PianoTell Recital #1 Is Now Live!

11. thepianoplayer416 — Air in D minor

Great playing! I've played this piece before, from Melanie Spanswick's Play It Again! method books, and there she indicates that the accompaniment in the left hand should be detached notes rather than legato. Maybe it's a Baroque thing? I tried playing it both ways and just that small change resulted in a very different impression. Still not sure which I prefer.

12. BicBic — Prelude in B flat minor - No.16 from Op.34

I have to agree with the other comments - you absolutely killed it! One day I hope to be as confident with large jumps.

17. Calavera — Chrono Cross - Scars of Time

I agree with you on orchestral arrangements doing video game music justice, but there's an art all its own on capturing the nuances of a composition in a solo piano arrangement. More than technical ability, arrangement is the number one skill I want to work on.

Rob Considering the relatively short time you have been playing, plus the added pressure of the dreaded 'Red Dot', your performance was excellent.

That's what I keep telling @Nightowl too

Serge88
Very well played! It's a very relaxing piece to listen to.

Sophia
Thanks for the comments. Don't think the score has tempo indication. Made v1 at a slower tempo and decided to record the final version at a faster tempo, just a few beats per second. The final version worked out.

diretonic

I wish I could make such a great recording last minute! Thanks for sharing!

rogerch
Thanks for your comments.
This piece (Air in D minor) was a gem waiting to be discovered. A lot of students would play "Minuet in G" from the "Notebook for Anna M Bach" or Bach "Prelude in C" from WTC-1... anything with the Bach name. By definition "Air" is a piece with singing qualities. However, in the 17th & early 18th century the keyboard instruments were clavichord & harpsichord. Some would play the notes well articulated (more separate) like a harpsichord. My approach is to let the piano sing and the notes connect like piano playing.

Rob

That's a beautiful composition Rob! Very elegant and delicate, like the image you created with AI.

20. iternabe — The Trout

Great playing! It looks and sounds like you've got excellent control over the force at which you strike the keys.

23. TheBoringPianist — Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18

I love me a good fugue, especially if it's not by Bach. (Not because I hate Bach fugues - emphatically the opposite - but other than Bach and maybe Shostakovich, standalone fugues seem to be quite rare in the piano repertoire.)

28. twocats — Rustle of Spring

Lovely piece. There's quite a lot of these "one-hit wonders" in the piano literature - you can probably count on your fingers and toes the number of people who've played anything else by Sinding - and the same goes for Marchetti whose "Fascination" Sophia performed. "Spinning Song" by Albert Ellmenreich would be another such one-hit wonder.

thepianoplayer416 Yes, there's so much Baroque music out there beyond Bach that's attainable for students. There's more Purcell where that came from, there's quite a few Scarlatti sonatas or sonata movements that are at the level of the Anna M Bach notebook, there's easy pieces from Handel and Telemann and Rameau as well.. etc.

TheBoringPianist

I heard this piece for the first time when I read about it in the thread you mentioned, and I immediately fell in love with it. Especially the variation, beautiful piece. I enjoyed your performance, thanks for sharing!

lilypad

I have that all the time, that my recordings get progressively worse. But I often delete my recording before starting the next one, and then I have no recording at all. I'm glad you didn't, because it's a great recording, you played this piece beautifully!

Josephine actually I love the sweetness of your playing! It really has an elegant waltz feel. In the B section you can add a little drama and intensity on the lines with the percussive repeated chords (I think they happen twice, I hope you know which lines I'm talking about) like what Rubens does but I don't think the whole thing needs to be more intense. I think you have great musical intuition for this piece and you should be true to how you feel the music in your heart

TheBoringPianist
Thank you for posting your performance !
And super cool that you learned this in 7 weeks.
If you would like to share, how did it go with the competition?

ZigZagStory not to derail the PT recital thread too much but I made it to the final round (15-min preliminary round, 20-min semifinal round, 25-min final round) but didn't place in the top 3. My finals program (which included the Franck) was definitely my weakest set, especially Chopin Scherzo No. 3, which was the piece I practiced the least leading up to the competition because I was too busy trying to get all the other music ready! If you're interested in hearing the rest of my program, I recorded myself:
Preliminaries (Kapustin/Janáček/Price/Moszkowski)
Semifinals (Haydn/Russell/Prokofiev)
Finals (Franck-Bauer/Clementi/Chopin) (the clip above is from this)

TheBoringPianist not to derail the PT recital thread too much but I made it to the final round

I personally would love it if you started a thread about your experiences participating

i've listened to the first few! loved it!

Player1 - definitely got some of that ‘energico’ feeling, great job to you AND the cat!
rogerch - this is really nice, very relaxing (to listen to, maybe not to play/improvise!) As always, I’m impressed by your improvisation skills!
@keff - ah i love this song, thank you for sharing!
@Sophia - great to hear your progress - sounds good! I feel you captured the playful dance-y vibe very nicely.
@Sgisela - great to hear this again, and i loved it again!
@pseudonym58 - i really enjoyed listening to this! I’ll have to check out the OG orchestral version, but your piano arrangement sounds really lovely. Have you made other piano arrangements of orchestral music? Sounds fun but challenging!
Sam - i’m glad i inspired you to check out some poulenc! Maybe you and your wife can do the clarinet sonata ? I enjoyed this, the ‘perpetual motion’ thing is interesting and your playing sounded suitably mysterious! I hope your leg recovers soon.
hebele - good job with your first legato pedaling piece, it sounds very smoothly played! Always fun playing (and listening to!) something you recognize from the telly!
MarieJ - your delicate playing goes very nicely with the beautiful silk dyes in the video!
@plop_symphony - thank you for sharing this, how interesting - I’ll have to check out the Utah one (where i currently live!). Your playing definitely evoked a stately tribute!
thepianoplayer416 - short but sweet, sounded great! I love that you can just come across something fun and decide to learn and record for us in a short space of time!
Nightowl - I don’t think i noticed any hesitations - it sounded good to me and evoked the love song feeling!

Sgisela

in addition to the performance, i really like the tone and look of your Estonia piano. that inside rim laminate wood looks gorgeous. reminds me of the Fazioli rims!