Chopin - Ballade 4

[paxxx17]

Hi,

This is my first performance upload here. I was bored during the lockdown, so I decided to try learning my favourite piece ever. Since I'm an amateur, I thought it would be horrible, but I ended up being quite happy with the result. Nevertheless, I still want to improve, so happy to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

P.S. My piano hasn't been tuned for 5 years

[lowk-_-y]

Disclaimer - Don't read if you don't want to. It’s very long...

Woow, that was very lovely thank you. I have to say though I am quite interested in your definition of amateur...
Anyway, there was so much that I thought worked so well, loved the time you took to prepare sectional changes, it's quite easy to rush through rests and pauses. I think you paced the climaxes very well and handled the technical difficulties confidently. Also overall I thought your phrasing and rubato was very tasteful, especially for the 7.56 iteration of the theme. Could listen to that natural flow all day. And the coda... Nice

So for my comments there's gunna be a little bit of detail because I feel misled going into your recording, you've set a high standard and so will recieve high standard comments :p
For this intro, I like the colour that you're going for, delicate, your first cresc works well, your dim and following cresc less well, you seem to dim only at the rit. These dynamics are important for creating a beautiful shape for the beautiful colour you established.
Given my liking to most of your unrushed pauses I did feel that the C after the pause on the first page came a tad too soon but then you held the tension in this C which was very nice. I did understand what you were going for with this detached D in the same bar  because of the way the slurs are written but it could easily be heard as an error, I'm not quite sure what about it wasn't so convincing yet
, maybe give it more space before the B natural? Or maybe the LH F came too soon?
You're a sensitive performer but you can lead the listener a bit more I think. At 1.34 maybe you can make me wait for this g natural a bit because the melody couldve ended on the B flat but instead there is this G natural which changes the contour slightly. I guess it depends whether you consider this G natural a potential surprise or not. (So much detail I'M SORRY, I can't help it.... This G natural... I love.)
A thought about the melody at a place like 1.06, the tied F flat. The E flat that comes afterward is 1. A resolution of the F flat so should be weaker and 2. Is continuing this long melody, not creating a new melody so should be weaker than the f flat. You tend to accent this resolution whenever it comes.

2.03 Again another potential surprise for this Lh G flat? If so definitely give the listener time to imagine the phrase ending there.

What is the section around 2.30 for you, for me it's somewhat ethereal, are you using the soft pedal, maybe a much softer, 'airyer' touch might give this contrast. For me you've descended into a different world so maybe it should sound a bit different too?

At around 3.32 and the same polyphonic style a bit later in the piece I'm not sure what you primarily want to show, it might just be that your piano is prone to mushiness and if so maybe experimentation with different levels of pedal or clearer articulation of the bottom rh voice might help.

Ooo I really wanted more space before 9.05 chord with C in bass as its a small climax of this melody but this is purely subjective (like pretty much everything I've said so far tbh)

9.23 bar - 1. Do you follow the phrase marks? It's not totally clear that the quaver chord on beat 2 is the start of a new phrase, 2. For me, these quaver chords are very insistent and full of anticipation for the crotchet confirmation chords that follow (plz forgive my airy descriptions - again very subjective) so if you treated them more like upbeats to these crotchet chords this longing/anticipation/anything you want to subscribe to can come across more clearly (to me at least)

9.43 bar - if Chopin wanted a stretto on this bar as well why wouldn't he write it? Just a thought because you're kind of giving the listener a spoiler of the more elaborate version of these chords that have the stretto so maybe the first time these chords can be more declaratory and then the ones with the stretto can be more insistent. Just like if you were to request something again after being refused the first time (maybe?)


10.00 - what a lovely pause. Also is that birds I hear?

Coda - So passionate and so I shall return the favor with A passionate thumbs up

I think I'm going to put a disclaimer at the beginning of this because damn this is a wall of text.


But well done. I enjoyed it greatly