Concerto for piano solo (live, unedited)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

From a recital last night.

[EDIT - Video of the performance now available - https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=64152.msg681769#msg681769 ]

This is my own piano concerto, "an idiomatic Romantic-genre mix of Rachmaninov and the Warsaw Concerto meet Chopin, Liszt and the Dies Irae", but reduced to a solo piano representation. I posted a runthrough last year, but this is under much more favourable circumstances (it's properly recorded, a decent grand piano, and this time I had done a lot of practice beforehand!) Still not perfect of course, but it's a pretty good representation of what I have in mind. Small memory lapse in the first movement, but it wouldn't be apparent without having the score to hand.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I'll have multi-camera footage of the live concert soon, but here is static camera video of the rehearsal. I marginally prefer this performance tbh.

[furtwaengler]

I listened to the files from the first post in the car earlier today. Sentimental in the best of ways, like the songs my Grandfather used to sing...When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day, Because, Ole sole mio, and the like. And wow, does Dies Irae come out of nowhere! I've heard an earlier recording, and still it hit me as a surprise. And it works well with the end. Exciting stuff.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks. I think it was quite a committed performance! The various mutations of the Dies Irae are very Lisztian, but some of the harmonisations are slightly unusual I think. There's a conscious level of musical symbolism insofar as the more I am trying to portray chaos, the more it is that conventional tonality becomes challenged and the more use is made of harmonies formed around tritones, augmented chords etc.

[visitor]

 8)this is cooler than that oil painting of robocop riding a unicorn that floats around on the internet. seriously rad stuff! things like this are so refreshing. I can only take so many Chopin noctunres, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky concertos, (___insert obligatory 10,000th version of a std work___), ver etc.

leaving up the video so I can enjoy throughout the day again in the background while i work, thanks so much for posting

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Glad you liked it! I should have the properly filmed version next week. 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Here is the full filmed version. The sound has been cleaned up a bit, and a touch of corrective editing applied. In three separate parts, comprising the individual movements:

(edit - this playlist link should autoplay them:

)

[cimirro]

That's great! I just noticed the new recording! Congratulations!
(By the way, I hope to hear more of your works, if possible in concert halls over the world!)
Is there any plans of a CD only with your own compositions at some point?

[ronde_des_sylphes]

That's great! I just noticed the new recording! Congratulations!
(By the way, I hope to hear more of your works, if possible in concert halls over the world!)
Is there any plans of a CD only with your own compositions at some point?

Thanks! I would dearly like to get this piece performed in its orchestral version (my orchestration of the last two movements is currently a little basic); of course getting an orchestra involved is no small matter. I've been thinking quite seriously about a CD of my own works, but I would have to bear in mind that the paraphrases I've already recorded can't go onto such a disc (for contractual reasons), so it will have to be entirely fresh material. I have some other works, but not all are written out or finalised. Plenty to think about!

[cimirro]

Thanks! I would dearly like to get this piece performed in its orchestral version (my orchestration of the last two movements is currently a little basic); of course getting an orchestra involved is no small matter. I've been thinking quite seriously about a CD of my own works, but I would have to bear in mind that the paraphrases I've already recorded can't go onto such a disc (for contractual reasons), so it will have to be entirely fresh material. I have some other works, but not all are written out or finalised. Plenty to think about!

Indeed I know how difficult is to have the chance to play something new with an orchestra, hopefully at some point you may find the right way for this,
And yes, I'm expecting a CD with other compositions as you mention,
but of course, to keep the composition quality is about having time to think about it, so you can/must take the necessary time to finish them.
I just wanted to mention you "must" have a CD only with your own compositions too!

Best
Artur

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I think a mix of compositions and two or three good improvisations would be nice. This particular piece I will definitely use; this performance is about good enough as a "live" performance recording, but there are a few places (especially in the last movement) where I wouldn't mind doing another take for cosmetic purposes. Also I noticed a beat missing, quite inexplicably, in a bar in both the first and second movements. I've not really sat down and listened to this "analytically", in a "studio production" sense, and doing such things is invaluable but often quite depressing! Of all my compositional work, this is probably the one I've really thought about intellectually (I had to! - with the exception of the Dies Irae the piece is broadly monothematic, everything being derived from the two related falling motifs at the start of the first movement), whereas paraphrases tend to get developed improvisationally. I've made several small changes since it was first "finalised", and as a result, I think I have genuinely thought about every note in the piece! It's nice to hear the suggestion of a full disc; my teacher said exactly the same thing a few years back, and I also like the "freedom" when the pieces are ones you've written yourself!