Skrjabin - Prelude Op. 13 No. 1 in C major: Maestoso

[carl_h]

Hello,

This is my first post in the audition room and I recorded Prelude No. 1 Op. 13 from Skrjabin.
The recording was made a few hours before before my first class recital aswell, which went great (well, I actually messed up the prelude a bit, a mistake I never made before which I blame on the 2hrs I had to wait before it was my turn, if you have any advice on how to gain 100% focus I would very much like to hear it! ).
On the recital I also played his Etude Op. 8 No. 12, this was filmed and I will post this when I have it.

I hope you enjoy and I would like to hear your thoughts.

Carl

[faulty_damper]

The chords of the left hand need to sound legato; as in there is dynamic contrasts.  It's played very clunkily and accented.  Resolutions are accented as well so it sounds angry.

[pianoguy711]

+1 for playing a Scriabin prelude.  Tempo could be slower to really bring out that Maestoso element.  Hearing this prelude reminds me of La Cathedrale Engloutie (Debussy), as both pieces have a grand, bell-like quality.  But I'm not sure if you're hearing the "bells" in this piece because you take the tempo a little fast.  You have to let those right hand chords "toll" more.  The coda at measure 33 has too much pedal.  You have to play more legato there.  Not sure what faulty meant by "chords of the left hand" since most of the left hand work is octaves.  Overall, sounds good!

[carl_h]

The chords of the left hand need to sound legato; as in there is dynamic contrasts.  It's played very clunkily and accented.  Resolutions are accented as well so it sounds angry.

Hi,
I didn't want it to sound angry so I will look into that. About the clunkiness, I will check with my teacher because she never told me anything like that.
Thanks for listening.

[carl_h]

+1 for playing a Scriabin prelude.  Tempo could be slower to really bring out that Maestoso element.  Hearing this prelude reminds me of La Cathedrale Engloutie (Debussy), as both pieces have a grand, bell-like quality.  But I'm not sure if you're hearing the "bells" in this piece because you take the tempo a little fast.  You have to let those right hand chords "toll" more.  The coda at measure 33 has too much pedal.  You have to play more legato there.  Not sure what faulty meant by "chords of the left hand" since most of the left hand work is octaves.  Overall, sounds good!

Hi,
I have had a long struggle in deciding the tempo and this somehow felt right at the moment. You are correct to assume that I'm not really hearing the "bells", but I will definitely keep that in mind and experiment with it. Good ears on the coda, I didn't work that much on it :p.
Thanks for listening.

[pianoguy711]

I have had a long struggle in deciding the tempo and this somehow felt right at the moment. You are correct to assume that I'm not really hearing the "bells", but I will definitely keep that in mind and experiment with it

Yeah definitely keep experimenting with it.  Usually when I give feedback in the audition room I like to find out the performers idea of the piece. Like, what is the composer trying to evoke here? I'm hoping that this will let you get "under the skin" of the piece and figure it out.

The tempo you chose has a certain momentum to it, but I'm not sure if this piece benefits from that forward drive.  I don't always like to impress my interpretation but this piece is like a chorale for the organ.  Very similar to Chopin's Prelude in E major op 28 no 9.  It has a religious quality to it, like massive church bells in a cathedral.  Try playing it as if you were an organist: plodding and spacious.  An organist would have trouble playing this piece at your tempo.  But then again this is my interpretation and you may completely disagree!   

[rachfan]

Hi carl_h

I think you have this piece well one the way.  Just a few suggestions:

Regarding the tempo, maestoso means majestic, stately and dignified, so you need to play this piece in what we call "the grand manner". Endow it with nobility.  

I have the Dover edition here which gives a metronome setting of a quarter= 63 to 66.  Scriabin in his own recordings sometimes ignored his own tempo markings, but this one falls into adagio which makes sense in view of maestoso.  I would stick with that.

I've posted a lot of Scriabin here, but have not played Prelude 13/1.  So I followed the score.

The melody is in the RH and runs through the top notes of the chords. So this requires attention to legato playing in the phrases.  A good way to practice this is to play the melodic line alone without the pedal, making sure that you are connecting one note to the next to produce legato touch. Be able to sing the line in your head too. That will help in performing because you you'll be voicing the top line (which moves horizontally) while you deemphasize the other member notes of the chords which are harmonic and are more vertical in nature.  

In balancing the hands, the right hand which carries the melody will be dominant, while the left hand containing the bass harmonies is accompaniment, so needs to be more subdued.  Having said that, notice that in the LH there are scalar figures at times.  Look, for example at measure 6 and 14.  Scales in music are important and should be etched like the melody. That doesn't mean to overemphasize them, but play them enough to be heard.

Notice in measure 20 in the LH Scriabin writes two-octave slurs. Right now you treating them as staccato touch.  But because the staccato markings fall within the slur markings, you're not dealing with staccato there; rather it's portato touch.  The best way to play those is to apply a "downward" hand gesture in octave mold followed by an "up" hand lift-off gesture on the second octave.  The down motion is a bit accented, while the upward lift-off of the second octave will be more subdued.  I think of portato as not being legato where connecting notes is vital, nor do I think of it as staccato which is generally a lighter touch unless specifically marked otherwise. Portato is more of a pressing into the keys, and in slurs, still emphasizes the down motion more than in the lift-off. Portato sometimes needs some experimentation to get the right effect.  

Right now I really believe the piece is over pedaled.  In both hands you have moving chords and octaves. If the changes in chords and notes of the octaves are neighboring or passing tones, and if you hold the pedal down, there will be a great deal of clashing and blurring, and that's what I'm hearing now.  The only time the piano will be more forgiving is if the RH is playing in the mid and high treble.  But in this piece there are hardly any ledger lines in the treble, as much occurs in the tenor register.  Also every piano is different, and the acoustic of the room will be different too.  In the extreme case, you might want to try pedaling each beat for the most part unless a chord doesn't change.  Or, if you can manage it, you can do quarter and/or half pedal releases to "spill" excess overtones if they are getting too thick.  Here is the most important thing: Always play for CLARITY.

Your dynamics are fine, as is you voicing of the melody.  

I hope this helps.

David  

[carl_h]

Hello David,

Thanks for your detailed feedback, much appreciated.

The octave slurs gave me a really hard time, well most of the piece did. This is my first difficult piece I studied and the first one with octaves like that, I still don't feel 100% in control when playing them, I think this needs time. Taking down the tempo might be the best thing to do for better results (I always thought I was taking it a bit to slow as it is).

Portato touch, also something that still needs to "click" in my head. I'm working on that with my teacher with a Bach prelude & fugue as this is new to me. Thank you for the suggestion on how to play portato, I will work with that!

I ment to pedal every beat but I can also hear that sometimes I didn't do a full release (high pedal on my upright). I'll give more attention to that because I agree on the importance of clarity.

Have a nice day,
Carl

[rachfan]

Hi carl-h,

I'm glad my notes were useful to you.  You might want to print it off and bring it with you to discuss those points further with your teacher.  Keep practicing!

David