Brahms 117 no 1

[pianoman53]

Hello 

This piece was probably the first Brahms piece I encountered, and it was the recording by Myra Hess.
After hearing this, I stopped being interested in the speed contests I I previously enjoyed, and it really changed me as a pianist.

Though, there was always something else to learn, and I could never fit just this piece in a program, thus never got to learn it. Then, some weeks ago, a friend and I decided to challenge each other to an uploading competition on YouTube (you're more than welcome to like and subscribe 😅), in which this piece would fit perfectly. So here, after a week of practice, is a recording of a piece that really means a lot to me.

[pianoman53]

Nothing?

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I'll try to listen to this later tonight and get back to you. I played this piece a long long time ago!

[brogers70]

It's a beautiful piece, and even though it sounds like a simple lullaby it's very difficult to pull off. You obviously love it; the ends of your long phrases are good, plenty of breathing room. If I had some suggestions, they'd be

1. The long phrases in the a section could flow more. One thing that might help is to make sure that the second note of each triplet is a bit quieter than the first, as it is they are either the same as or slightly louder even, so it gives a more square, less flowing feel to the melody. It might help to just singe the melody as expressively and flowingly as possible and then try to imitate that.

2. You sometimes do the "kerplunk" thing, where a low bass note is sounded before the treble - sometimes that can be effective, but too much of it sounds like an affecttation sometimes.

3. In the middle section, one trick is to figure out what the RH thumb's line is supposed to sound like. Many people, like you, make it almost disappear, but I wonder if something more contrapuntal could not be made of it.

4. Also in the middle section it seemed like there was a little loss of focus just before the 4-5 bars that transition back to the theme.

5. The issues of flow and continuity would be easier if your tempo were slightly quicker; one thing to do is practice faster for a while to get the feel of the gently rocking rhythm and then try to keep that feeling as you slow back down to the slower tempo you prefer.

Hope I don't sound too critical; I really enjoyed listening to it.

[pianoman53]

Brogers,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment.  Recording is a funny thing, truly just a capture of the moment. A day or so after I recorded it, I felt the slow tempo, and the thinking in short phrases to add a layer of detail that often gets overlooked.

Some day later, I felt a bit uncomfortable and wished it to be more flowing. Yesterday I liked it, today I don't.  Might of course be that I actually haven't worked on it very much, and made rather quick decisions to have a recording done a week after first reading, but it's still an interesting phenomenon.

I pretty much agree with everything you wrote, so thank you for commenting 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Briefly:

middle section, very nicely played in terms of putting across a certain darkness and controlling the softness of the lh.

In the opening section I would definitely give additional thought to the lh. In particular where it the bass moves stepwise I would try to draw more attention to that line. I have a feeling you've thought about how you want to project the inner melodic line in the rh, but given less thought regarding the interplay between the external parts and the harmonic relationship between them.

[pianoman53]

Thank you!
It was a very quick recording session. I'll look at it again before recording the next time, to see if I'd do something differently than now.