VIDEO: Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne Op 9 no 2

[tanjana]

First set of recordings !

Enjoy and feel free to criticise

[j_menz]

Hmm. 5 (or 6 - I'm anticipating) recordings in one go.

This and the Beethoven 10/1 are somewhat underdone structurally.  The rest are pretty good.

That said, two common issues - pedalling and LH. The latter is not well considered generally and  tends to do its own (same) thing regardless. I'd suggest (unusually for me) playing it alone for a bit to work out how you need to structure what it's doing overall.  Pedalling is a real weakness (relatively) and needs to be actually thought about, not just on at the start of a phrase, off at the end. Perhaps most of all, you need to play around with half (so called) pedalling - stop thinking in terms of n/off and start thinking in terms of degree.

One of the advantages/disadvantages of posting a lot at once is we get to see  some things that are probably not otherwise apparent.

Your tempo feel is surprisingly consistent throughout the 6 pieces, which makes me wonder if its not your default rather than a considered decision. Also, the dynamic range is also remarkably consistent and quite narrow. That may be the recording technology (which sometimes does that) or maybe you need to let go a bit more.

The Beethoven and the Chopin need more work, but the 2 Debussy and 2 Scriabin are almost there. It's not that they are bad performance by any means, but they lack that oomph to make them really something.

[tanjana]

Thank you so much! I already knew both the nocturne and the allegro were pretty weak but the constructive critizism is fantastic and I will be sure to take it into account for future recordings.
Thank you for the support