Leoš Janáček - Sonata in e flat minor I.X.1905

[blazekenny]

Hello,
I wanted to share my take on Janáček´s piano sonata. Any comments are welcome.

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[brogers70]

That's a great performance; I love the piece. You've got a beautiful sound and you obviously relish Janacek's harmonies. And your final chord was spectacularly right, the perfect sound for it.

If I were going to critique anything, I'd say that you may have tempered the full bleakness of the piece with maybe a little too much Romantic warmth. Your version still has plenty of sorrow, but there's a sort of bitterness that I think was lacking. Maybe a little more spikiness to the rhythm, more use of silences and sometimes less pedal would bring back the edge that I hear when I imagine this piece. These are minor complaints, though. I really enjoyed your performance. Thanks for posting it.

[aclaussen]

Love how you play the opening up to like :45. Especially when that loud part comes in interrupting the tender softness at :12, I like how you choose to play that part a lot more than some of the other recording I heard. Some people play that too harshly others play it not enough contrast to what came before and your recording has the balance I like. Whatever piano and recording setup you have it's amazing. Wish I had a recording set up that could capture that sound on an acoustic. I've been using a zoom field recording that's the best I could get on an acoustic. It captures the intimate sound like you have but problem is playing forte will go above what the mic is able to handle and it goes to S**t.

Around 1:20 reminds me of scriabins second sonata a bit. Seriously you got the opening great and whenever that theme returns at 1:52. It's been a while since I heard this piece but the way you play the opening is probably the favorite I've heard out of any recording. When I was in high school I wanted to play this piece but I pretty much only liked the opening. It's dope as hell but everything else is kind lackluster in comparison in my opinion. Not talking  about your recording, just my opinion on the composition. But your recording too I suppose, maybe you've practiced that opening a lot more than everything else. If it was just a short composition up to the first minute that sounded more like that I would have played it. At best would have only wanted to played the first movement cause I don't care for the second movement (the composition, not your recording).

But nice job. If you've heard of Odradek records maybe it'd be worth sending a demo to them and seeing if you could get picked up by the label.

[furtwaengler]

This is it! You hit the nail right on the head. A gift; I have no criticism. The piano is spectacular, and you get every bit out of it in dynamic choices, control, nuance. You have mastered the moment in the beauty and tragedy of this somber piece. Congratulations.

[quantum]

Fabulous music.  Your evocation of contrasts in dynamic and articulation are very suited to the sombre nature of the piece. Well done!

Just curious, did you use noise gate in the recording?