Composition - The Romance of Septimus Smith

[4sub5]

Hello piano community!

My first time on here, I am a pianist and composer going to school in Brandon, Canada. I'd appreciate some advice on one of my first original compositions that I premiered (this is a performance by me). Since I intend to play most or all of my own work, I would appreciate comments on both the composition, and performance of it (which I'd say wasn't my best).

Thanks a lot!
-Jakub

https://soundcloud.com/jakub-marshall/the-romance-of-septimus-smith

[faulty_damper]

Commenting on the performance aspects:

The arpeggio introduction should be much faster and with greater dynamics.  This increased tempo should carry throughout the piece so that musical statements are more concise.  If you take too long to make a statement, the meaning can get lost as it did here.

There are a lot of accents that fall off the downbeat.  This makes the pulse difficult to feel.  As a result, it sounds uncomfortable and erratic.  It's like this statement: "how DO you DO?" vs. "How do you do?"  Downbeats should get the accent and it must be regularly employed.