VIDEO: Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639 by J.S. Bach

[michael_sayers]

Just a run through . . .

[cbreemer]

I do wonder what the point is of posting a 7-year old "just a run-through" in what is really bad sound.... and with the images all squeezed up ? What kind of feedback are you after ?

[michael_sayers]

I do wonder what the point is of posting a 7-year old "just a run-through" in what is really bad sound.... and with the images all squeezed up ? What kind of feedback are you after ?

I am looking for technical feedback, such as if in your view the voicing here already is adequately controlled for a public performance.

Non-technical responses such as, "the tempo is all wrong, therefore it is garbage," and, "the bass line is doubled in octaves which is wrong, therefore it is garbage," - et cetera - which are similar to many of the "critiques" I so far have been given in this forum, don't give a pianist this kind of quantifiable information.

I enjoy sharing, yet also am with hope for some sober minded critique even though that type of critique doesn't seem to happen in this forum, either involving the piano playing or the compositional factors [form, harmony, counterpoint] of works being discussed.

[cbreemer]

Looking for feedback on something you played in 2008 just doesn't make sense. Personally I cringe when listening to something I recorded so long ago.

In this case the sound is so execrable that you can't expect people to listen through it, and even if they do, pick up the fine details.

[michael_sayers]

Looking for feedback on something you played in 2008 just doesn't make sense. Personally I cringe when listening to something I recorded so long ago.

In this case the sound is so execrable that you can't expect people to listen through it, and even if they do, pick up the fine details.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense considering the dim sounding recording and the piano.  It isn't as bad though as suffering through the one recording of Johannes Brahms or the Mapleson Cylinders.

I was expecting more of the usual type of criticism here . . . "it isn't the same as in the original, therefore it is WRONG" . . . as if I would need rent a pipe organ and go record this composition there in order to receive some critique here.

For one post my playing was "criticized" because in the poster's conclusion I had mis-titled the composition.  Nothing by anyone was said about the technique of the piano playing and its fluidity/accuracy (or not), the voicing, and other such things.  And there never is any discussion of a composition's form and harmony as it might relate to meaningfully interpreting the music.  These things are important, otherwise the composers would never modulate and would just have the same harmonic progression repeat over and over until the end.

I am finding the experience at this forum - which is supposedly for critiquing the playing of pianists - to be in some aspects very surreal and bizarre.

I do sincerely appreciate that you at least would have given some real critique a go if the recording had been higher quality.

[verqueue]

Of course you were criticized, because your playing of this composition (Brahms Intermezzo) was so bad and there was nothing to talk about voicing, harmony and interpretation of the music. There was no music, no perfomance of this piece, so what did you expect?  And you even didn't play a whole piece, so how we could dicuss its form?

[cbreemer]

All that, plus the fact that a truly atrocious sound, as we have here, prevents hearing the music properly, and in fact makes people switch off after a couple of seconds. There is really no point in asking for feedback if you present your stuff so badly. At least make the effort to post a recording
that is recent, complete, and in bearable sound quality.

As for the comparison with the Brahms piano roll I can only say this : You are no Brahms.

[michael_sayers]

Of course you were criticized, because your playing of this composition (Brahms Intermezzo) was so bad and there was nothing to talk about voicing, harmony and interpretation of the music. There was no music, no perfomance of this piece, so what did you expect?  And you even didn't play a whole piece, so how we could dicuss its form?

Hi Verqueue,

What I am trying to find out from you is what about the playing was bad.  You say there was "no performance of this piece", which is a bit akin to saying I didn't really play the music because it was not presented exactly as notated - I think this is your position.  Yet, here we have in this thread a J.S. Bach organ chorale prelude.  But I didn't play it as the original is notated.  I used a piano instead of an organ.  Surely you don't think all recordings on piano of Bach's organ choral prelude are "bad" because the music is not played as notated by Bach?  Or, maybe you do . . . some persons in this world feel that all music not 100% as in the original is bad.  Some of those persons think that all Chopin played on something other than a period Pleyel piano is bad.

I guess that in your opinion, golden age pianists didn't know very much about piano playing and weren't very proficient at it.

In accordance with what seem to be your opinions, Brahms would have to be included in the list of bad reciters of music on the piano, because he rolled chords all the time, and his tempo (in the one recording of him and in his own music) is highly erratic, to say the least about it.

These are not my positions, these are your positions, or ones which likely are very close to them.

I guess I have to to keep waiting for the critique which I seek, and which this forum is supposed to be for, because in the Bach organ chorale prelude, as with the Brahms Intermezzo which I also did title correctly, I didn't play the music as notated in the original.

Forgive me for not owning or having access to a $500,000 pipe organ.

[michael_sayers]

As for the comparison with the Brahms piano roll I can only say this : You are no Brahms.

At least I roll my chords and asynchronize voices when I play Brahms' music - this is something original to the performance style of the music as done by the composer.