Recent concert recording

[fnork]

I played at a concert with a violinist friend last Monday, and he recorded the concert. So I uploaded it now, although I had to have quite bad MP3 quality to get up as much of the concert as possible. Here's the link:

www.angelfire.com/music6/pianostuff17

Please let me know what you think about it. I'm going to audition with this program (well, probably not the Rachmaninov, because they want to hear solo piano only) next Monday in London, and I'm going to practice as much as I can until then. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

I'm quite disappointed with the Ravel piece, need to practice it a lot more. A thing about Rachmaninov by the way: My piano teacher accompanied me on it, however he had only a small (and bad) upright piano to play on, while I had a huge Yamaha grand piano. He was placed behind me, and had to play as loud as possible to overcome the differences between the instruments. That's why it sounds, well... the way it sounds


/Martin

[zemos]

in general- wow...
in specification-
1. i'm surprized that from all, you had mistakes in bach's fugue! but pretty nice...
2. your chopin's ballade enchanted me... a big wow... amazing!
3. chopin's first etude is one of his toughest (imo), and you struggledwith it really good. great technique...
4. your rachmaninove's performance's is good, but it seems a bit too big for you... this concerto is so hard, requires huge level af technique.. (and I think it should be quicker than that..)

again, in overall- great, you got it!

zemos.

[fnork]

in general- wow...
in specification-
1. i'm surprized that from all, you had mistakes in bach's fugue! but pretty nice...
2. your chopin's ballade enchanted me... a big wow... amazing!
3. chopin's first etude is one of his toughest (imo), and you struggledwith it really good. great technique...
4. your rachmaninove's performance's is good, but it seems a bit too big for you... this concerto is so hard, requires huge level af technique.. (and I think it should be quicker than that..)

again, in overall- great, you got it!

zemos.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it Hehe, yeah, I made some mistakes I've never EVER done before in Bach's fugue, I was surprised myself... I've played it for so long, yet I make mistakes...
Glad you liked the ballade I'm not sure if the performance is what I want it to be in some places. For instance, my piano teacher believes that holding a strict tempo (well, not entirely of course... but not changing the tempo as much as I do in some sections) is vital in these kinds of pieces. However, most pianists who record this ballade change tempo VERY much, and I don't like how they play it. Just a few hours ago, I heard the wierdest version ever of this ballade, go listen here: https://www.pianosociety.com/index.php?id=163
I really don't understand what this pianist is doing with the music. Everything sounds awful, and there's absolutely no feeling of the whole. My piano teacher told me once that Vlado Perlemuter (right spelling?), Ravels piano student, once held a masterclass here in Gothenburg and a pianist played Chopins 4th ballade. When he was finished, Vlado cried out: "You didn't play ONE ballade, you played a thousands of different ballades!". Of course, he meant that since the pianist changed tempo so often, it didn't sound like one piece. Similar to what the pianist here is doing with the 3rd ballade, I think.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. My teacher felt that I played some parts too fast, and said that if I should play them fast, I should also play the rest of the piece faster. Any thoughts on that?

About Rachmaninov, I still need to work on it. I don't think it's impossible for me to learn it, I just haven't practiced enough yet. I have overcome MOST of the technical problems I had with this piece, just have to keep practicing. And anyway, I love the music too much to just let it go...

[fnork]

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