Ravel - Ondine

[paxxx17]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M9wjBjmIGaM6dV4fqaIUHdlJgZE5oaFD/view?usp=drive_link

I am an amateur, but this has always been one of my dream pieces and I am quite happy with how it turned out. Haven't played it the best (too pedestrian in the falling thirds section and quite messy at the end), but I am satisfied enough to post it here. Haven't played this with a teacher so any feedback and critique would be appreciated!

Bonus question: Would it make sense to tackle Scarbo given the level demonstrated here?

Thanks a lot!

[lelle]

As an amateur performance, this is very impressive. Well done indeed! This piece is very difficult. How long have you spent work on it so far?

Since you very able to deliver at this level, I think you already know where the main areas of polish are, technically as well as musically.

Give this another month with focused work, record yourself regularly and listen with an honest ear, and focus 95% of your efforts on actively polishing stuff that needs work. Keep this tempo for now, it's good. See where that gets you.

My main piece of feedback is that this Ondine is not very seductive -  most melody work could be more elastic and tightly legato, it is indeed a bit "pedestrian" as you say. Whisper sweet promises, don't order potatoes. So apart from technical polish work, focus on capturing the character. For me, this piece has a very poignant intermingling of seduction and sadness - almost as if Ondine is a very lonely character, but is trying to solve that in all the wrong ways. Something to think about.

Again, I must commend you for your work on this piece so far.

[paxxx17]

Whisper sweet promises, don't order potatoes.

lol that's a funny way to put it. Thanks for your feedback! I practiced around 4 months, a few hours per week. I will now focus mostly on polishing individual parts rather than playing through the whole thing over and over