments! Unfortunately I recorded this quite a while back when I was still in high school (5-6 years back) as part of a practice session before my competition, so I would have to repractice it if I wanted to play it again up to some standard. I'm quite sure if I play it again it would be quite different (and a bit more extreme in the emotions and dynamic levels I would say) as I'm almost completely a different person now compared to then (have more extreme emotions and memories that I can lean on in my music).

Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much any study at all, in fact I hate studying and just like to play in order to try to express what I imagine the piece should sound like.

I agree that my trills were very bad back then. I found out through the years that I was anticipating the trills too much and accelerating too much, instead of just letting it flow through naturally just like any other running note passage. 

At that time, my idea of the 1st movement is to portray a powerful emotion of deep frustration and helplessness, contrasted with a deep sense of inner peace in the 2nd movement and an exciting action packed movie in the 3rd. (I still like to play the Appassionata very heavy and not so smooth, I always thought it should be slightly jarring to the ear, it shouldn't sound too nice!). 

Actually I think you're right with the subito forte, using the LH to drive the contrast is probably a better idea, it would also make the chords more full and less bright and sharp. Also, I did play the two "entrances of the first closing theme" at the same dynamic level, on hindsight it really should have been contrasted a bit more, leaving some space so that the fortissimo in the 2nd octave could be highlighted even more. But tbh, I really love those huge bass notes and how rough and powerful they sounded. 

I used very little pedal for the Coda, which is why it sounds a bit clearer, i always felt it sounded better this way haha....

I always like playing pieces that are a bit more "deep and serious" in their emotions compared to romantic flowery pieces like many Chopin and Lizst pieces, like the Appassionata! I also love a lot of the later Beethoven sonatas, the Rachmaninov Preludes and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne which sounds so epic.

[awesom_o]

Exceptional work!
Many fine qualities in your playing, really. Great rhythm, and very accurate. Beautiful flavour. Lovely lyrical tone.

I had a few minor thoughts.
I would like to hear more textural development of your sound in the extreme upper range of the spectrum of musical intensity. Greater variety of tone at ff, basically.
Moments when you rely too much on sound to convey the dynamics. The dynamics are more about intensity of tone than about quantity of sound.


The trills, in my opinion, could be slower, but somehow more intense.

I enjoyed this wonderful contribution. Thank you!

[andrewkoay]

hey awesom_o,

Thanks for your comment!

I'm curious to know about how do you exactly achieve a greater variety of tone at ff? Do you mean balancing the sound, adjusting the touch or something completely different?

[awesom_o]

More depth of tone.  It's hard to maintain three-dimensional clarity in moments of extreme dynamic intensity.