Feux d'Artifice opening passage speed

[aklvkk]

I've been practicing it at the speed below but it's not perfectly even (even in the video it's not). The risk of taking it that fast is that it's going to sound uneven at points, but I'm not really satisfied with other performances that take it on a slower pace and use heavy pedaling throughout the opening. Casadesus takes the entire piece on a fast tempo, which I feel is more appropriate. I kind of imagine an agitated but soft night breeze, and the others are more reminiscent of a lazily flowing river (the opening sequence, that is). In any case, if I were to perform the opening slowly in an audition, would that factor alone adversely affect the panel's decision of my performance?

[j_menz]

Casedesus is at (or past) the very fast end of convention, so if you play it a bit slower than that you'll be fine.

Feux d'artifice means fireworks, so try and use that imagery rather than a night breeze.

EDIT: I should add that the most important thing here is control, so you can make the contrasts you want, and shape the phrases just right. Speed alone will not impress here.

[aklvkk]

thank you for the advice I was thinking the sporadic octaves were the fireworks and the background exchange of notes between the left and right hand would be the night breeze or what not.

[j_menz]

I was thinking the sporadic octaves were the fireworks and the background exchange of notes between the left and right hand would be the night breeze or what not.

That's probably a good image. You need to make it clear in performance, so limit your speed to where you can get the sounds right. Not dragging, of course, but not so fast you don't have the control. It works, I think, at a range of speeds, and isn't a strict tempo in any case.

[symphonicdance]

I have seen at a masterclass that a student play the first few bars by the same (left?) hand instead of left hand on white keys and right hand on black keys, and it seems that he did a nice job as the coach did not comment on his treatment.

The playing time of this piece (by renowned pianists) may also be an interesting observation, from about 3'30" to around 5'10"

Whilst OP's reference is a faster version, here's a slower version.  (Noriko Ogawa's CDs on Debussy were highly recommended by a number of classical music magazines.)

Speed is important, but I echo j_menz's comment that control is more important.

[gvans]

Casedesus is at (or past) the very fast end of convention, so if you play it a bit slower than that you'll be fine.

Feux d'artifice means fireworks, so try and use that imagery rather than a night breeze.

EDIT: I should add that the most important thing here is control, so you can make the contrasts you want, and shape the phrases just right. Speed alone will not impress here.

That video is insane. Casadesus was really something. He was a friend and duo partner of amateur violinist Albert Einstein (who was also pretty good at physics, or so I've heard) at Princeton University during WWII, and Bohuslav Martinu composed a series of violin/piano duos for the two of them (Five Madrigal Stanzas). I always wondered why my piano part was so much harder than the violin part. Now I understand.