VIDEO: Alexander Scriabin- Prelude Op 11 no1

[tanjana]

My first set of recordings

Enjoy and please feel free to criticise.

[faulty_damper]

The sound is punched out like a typewriter.  If you can hear what I mean, then know that it shouldn't sound like that.  This is clearly a technical issue which directly affects musical performance.  Ditto to all the other videos.

[awesom_o]

You are using the pedal to glue together wrong notes, rather than using it to colour the sound produced by the correct notes. Also, it sounds like you are treating the pedal as an on/off switch instead of using its capabilities wisely. There are places where it is good to put the pedal all of the way down, but usually there are many more places where it is good to only depress it partially.

A great way to work on the quality of your pedaling is to in fact practice the music without touching the pedal at all.

Do you have a teacher?

[amytsuda]

Great choice of repertoire! I agree with other people on pedaling, and I am wondering if your piano is actually out of tune. I remember my childhood old Kawai upright had a horrible cranky pedaling and it was like awesome_o says no matter how you try, my pedal moved like on and off switch, and particularly when the piano is out of tune the pedal will make all the sounds vibrate with each other like the way your piano does. Your bass notes do sound out of tune to me, though I don't have good ears.

Piano is a percussion instrument but it is not exactly the same with things like timpani. Not sure why I am talking about this, but your playing made me want to think about what it means for piano to be a percussion instrument. Anyway, you seem to like repertoires that require certain tonality based on all other posts you made, but the way you strike keys don't seem to go well with those sounds you like, so you may want to experiment more.

[amytsuda]

I am not good at using this forum. Not sure why they posted one more post for me like this. So editing it, since I can't delete. Anyway, you play very well, and I really like your choices of repertoires! Are you preparing for a recital?

[tanjana]

Thank you very much amytsuda, I really appreciate your input. The piano is slightly out of tune and the pedal works just the way you described it; it's impossible to use it only half way like I want to in some phrases. I will try to play more lightly and don't worry your first comment wasn't harsh. I am not preparing for a recital, ust university applications and I'm thinlking of adding some Bach to the repertoire to even it out, what do you think?

[amytsuda]

I am an old amateur so have no idea what is good for college application But yeah I'd love to hear your Bach. A good thing is you don't need to use your pedaling for Bach. I subscribe to Andras Schiff of not using pedaling for Bach. This year, my teacher made me do French Suite #2, you may try them? Sarabande and Minuets are probably very approachable for you.

[tanjana]

Thank you very much, Ill be sure to look into the sarabandes and I'll try my Bach without pedal, see how it sounds