First of all, I think this is fantastic and I would make a post full of praises but this is a WIP so I'll give constructive feedback. Wait but before I do THOSE DOUBLE TRILLS!!!!!!
A Barcarolle is a song that was sung by Venetian gondoliers. Throughout this piece, you can feel the waves gently rolling up and down but always steadily moving you toward the end of the canal. I've been to Venice and although I didn't ride a gondola (it was $$$$$$) I saw them while listening to this piece. It was like bread and butter. Make sure you REALLY convey the boat-like features of this piece. Now I'm going to take a look at some specifics. These are completely subjective so don't feel like you "should" do any of these, they're just ideas to get the ball rolling.
The first few bars were fantastic. A great, solid opening chord and then a nice progression. I would put more of a ritard on this but that's purely subjective.
Very nice measures in the opening theme. You can make the three notes at the beginning of the 2nd and 4th beats
leggiero by playing them almost staccato but with the pedal down half way.
Beautiful melody after that. Amazingly clear double trills
At 2:27 make these notes sweeter than honey.
Around 3 minutes you can really feel the rising and falling of the boat! Never let this part bore you!
At 4:05 you can take more time here if you want.
At 4:24 this part is beautiful, you can convey a change in mood with a change of tempo or dynamics.
At 5:39 very nice. Make these runs as polished as you can and make them very legato so you don't have to use very much, if any, pedal. Excellent hold at 5:54.
At 6:07 take just a minute to enjoy the change. But then fantastic octaves after that!
Great at 6:45. This part is really hard but you play it well. But release the pedal at 6:43 for a moment of suspense before the beautifully played climax.
At 7:50
At 8:08 make it as delicately as those fingers of yours can be!
Great ending.
I've posted this elsewhere, but this is definitely my favorite recording of it. By far
Sorry for the long post, but this one is really, really REALLY special to me so I have a lot of ideas! Hopefully this was helpful. Best of luck!!
- Noah
P.S. if YOU don't believe that you can make it into the Chopin competition, you
will not make it.
Topic: a piece