Sinfonia 2 Bach

[faa2010]

Greetings,

Here is what I have till now of the Sinfonia 2 of Bach.

Feedback and advice is welcome.

Note: I wanted to download a video, but I have had problems on converting it to mpg, and I don't use youtube because I don't like it.

[outin]

I hope your finger is better now?

The main issues for me: You are not quite physically secure with the notes yet, so lose the pulse in many passages. On the other hand, even when you do play in accurate rhythm you often don't emphasise the strong beats of the measures consistently, sounding mechanical. When learning the notes it might help to really overdo the stronger beats to really internalize the meter.

After fixing these basics you could concentrate more on the musical arches and phrasing. Generally your balance and voicing sounds quite good to me. I would articulate the groups of 8th notes more consistently (play them all legato, not just the groups of 3 as you do in the first measure).

Practice tips:
Even if you already have it memorized, I would take out the score and practice each measure separately again (hands together) and try to get it to the tempo you are aiming for. I would only play the whole piece through in a tempo that you are comfortable with in the most difficult measures. After more practice on those measures separately you can gradually increase the tempo of the whole piece. Of course you can also divide the piece into logical sections that can be practiced at different tempos until you are able to put the whole thing together. But you should not let yourself slow down while playing the piece through because your ear will start to get used to it and it will be more difficult to correct. One should have the rhythmical structure of the piece well internalized first and only after that start working on the tempo imo.

[jinfiesto]

This is good "student" playing. Which is to say, if I had a student show up playing this piece at a lesson in this manner, I wouldn't be displeased (I don't know how long you've been working on this, or if you're a student. I also don't teach any more, but did for a while.)

Most of the basics are taken care of, and I think the pulse will largely stabilize once you've gotten more comfortable playing it.

One of the most common short-comings in student practice habits is that students in general tend to address technical problems first and musical problems last. I see that you've done this here as there isn't a ton of shaping (though as the other poster mentioned the balance is mostly pretty good.) The problem with delaying making musical decisions is that your musical decisions should actually change the technique you use.

Some tips for Bach in general:

• Pay attention to anything imitative and have a plan for how you're going to play those motives. They need to be articulated consistently for the entire piece.
• Play softer when the voices are closer together. When the voices are closer, the tightness of the texture gives the impression of being louder than it is. In general, when voices are closer together, playing them louder also makes it harder for the listener to parse which are which. If you as a rule play them softer, you have more room to shape and differentiate the lines.
• Figure out what you're going to do with things like wedges.
• Have a plan for using the pedal. A lot of crusty old Bach purists will prattle at length about not using the pedal. They're almost assuredly wrong. The harpsichord has a different tone and actually has quite a bit more sustain on each note than the piano. The decay profile isn't as "sharp". I certainly wouldn't use a romantic pedal, but using shallow "direct" pedal on individual notes for color will really help liven up your playing. If you haven't read it already you should get a copy of Banowetz's book on pedaling.

[faa2010]

Here are some updates. The last one I recorded is v2. I hope I have improved.

[faa2010]

I have another update. Feedback is still welcome.

[thirtytwo2020]

Greetings faa2010

I listened to the first and last version, and you have certainly improved a lot! Well done.

I think the two things you mainly need to work on from here is character and rhythm. Deciding what you want this piece to express I think will automatically induce more energy and flow in your playing.

The rhythmic problem is that your sixteenth-notes tend to drag. This is of course mainly a technical problem, but if you don't address it, you will start hearing the 16ths too slow. Practice short fragments including both 8ths and 16ths and really make a point of keeping the rhythmic relationship exact. 

[faa2010]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I wanted to put a video, but it is very difficult for me because it has a lot of memory and I don't want to download anything in youtube because I don't want to be watched by certain people.

I wish I could have recorded it during my recital, but I couldn't, so I recorded it later in a classroom.

Bad news: I messed it up in the second part, in bar 22 and bar 30, in the recital.

Good news: I still can fix it for the next recital, which will be next year on May or June, and I will have to play other pieces like the 1st movement of Mozart Sonata KV 310, 2 Czerny exercises, another romantic or 20 century piece and a possible Aria where I have to sing as well.