VIDEO: Arietta Op. 12 No. 1 by Edvard Grieg

[michael_sayers]

This was played on the slow side and with the phrasing/fermatas at the end fully applied.

[outin]

I feel like quoting Mr. Faulty here... Some pieces are just not meant to be played as slowly as possible...gets painful to listen really.

[michael_sayers]

I feel like quoting Mr. Faulty here... Some pieces are just not meant to be played as slowly as possible...gets painful to listen really.

Yet the composition has such a nostalgic longing, exquisite to the point of pain . . . surely not something to make light of with a rapido tempo?

[outin]

Yet the composition has such a nostalgic longing, exquisite to the point of pain . . . surely not something to make light of with a rapido tempo?

I don't usually mind slower tempos, but the problem here is that there's just not enough substance for such slow tempo, it feels dragging and one feels like begging for the next note to come.

Luckily YT offered me the Gilels version next, that made me feel better.

[michael_sayers]

I don't usually mind slower tempos, but the problem here is that there's just not enough substance for such slow tempo, it feels dragging and one feels like begging for the next note to come.

Luckily YT offered me the Gilels version next, that made me feel better.

Hi Outin,

Thanks for the response.  I've thought about it and I do think you are right that the tempo here is too slow.  It needed some thinking and listening on my part, and I get what you are saying.  It is a very fine piece of music, just maybe not a quasi-largo one .  I think the playing needs also more fluidity and "flow" . . . it seems stagnant in some ways here in this recording, and not only to do specifically with the overall tempo.