PianoTell Recital #1 Is Now Live!
Sam Perpetual Motion #1 - I've always liked the sound of this piece. Your playing looked and sounded effortless, as if you could play it perpetually without getting tired. At the same time you play is expressively and in the moment.
hebele Downton Abbey - Great job on that. It sounds just as authentic at the slower tempo.
MarieJ Week #7 - What a dreamy reflective piece; and a perfect foil for your fabric painting. Thank you for sharing both.
plop_symphony "A Lincoln Tribute" - In your choice of a slower tempo, as befits a tribute, you show a sensitivity to the music beyond your short time playing. Beautifully played. Thank you for information on Alfred's recital suite series. I checked it out briefly, bookmarked it and see some sheet music shopping in my future!
thepianoplayer416 Air in D minor - Baroque music is always a hand independence challenge for me. You made it look easy. Well done!
BicBic Prelude in B flat minor - Interesting and dramatic music! Looks like it has a variety of challenges beyond octave playing - leaps, cross hands that look like they're on top of each other and probably more besides. You made it all look effortless.
Seeker Thank you for the kind words! One day I may learn that self-deprecating humor will not fix my self-esteem issues, let alone constitute a personality. Today is not that day! 
"You're a smart kid. But your playing is terribly dull."
I finally had a chance to listen to all the submissions, sorry I can't comment on all. I'm impressed with the number of self compositions, very nice. There is a wide range of talent here. Looking forward to the next recital!
Sgisela Thanks for your kind words. Yes, I'm self teaching, and I think you're right, I need to move on to fresh pieces now. Sometimes I linger in my comfort zone, replaying pieces I like rather than moving on to the next challenge. I've been hovering on the same few pieces for about a month now, partly because I feel a bit daunted by the next section, which covers the chromatic scale and seems to involve some baffling finger techniques. I think learning to play the piano is the most challenging thing I've ever done, in terms of learning new skills. It's a massive learning curve for me.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
An amazing 1st Recital; I’m glad I was able to be a part of it. I’m a bit slow off the mark with comments - I decided to finish elsewhere first. (I won’t repeat the remarks I made on the duplicate pieces, but that still leaves me with 18 unique submissions … )
keff — A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Recording nerves? Did you know that most of us still have them after years at the piano?
Sophia — Fascination
Well done! Good even rhythm, and a smooth, relaxed performance!
Sgisela — Joropo
Chock-full of energy! This most certainly gave your fingers a workout - and anyone dancing to it would have exercised more than just their fingers!
pseudonym58 — Images (5) for orchestra
What a tremendous double-barrelled project! I can’t imagine how long this composition would have taken to arrange, and as for learning and performing it … I’m in awe.
plop_symphony — A Lincoln Tribute
I’d never heard this before. You played it with a confidence and style not always apparent in the earliest years of a piano journey.
lilypad
When you get into Bach, you start with 2-part harmony (voice 1 & 2) and work your way up. An piece like Purcell Air in Dm there are places (not many) with overlapping notes on the same hand (voice 3).
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9. MarieJ — Week #7
A pretty song, prettily played, with a gentle build-up. I like the piano voice you selected--it almost sounds like an electric piano.
10. plop_symphony — A Lincoln Tribute
This sounds so familiar to me. Is it based on an Aaron Copland piece? (EDIT: I think I figured out what it reminded me of: this part of Appalachian Spring.) I like the stepwise ascending bass. You played it very cleanly!
11. thepianoplayer416 — Air in D minor
Nice job keeping the left hand smooth.
12. BicBic — Prelude in B flat minor - No.16 from Op.34
Your work on octaves paid off! It didn't sound hard for you at all. Great piece by the way.
23. TheBoringPianist — Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18
Thanks for sharing this! It was fun to watch and listen (probably stressful for you though). Great work for 6-7 weeks! Doesn't sound easy--it must be harder to delineate the voices compared to on an organ. Were you comfortable with the piano? I have a little upright at home and when I play those big beasts, I feel like Shaq at a tea party--everything gets played with too much power.
rsl12 Great ear! The Alfred music page does point out the "Copland-like harmonies" of the piece.
Ok I have a few more comments to share, I have really be enjoying listening to everyone!!
@pseudonym58 Wow! My first thought listening to these as a group was, what interesting colors! I didn't know any of the pieces, so thank you for sharing them!! Beautifully played!
@Sam Wonderful as always! This was another piece I didn't know, but it was very enjoyable! It's very cool when you can hear something in a movie, go find the score and then play it! I hope your leg it better!
@hebele e great job! Esp for playing such a short time! Congratulations!
@MarieJ I also didn’t know this piece, but it was lovely and your playing was beautiful as always! I found the piece to be sort of pensive, in the best of ways! Also, the audio sounded quite nice.
@plop_symphony Very nice! I like the interesting chords in this piece.
@thepianoplayer416 Very nice! I agree, that's an interesting piece.
@BicBic Nicely done!! It sounds like so much fun to play, and it sounds like you're really enjoying it!
@Nightowl Great job! And congratulations on your first recording attempt! You had a consistent tempo, which is super important. My only advice is don’t be too hard on yourself. 
@bSharp Ahhh High Heels! This has been on my list of pieces to play for a long time, but I've never started it. Maybe I will soon. You've done a really really nice job with it. The momentum is there where needed, the peaks and valleys of Einaudi are there, the musical intention… Since it's about high heels, maybe next add some pleasure and pain? 
(this coming from someone who doesn't like high heels and refuses to wear them I wore Keds under my wedding dress!)
