Bach-Busoni - Chaconne

[pianovirus]

After several weeks of intense practice I finally did my first test recording of this monumental transcription today on a cold Sunday afternoon - a happy moment of which I had dreamed for a long time.

It's still crowded with FAR too many mistakes and unclean passages, but I have some more time to practice these...I would like to play the Chaconne at the Paris amateur competition in case I would reach 2nd round. Let's see...

I'd appreciate any kind of constructive comments and criticism!

[cabbynum]

I personally have never learned this all the way through. So I will not comment on the sloppy parts with anything other than, work on cleaning those up.

You're off to a great start with this piece and it sounds good already. I am liking your impassioned playing. You have some truly great moments in the piece. Some places were not as good. But based on the rest of the playing I have no doubt you will end up with a great over all interpretation. You did a really good job, I look forward to future recordings!


I can't wait to learn this one, sadly I have a ton on my plate right now with auditions next December.
Please post more of this!

[awesom_o]

For me it started out quite well, but at about three minutes in I began to find the mistakes a bit too distracting.
It sounds and as though you play by striking or pushing the keys down from above.  I think you could develop better tone by playing more from the key surface, and pulling the keys towards you, rather than pushing them away from you. It should help you develop a leaner, lighter, more linear type of sound. You have many good musical ideas, but the sound is often too heavy, and vertical.

Listen to furiouzpianists's recent recording of this:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=53439.0

I'm not saying to copy him in any way. You have your own musical ideas for the work, and that shouldn't change. But there is some very good textural contrast, voicing, and variation of timbre that he achieved that might inspire you. His clarity of touch and accuracy in the tricky passage work was also brilliant.

You are to be commended for your work so far on this monster! I would love to hear it again before the competition!

[furiouzpianist]

The Chaconne is such a tricky piece to play....It really is much, much more difficult than it sounds!
I remember I started work on it as far back as August 2011! I out it aside after, and the first real attempt was October 2012.....I actually came back to it in May 2013, and played it frequently since then......

Take your time with this piece, it is already very, very good. I like your approach, it really is a romantic transcription and should be treated as such.

The difficulty of this work lies in the transitions between the textural variations, which you are doing well.

Also, another thing to think about is how to build up to the several major climaxes of the piece, and how they will fit in to the whole........As for the tiny finger slips, the really are not an issue. Keep playing, and it will improve. It is already excellent.

[pianovirus]

Thank you to the three of you for listening and for the helpful comments! On Thursday I played this for the first time in our internal class recital and again I've had as many mistakes as here. I'm not obsessed about this, but I agree with awesome_o (and with my teacher, too) that from a certain density of mistakes they become too distracting. So for me my main focus for the next weeks would be to try to gain a bit of security (without playing it all safe of course ).

Thank you awesome_o for pointing to furiouzpianist's wonderful and inspiring recording; I felt compelled to comment over there. And thanks furiouzpianist for listening and for giving perspective of how your current way of handling the piece is based on already two years of experience with it!

[eric0773]

This was really pleasing to listen to, congratulations! Strong emotions in this one! Is is quite an achievement to reach this level as an amateur, I hope I can too one day (dreaming does not hurt :-) ).

[pianovirus]

Thanks for the nice feedback, eric!

Dreaming does not hurt, but practicing certainly also helps!