Evaluation of my cadenza for Haydn's Piano Concerto in D-Major ( First Movement)

[the vasily]

Hello everyone, i have been playing piano since i was 8 , i would like to call myself ''averagely gifted'' . I can do stuff, but i was really irresponsible during the period of doing all off this, the last 17 years to be more precise. There were times i practiced and when i did not. When i practice, i can do stuff, when i don't it seems like i never touched an instrument. I am not the worst, i am not the best, just average when it comes to this stuff.

Nevertheless, i have made a decision to improve and stop wasting my life away and started to take some steps in getting better i feel like i cannot get the appropriate amount of right feedback in my surroundings so what is better than a place full of strangers from around the world. I feel like people around me want to avoid offending me and only tell me that i am good and how everything sounds good. I am aware that i am not terrible, but i want to get REALLY GOOD so that is where you guys come in help !

So, i had to play a concerto for one of the semesters for my masters and people really frown upon the ''easy ones'' , but i still took Haydn because i want to get done with this ASAP in order to properly focus on getting better without being under the constraints of an institution and paying them lots of money lol.

Enter the A.B. Michellangeli and his performance of this concerto and i was impressed. I wanted to improvise and make my own stuff too, felt like a grown up 25 year old should know his way around making his own cadenza and i decided to do it. So, here is the link :

Give it a listen if you can, and please do tell me what do you think of it. I am aware that this is highly subjective when it comes to making your own music , but there are probably some things that i can improve upon so i decided to ask you guys to say what you think. What do you like about it, what do you hate about it, anything helps. Please point out the good  ( if there is any ) and the bad so i can have a better grasp of it. Whether is it about technique or the material i composed. Every feedback is welcome !

Also, yes, i am aware of the cringe-fest that my other youtube videos are, i was just a 16 year old kid who thought he can play piano and thought it was cool at the time. But i still left them, if i upload better videos one day, so people can see that all they need to do is try to improve and work on themselves.

Thank you and fire away !

[lelle]

I think everything sounds just fine, except that you sound a bit hard on yourself at times in your post. Don't apologize for your past or where you are at, you are doing just fine. A grown 25 year old does not have to be able to write their own cadenza, considering how many pianists there are that can't, nothing wrong with that

You clearly got some chops going already, so I think further long-term refinement would need to be worked on in close cooperation with your teacher. Your scales and other passage work are quick and sharp and seem like they come easily to you. I think if one wants to be nitpicky, you could get them even more even. But again, that's long-term work. You clearly have a lot of tonal colors going and use them in service of the harmonic progression, so that's also great to hear. I could probably give you more specific feedback if I heard you play a longer piece from the repertoire.

Some feedback on the cadenza:
- I think it's really well done you clearly know what you are doing harmonically. I think you could use this cadenza as it is in a performance no problemo.
- Stylistically, I think it's got a lot of romantic touches that one could argue are not the right style if you want a cadenza that fits the period of the concerto. I got some Liszt vibes occasionally
- Have you ever played on a fortepiano? If not, I would check if there is one at your institution and find a chance to play on it. There are some surprising differences between what Mozart/Haydn played on and what we have today, especially the base which is much meatier compared to the treble. The pedal is also less resonant. I would explore an instrument like that and see how it influences your writing.
- I would recommend less pedal resonance and more subtle pedalling in Haydn overall, considering the above. The virtuosity of Mozart/Haydn's time had more to do with crisp and elegant passagework where the wow factor was the speed, clarity and grace, rather than grand cascades of sound a la the mid-late 1800's.