La fille aux chevaux de lin

Seeker

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Aside from what's written for the general public in the description on YouTube, for PianoTell folks, I've just had some additional work done on the Steinert - more regulation and voicing - but perhaps most important, there was an area where the bridge cap had a slight separation from the bridge, and my technician addressed the issue by "drilling and filling", rather like a dentist. There was a bit of a weaker sound from B5 to D6 caused by that little gap. Yes, I was quite nervous to see my tech drill through the bridge cap(!) and injecting epoxy... I believe he put some in from underneath as well. In any case, the piano now sings even more full-voiced up there than it did previously, and things are really about as good as I could have hoped for (at least to my ears).

pianoloverus

Very beautiful!

Jane

Beautiful. You maintain the fussy rhythms of the piece with a lovely rubato. And I love how you play the very end.

Seeker

Jane You maintain the fussy rhythms of the piece with a lovely rubato.

Thank you for noticing that detail, Jane.

Jane

Seeker Takes one to know one, Seeker 😉
I learned the piece many years ago. While I couldn't play it today, I could probably work on it and play it tomorrow. So I've developed an intimate acquaintance with the fiddly rhythms and timings over the years... and appreciate your handling of them.

Actually, my first hearing of the piece, back in the 60s, was a recording of Segovia playing it on guitar heard on a balcony on a warm tropical night in Madras.

Cheers!

pianoloverus

Hi Seeker, I have a question about this piece. To me, it seems like this piece and what I would call its counterpart in book two, Bruyeres, are quite different from the other 22 preludes. I see these two as more melodic and somehow harmonically simpler(in a way I'm not knowledgeable enough to describe) than the rest of the preludes. Do you agree?

Seeker

pianoloverus I'm not sure I agree. They all sound like Debussy to me. What about "Des pas sur la neige"? That one is, well, REALLY different, minimalist. I think Debussy was using Chopin's Preludes as his model, brief pieces exploring something a bit different, but all very much Chopin. Wish I could be more definitive, but that's where I am, at least, at present.

PianogrlNW

That’s a lovely performance with a very organic flow. So many amateur pianists have a hard time with the rests in this piece Your piano has a beautiful, clear tone.

ShiroKuro

PianogrlNW So many amateur pianists have a hard time with the rests

You must be talking about me! Not this piece, but it’s odd how sometimes rests can so hard! Funny how that works…

ShiroKuro

@Seeker that was lovely, thank you for sharing it! And I’m glad your recovery is going well!

Ornstein

Delaying the entrance of the pedal a bit was very interesting, it immediately separated this from other recordings which often start already very sentimental. That kernel of unpredictability actually allowed me listen to this as though it were a new piece. Beautifully done.

Seeker

Ornstein Thanks. That finger legato sans pedal is entirely intentional on my part and is a way of introducing her as beautiful, innocent, chaste (amen chords right after the opening phrase suggests that to me). Later we have, perhaps, more of his reaction to that archtype, and so the music heats up a bit though in a restrained and respectful way. My two cents.

Jane

Seeker beautiful, innocent, chaste

To which I'd add,
"young, whimsical, capricious, decisive, indecisive"

L-M

Loved every second of this—so well played!

pseudonym58

Very nicely played. I always know it's good when it sounds to me like the composer rather than the performer.

By the way, with regard to the notion of this piece (and Bruyères) being slightly more traditionally melodious, Debussy (and also Rachmaninov, BTW) sometimes wrote to their publishers about the likelihood of a particular composition being popular with the public. No mystery to them as to what paid the bills!