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Topic: Pictures at an Exhibition, The Old Castle - Pedal help  (Read 1538 times)

Offline chantz

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Pictures at an Exhibition, The Old Castle - Pedal help
on: January 09, 2015, 05:30:44 PM
Hello,
I am currently playing the Old Castle from Pictures at an Exhibition. Have any of you (or your teacher) worked out pedaling that you are happy with and can share?
Thanks!
P.S. Maybe you can simply take pictures of your score and send them as attachments...

Offline indianajo

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Re: Pictures at an Exhibition, The Old Castle - Pedal help
Reply #1 on: January 10, 2015, 02:12:01 AM
I don't use any pedal on the Old Castle, except in the last two measures as marked in the Belwin score.
I'm not too committed to that pedal marking.  the sonority of all the strings ringing in the last two measures is so different than the rest of the piece, it destroys the picture in my mind of the Pacific Express disappearing into the distance, which is what the movement is about in my mind:  the great 1890 Moscow-Vladivostok train chuggng along at 20 mph through an endless tunnel of evergreen trees.  
There are a couple of pedal markings in The Great Gate of Kiev, and the Hut of Baba Yaga.  In Baba Yaga, I think the pedal is just there to sound the bass notes while you are playing somewhere else, so if I had a grand piano I would use the middle pedal on this place.  Actually on my Sohmer console, with the bass only sustain on the middle pedal, that works okay.  
The Great Gate the difference in sound between no pedal and sustain pedal on a modern piano is so great, I'm thinking of not using pedal there also.  Perhaps I would use the middle pedal pedal again to sustain the bass grace notes.  
Samual Goldenberg and Schmuyle there is a span of 15 notes that with my small native Am hands I can't reach with either hand, so I use the bass only sustain pedal on that when I have it  Rolling chords is not what Chicago Symphonly under Fritz Rheiner did on the 1958 LP, and I try not to either.  
I do like to add sustain on Lingua Mortua where it is not marked all the way through, because I think it replicates the sound of the symphonic violin oscillation of the Ravel Orchestratioin better. Also the r.h. notes of the melody do not clash with each other.  
Some slurs in the whole piece are obviously impossible, one reason perhaps nobody performs it much.  I stretch notes as much as possible where slur is marked, but there is inevitably some detachment
required, which I don't mind as the piece is so beautiful on piano.  
BTW no teacher has helped me with this piece. My interpretation is all my own. As good or as bad as it is.   Before I played it much, I heard it on piano  one time about 1985 at a Master's recital at U of Louisville. I like my interpretation better than his, although my technique is slower  
Have fun with it.  

Offline chantz

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Re: Pictures at an Exhibition, The Old Castle - Pedal help
Reply #2 on: January 10, 2015, 08:40:12 PM
Thanks for this! My score doesn't have any pedal markings, not even on the last two measures. I always thought it needed the pedal, but I'll try to look at it from your perspective, too.
I have an upright, so I don't have a middle pedal to use, but I'll keep the advice in mind if the opportunity ever arises in the future.
I must have smaller hands than you, because I can't reach the last chord on the l.h. in the Old Castle either. I decided to roll it because I like the high si too much to skip it and I think I can get away with rolling in this particular movement.
 

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