I listened to the submissions in a calm a dark summer night, while riding my bicycle to chill out. And I must say, this was a very nice experience at all. I liked all submissions and I think it is a very successful premiere of #1. I hope I remember all my impressions I got that night and write it down. Well - at least I remember I must change my recording setup as my own piece has a lot of hiss inside and the overall audio quality was very poor. (Good bye DI-box and hello synchronizing audio&video).
Player1 Some quite fast runs with RH, seems challenging to me. I have seen some of your vids before and I must say, you improved your playing by a margin. But this time I noticed something, I didn't realize all the time before: Your knees, they are at height of the keyboard, most players have them below the keyboard. Or in other words, it seems your keyboard is at a very low height. Is there any reason for it? (Just curious)
rogerch In my opinion, this is your best improvisation so far. It could be easily something that has been composed. It is very harmonic and it is pleasing to listen to. Please more of that, thank you in advance!
keff For both, the mp3 and video link, there is a lot to like about this submission: I like this kind of music. And I like how relaxing and smoothely you played it. I like the tempo and the mood that comes by listening to it.
Sophia Listening the first time to it, I wondered: She broke with the rythm, whats up with her? But still, it sounds good... And then: Ah - the piece is itself is switching from waltz to a 4/4 beat. Something fairly uncommon. The only beat switching I am familiar so far was from 2/4 to 3/4. So it was a very interesting experience for me. Sophia, you played is very nice, very relaxed with your hands and you kept a good and steady tempo through the entire piece. In my opinion you played this Alfred's so beautiful, that you can add a checkmark and move to the next piece - or blues lesson. Well done, I liked it a lot.
Sgisela I enjoyed this piece already in the fast pieces recital. And to the risk I repeat, some passages still reminds me to some bavarian traditional folk music - but faster. About fast - this piece is very fast and seems also quite challenging to me. Well done!
Sam Very nicely played and again this is a very interesting piece. Some well place dissonances to create some tension to be resolved later. If I remember correctly, your previous recital piece had unexpected stops. It seems, you are continuing to select pieces away from main-stream. Good choice, I like to have diversity here. Get well soon, with best wishes. And as always, thank you for keeping the recital tradition running. Even if this is the wrong forum, but we all know this wouldn't happen if you didn't run it in PW all the years.
hebele You played this piece astounding well. And you put a lot of feeling into it, so it didn't sound anything like beginner. I can't believe you are just at 5 months of self-learning. It sounds like are are a lot longer into piano playing. I would pull off my hat, if I had one. But I am pulling off my headphones, because that comes closest. Big bravo!
MarieJ Very dreamy and beautifully performed. The art in your video is a superb match to the piece, a very good choice to do so.
plop_symphony Whatever you played, it sounds amazing. A put a lot of feeling into it. I don't know how it would sound if the tempo would be higher, but I can tell the tempo of your choice was just right and the entire piece sounded so lovely. If there is one thing to improve, I would say the very last note deserves an even longer decay for my liking. That's it. Everything else was just perfect.
thepianoplayer416 What a deligthful piece on a beautiful instrument. So nice to see how good you can perform on a proper instrument, compared to the spring loaded travel equiment that held back your skills. Well done.
Nightowl You played the entire piece in a very steady tempo and also very clean. The piece seems not to be easy, there are some challenging parts inside. And you did it completely without a single mistake in one take. This is very good for a couple of months of playing. If there is something to improve, I would say it is the fluidity of playing. I don't find better words for it and can not exactly describe it. Not sure if playing more legato is the right term. But I am sure this comes over time automatically if you are paying just a little bit attention to it during practice. Just a little attention - all things you did right are IMO more important at this learning stage. Can't wait to see your progress in 3 months at recital #2.
bSharp I love Einaudi. His pieces may be minimalistic or whatever they are described to be. (I don't know if minimalism is the right term, but looking to the sheet music, it seems to be everything but easy) Only thing I know, Einaudi need a well performed interpretation to shine. Dynamics, rubato and much more fine details. And you had them all in yours. Very well played, it was a pleasure to listen to your version.
SalmonJack I love the video cut, I love the piece, and I love how beautiful you played it. I think as an adult beginner I can only dream to be able to play (and compose) some day as amazing as you do. You can be very proud of your premiere of this forum's rectials. Kudos.
Calavera I loved your music choices at the very first time over in PW, and I still do. Your performances had been always a joy to listen to, and this is no exception. The big thing that makes yours so outstanding is the fact you are playing this computer-game / anime genre from japanese composers. It is so nice to hear an entire different style of music from you. And on top of that very well performed. Big respect to your playing abilities and a big thank you for your remarkable musical choices of the pieces.
rsl12 This one was so much fun to listen. I love the bluesy style (or jazzy - I can't even draw a line to tell if something is Blues or Jazz), and the lyrics always make me smile when I hear it. (Yes, right now I listened to it the 5th time) The first time I heard your submission it was in a dark summer night, outside, sitting on my bike and wearing earbuds. And then I was thinking about how this would fit into a movie like Toy-Story. You know, when riding a bicyle at night, not reading any text, that brain comes up with a lot of pictures and funny ideas. The one that your song painted into my mind, was to have this song at a scene when two characters in a Toy Story like movie are becoming friends and having a great time together. No talking, no sound effects, just pictures and this song. Big thank you for sharing this piece.
Anything else? Yes - you improved you singing skills. The first time I had the impression you are afraid of wrong notes and you were holding back your voice. Not this time. This time is was way better. Bravo! Can't wait to see your next recital.
TC3 I with I could play the Blues with the same expression as you. Not to mention the difficulty level of yours is way higher. Very well performed, and I like the way of aging the video, especially the vignette effect.
iternabe The piece might be at an easy level, but you compensated it with a very clean playing. And the nice thing about your submission are the dynamics and the fluidity of your playing. It is really a joy to watch your videos (not just the recital piece) and you are doing remarkably well with your progress.
ShiroKuro It is indeed a pity that the audio quality is not the best. But your playing was. You are building this piece very well up, adding more and more complexity. And after a very short time of listening, I thought: okay - this will be some great 6 minutes of enjoying your music. And then it slowed down, seemed almost to come to an end and I really thought: "What? 6 minutes are over? Already? That can't be true, I want more of that. Okay, I can repeat it when is finished." But thank god it wasn't over, this piece kept going and it was just as nice as before. Nevertheless I repeated it, three more times in a row! I think you just got the essence of Einaudi's composition exactly as it is inteded to be. Big thumbs up! This is a very beautiful submission.
lilypad This is another example of a very well performed piece, we beginners can just dream of to be able to play. Did I hear some blue notes? I love the calm mood, it is to soothing, so relaxing to listen to. I think there was mistake (or call it hickup) to hear, but I prefer to listen to a version with all the good expression over a errorfree one that is played more like a robot. Thank you for sharing.
Second bunch of comments coming soon.
If you follow the sheet music you'll see there are things I missed. I played this from memory.
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. She's been learning this Chopin waltz and made quick progress, and recorded the first part of the piece beautifully. But then she started panicking. She was procrastinating again as usual (maybe because she is addicted to deadlines?) so she didn't learn the B part. And this is when Rubens the knight in plastic armor stepped out of his fake ivory tower and recorded his playing of the B part (from 1:07 to 1:51) to complete the track. The parts were then glued together with some Audacity magic and voila! A baby monster was born
