Piano Forum

When I listen to music i want to hear something different.  i started to listen to aristo sham's etude tableaux, but it seemed just the same as every other very competent performance, so I got bored. maybe i know it too well. same with his hammerklavier slow movement. plodding. no nuances. where is the pp at bar 33? Bethoven puts in lots of dynamic changes but he observed few.

Compare with solomon. Maybe unfair.But solomon has a true pp, well balnced chords, varitions in temp.he makes a story. listen to solomon at 11/12, slight accel and then dim to bar 14. cresc in bars 31/32.

World of difference. Maybe unfair. But come on aristo,take a risk. play with your heart. Persuade me you have somehing to say.

I thought maybe I was being unfair. So I carried on listening to bar 85 and following. Dreadful. Sounds like he is doing a Hanon study. In one of the most despairing moments in piano literature.

Let me clean my soul and listen to Solomon or arrau again.

Tovey is of course essential reading. he emphasises the una corde markings. Listening to solomon again,he is very faithful to beethoven's dynamic markings. Yes. Arrau also, observes them meticulously, eg bar 49. The marking is very clear, the dim is after the second note of the triplet. bar 90 the cresc followed by dim followed by cresc. Beethoven is very clear. Do what he writes, with conviction, it isnt rocket science.