Could you comment on my recording of Heroic Polonaise?

[tonytwo]

Hi there, I'm a current freshman at a high school. I've been playing this piece for about 3 months without the advice from teachers. Could you comment on my recording especially the improvements I can make? Thanks! Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRR8bYms1fw

[visitor]

post a working hyperlink to audition room  WIP disclaimer

[mrcreosote]

Loved your impressive technique which I wish I had, but I'm not going to pull punches on interpretation.  Here is what I didn't like:  (note that I didn't say, "This is what's wrong:")

1) First, it wasn't exciting.  The Young Rubenstein is mesmerizing.  The Cziffra is still born so don't feel too bad.  You may have not spent enough time with this piece since technically mastering it.  Once you've completely forgotten about technical issues while playing it, you will naturally begin mining the emotion contained in those notes.

2) Rubato swings from excessive to non-existent.

3) Phrasing is weak.  Tempo too rigid, not enough low level rubato, sound level management, ...

Personally, I played this piece for a "talent show" in high school in 1968-ish and I truly hate the piece.  That is until I heard young Rubenstein a couple of years ago.  I contemplated adding it to my limited rep, but the memorization cost is too great given my age and other pieces I'd like to learn.  So maybe listening to R and Cz for that matter might give you an idea. 

Oh, and with any talk about Chopin, listen to Cortot. 

NOTE:  I don't know if listening to someone else's performance is going to help with expressing emotion.  Perhaps critiquing each performance as to how it makes you feel or if you wanted to turn it off from boredom.