So, I have some questions for you, because your video was wonderful to watch with the score and your hands. How did you make this video w the score? Where is your camera? Did you record audio w same camera? Is it on cellphone? (Does it feel like I'm interrogating you? 
@WieWaldi This was absolutely charming! And so nostalgic!! Loved it!!
@Calavera So, at first I was thinking, ooh, this sounds like something I would play. But then it suddenly got very intense and hard! Wow! Don't think I'll be trying it any time soon! You did a great job with it, very well played and you really nailed the ending!!!
@rsl12 Ok, that was soooo good!! The lyrics are hysterical but the bigger thing is your really solid playing through out. I really, really enjoyed your playing, both when you're accompanying your singing and when you're playing the solo parts
Re the lyrics — I didn’t think it could get better than the first verse but then the second verse started … 
@Sgisela thank you for your kind remarks about my piece! As I mentioned, this was a practice recording that I wasn't expecting to share, so I kind of wrapped up at the end too quickly. I generally don't do that because I agree, then end of Einaudi pieces is often quite significant.
@WieWaldi thank you so much for listening and for the nice compliments! Getting the essence is always hard, so if I came even close, I'm quite pleased!
@Rob thank you for listening!! I'm pretty much my laptop has the worst speakers ever, so I'm glad it sounded ok to you!
Dynamic shading can keep you busy forever if you let it.
Yes, yes indeed!
BicBic — Prelude in B flat minor - No.16 from Op.34
I enjoyed this new-to-me piece. You must have achieved a high performance level in earlier years, to have regained so much capability in only 10 months.
Nightowl — Plaisir D'Amour
I’m impressed that you’ve managed to video your earliest challenges, and then participate in an online Recital - I wasn’t as brave, and hesitated for years before ‘going public’. Well-deserved applause 
! And I checked out your Donner DP (I’d never heard of that brand before). It looks really good, and as it apparently can also act as a MIDI controller, you’re not likely to grow out of it in a hurry!
rsl12 — Always Chew Your Food
You’ve clearly had a lot fun making this, and I had a lot of fun listening. Thank you! (I didn’t notice sniffles … 
)
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ShiroKuro Ahhh High Heels! This has been on my list of pieces to play for a long time, but I've never started it. Maybe I will soon. You've done a really really nice job with it. The momentum is there where needed, the peaks and valleys of Einaudi are there, the musical intention… Since it's about high heels, maybe next add some pleasure and pain?
So, I have some questions for you, because your video was wonderful to watch with the score and your hands. How did you make this video w the score? Where is your camera? Did you record audio w same camera? Is it on cellphone? (Does it feel like I'm interrogating you?
Haha, no problem I recorded the video with my cell phone that sits above my head, using a boom stick, see pic below. The audio was recorded with a Blue Snowball ICE microphone connected to a laptop. I then used Cyberlink Powerdirector to replace the audio recorded by the phone with that recorded by the microphone. For the video, I overlayed a black background on the section above the keyboard, and then added the sheet music on top of that, changing them in the timeline when appropriate.
Thank you for explaining that! It sounds kind of elaborate, but do-able.
I've taken video with the phone on a regular tripod but at the highest point and angled down, it looked ok but was hard to get in a good spot bc the tripod isn't made for that. A boom stand would be great. I should go see how expensive they are...
Late to the party! The PW ABF Quarterly recital #75 had to come first. Now let me see if I can navigate this new platform and make some comments!
1. Player1 — Energico - you asked for feedback - you are just not very even or steady. Try this: listen to your video while looking at the score and clapping a steady beat. Can't do it, right? Because you are not steady. Here is where working with a metronome will help. But you will have to do it in very small sections, not for the whole piece. If you fall behind the metronome, stop and assess why. Stop the metronome and fix the problem before you try again. The other obvious problem is that the triplets (I think they are triplets - the groups of 3 notes) are uneven. They should be perfectly even and equal in length. Your first task is to play back your video and see if you can hear that they are uneven. Surely the Faber website has a video of this piece - go listen to that and compare your triplets and their triplets. You have to hear that it needs fixing before you can fix it. Once again the metronome is your friend. Slow way down and use one click per note and stay with the clicks. I know this is boring and time consuming, but it will pay off over time.
2. rogerch — Improvisation 6 - commented at PW.
3. keff — A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square - very moody and mellow - loved it!
4. Sophia — Fascination - That was great! Very even and lively.
5. Sgisela — Joropo - commented at PW
6. pseudonym58 — Images (5) for orchestra - Wow, what a labor of love! What is that - 40 minutes of music? Frankly, more than i have time to listen to, but I sampled them here and there. Arranging, typesetting, and then learning it and performing it. My hats off to you!
8. hebele — Downtown Abbey theme - commented at PW
9. MarieJ — Week #7 - commented at PW
10. plop_symphony — A Lincoln Tribute - Sounded very similar to Copland. Well played, and I think that tempo was great!
11. thepianoplayer416 — Air in D minor - commented at PW
12. BicBic — Prelude in B flat minor - No.16 from Op.34 - Short lively, energetic - and well played! Loved it!
More to come!
Sam
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Sam Thanks for your comments. Yes, it's about 38-40 minutes total, depending on tempo. Absolutely a labor of love. I had always liked those pieces and had played them in orchestra as well. After looking over the full score, I determined that they would be amenable to arrangement for solo piano. Of course, I had to decide what was not essential and could be left out. There are always some compromises, but my goal was to keep them playable in performance, without requiring virtuosic skill. Took me a couple of years of on/off work (in my spare time), to finish the project.