Beethoven Les Adieux 1st Movement 1 Recording

[daniele1234]

Hello, everyone.

I have recently been working on the 1st Movement of Les Adieux (I am currently also working on the 2nd and 3rd) for about a month now, and yesterday during a lesson, decided to record me playing the first movement. Even though I am playing on a Steinway D Grand, the recording is done by a phone so I apologise for the crappy audio (there is also a very soft ticking sound in the background due to noise issues in the room). It is technically still not very good yet, especially with the passage in thirds and then those dreaded fast chords after. Anyway I hope you enjoy it, and please feel welcome to give any comments/critique.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cbqqmbhwv4pnb7/Mar%2C%2013%2017_48_58.wav?dl=0

p.s. I am only 13, so please don't be too harsh!

[birba]

13 years old?! You must be some sort of wunderkind.  Remarkable playing of this most difficult sonata.  Musically i find it very problematic.  I mean i know what beethoven was trying to portray but to get it across!  Those long isolated notes, that strange development, etc. But you made sense of it all.  And i like the running eighth notes that really sound like a running off because of the direction you give them.  The intro was wonderful.  The opening motif after the intro sounds a bit flippant to me.  That is, every chord has to have equal forte and importance.  Oh so slightly under tempo.  Play with your forearms. The same with the infamous chord passage.  It's a combination of active sturdy fingers and a slight thrusting of the forearms.  You'll get it.  You sound like you have a great teacher.
Post again with the whole sonata when you've got it.  That last movement is a blast!

[huaidongxi]

enjoyed it.  quite good for one month.  dankon.

[daniele1234]

Thank you so much for your comment birba - really means a lot to me. By the way, sorry I replied late as I have been at school and just got back from having dinner out now. I agree completely that I need to use more forearm, creating a more 'Beethovian' and classical sound; more weight in the arm and playing. I have been practising that infamous chord passage now for several weeks and I still just cannot seem to get in under my belt - slow practise, quick practise in short sections, using weight on each chord, only playing the outer two notes/middle note/middle and top note, everything; but it still just will not come. Do you have any advice for this? Anyway, thank you so much for your reply and, yes, I really do hope that the third movement will come soon (about 2 weeks I predict)

[birba]

As always, things like theße are difficult to explain over the web.  It might have to do with yoir fingering.  You have a good teacher, it seems, so i don't want to meddle.  Fingering is very personal. I usually try, where it's feasible, to change "positions" at the same time in each hand.  For example, i like to turn the thumb under and the 3rd or 4th finger over at the same time.  In the first passage, the beginning section rh do sib lab sol fa 5 4 3 5 4.  Then the next four notes 3 3 4 5 combined with 1234
                                                      1 2 1 2 4.                                      2 1 2 3
                                                                                                                1 1
In the left hand.  Then a group of three with 123 in the lh and then the last group of three.  This facilitates the passage for me.  But like i said, fingering is a personal thing.  What's important that you ALWAYS use the same fingering, and that you play each hand separately by memory.  Then i would start at the end and play your last group, whichever that may be.  The group where you don't have to change positions.  Then add the last chord of the preceeding group.  And so on. When you've got it

reasonably up to speed and you're playing the whole movement, incorporate it by slowing down at the passage, and then continuing on.  It's going to take a while, because i can just see you tightening up before you reach the passage as i listen to you!  But you'll get it.

[birba]

Well, that was a waste of time.  The fingering went all haywire when i posted.  Well, maybe you can figure it out.

[daniele1234]

Anyone?

[huaidongxi]

you're probably aware of it already, but if not, the French moniker for Op.81a distorts the composer's intention.  (as does "Mondschein" for op.27 no.2, of course).  Beethoven objected to the publisher changing his title das Lebewohl, in part because he did not consider the two terms to be interchangeable, and in part because the occasion of bidding his patron 'lebewohl' was the French siege and eventual conquest of Vienna, with many aristocrats and their servitors evacuating.  you'll enjoy immersing yourself in the piece, which really does take you to mitteleuropa in the early 19th century, carriages, horses, post horns.

[daniele1234]

Anyone?

[daniele1234]

Anyone?

[daniele1234]

no-one else, really?

[pencilart3]

GOOD JOB NOW ARE YOU HAPPY

[mjames]

It's not that none of us don't like you, it's just that you're so good most of us have nothing to say about your recordings.

Keep posting though, I enjoy listening to them.

[ajlongspiano]

Don't expect more than 5-6 replies on each of your posts. PS isn't as active as it used to be. It's nothing personal. You'll just be disappointed if you think every post of yours will blow up.

Best,

AJ

[kawai_cs]

Don't expect more than 5-6 replies on each of your posts. PS isn't as active as it used to be. It's nothing personal. You'll just be disappointed if you think every post of yours will blow up.

Best,

AJ

Oh, I do think PS is pretty active, considering there is always a pretty high amount of post views. It is not surprising though that people have limited amount of time so they prefer to spend it writing replies to posts that personally interest them or to members who are well known here and contribute a lot to the forum. Posters, who do not really seem to contribute, make the impression they are here to collect applause or YT clicks obviously do not get as much attention.