PianoTell Recital #7 Is Now Live!

navindra · 2026-02-15T16:40:00+00:00

Welcome to PianoTell Recital #7 iternabe — Invention No. 6 in E Major, BWV 777, by J.S. Bach Sophia — The Windmills of Your Mind by Michel Legrand Nightowl...

rsl12

Opal As I said earlier, it's great to hear you're quickly recovering your skills! Also, thanks for introducing me to a great little piece! Love how bouncy it is.

rsl12

MarieJ Sounds like good progress! I hear the emotion in your playing. Sounds like you are motivated to polish it to something amazing.

Nightowl

navindra Funnily enough I'm working on a Chopin etude which is quite easy compared to his other works. I won't specify which one at this point, but if I crack the piece I might submit it for the May recital.

WieWaldi

rsl12 Thanks for your kind words. About the weak bassline, I was thinking about why some bars were full blown and some bars had some notes left away. And even the full blown didn't contain all notes of the original. I tried to add those notes but wasn't too happy about it. It was ok, but it took away that lazy pianist in a midnight cocktail bar charm. It pushed the mood more into the faster rock'n'roll style version.

CF recorded his version as a tribute to Fats Domino and the printed date is one day later than Fat's going away. It might be a kind of a spontaneous tutorial without too much planning or thinking.

Glad, if you can take here and there a few ideas for your new orleans progress.

MarieJ

ShiroKuro
So much eloquent silence in many (most?) of Einaudi’s compositions … An emotive piece, so beautifully played. ShiroKuro, you nailed it. 👏

You asked whether I thought an 'Einaudi-esque' technique helped me with ‘Moonlight’.
Absolutely! If it wasn’t for Einaudi I wouldn’t have been playing here, now. I had given up and put my piano on the market just before I heard ‘iGiorni’ in 2011. That piece rescued my piano dreams.

It was a fortunate find, because many of Einaudi’s compositions seem made for an adult early learner. The scores are ‘grown up’ yet simple enough to be accessible.

Through studying his music I came to realise that ‘playing’ involves more than hitting the right notes: technique is the magic ingredient that turns notes into music. Working on THIS lesson will be a life-long challenge and delight.

Cratersmash
A beautiful performance, truly worthy of a major concert hall. And you say that you reached this level in ‘about 3 months’? Us lesser mortals salute you. Fabulous.

rach3master
Playing a Rachmaninoff Concerto with a virtual orchestra? I’d never heard of the G-Phil app before, what an exciting experiment! I thoroughly enjoyed the marvellous result. Congratulations - and take a bow!

Pathbreaker
I’ve always loved this deservedly-famous composition, and your playing does it justice. ‘Arabesque’ calls to mind grace, delicacy, subtlety - and they are all here. Simply exquisite.

navindra
That piece just sang, navindra! It amazes me that you have any time at all left for piano with so much else (including running this forum) on the go. The effort you put into the recording and video was impressive, with the lyrics adding a really nice touch. A great finale to a terrific Recital! Thank you for bringing it to us!

ShiroKuro

Thank you for the lovely compliment @MarieJ !

MarieJ eloquent silence in many (most?) of Einaudi’s compositions …

This is such a good way to describe it! I don’t know if I am able to recreate his eloquence, but that’s the goal isn’t it!

Absolutely! If it wasn’t for Einaudi I wouldn’t have been playing here, now. I had given up and put my piano on the market just before I heard ‘iGiorni’ in 2011. That piece rescued my piano dreams.

Oh I didn’t know that! I’m so glad you ended up not selling your piano! I Giorni was the first Einaudi piece I wanted to play too. I actually learned I Due Fiumi first because Monica told me that would be an easier “in” to his music. And of course she was right. 🙂

It was a fortunate find, because many of Einaudi’s compositions seem made for an adult early learner. The scores are ‘grown up’ yet simple enough to be accessible.

This exactly!

This is reminding me that I don’t have any Einaudi in my playable rep right now. Time to bring some often ose pieces back 🙂

I know you don’t post at PT very much, but if I start a thread about Einaudi here, will you join in? I can tag you to make it easy to find. (Probably won’t start it till this evening, and I’ll have to decide whether it belongs in the Pianist Zone or the Learners Lounge…)

lilypad

KevinM - Erster Verlust - What a charming piece. From the effortless flowing of your sound, it sounds as if you've overcome the tricky spots.

lilypad

Peyton - I'm Going to Miss Me When I'm Gone - I loved this! What a hoot! I'm closer to 80 than 70 now and an upbeat song on the subject not living forever is just what I needed.

lilypad

Sophia - Windmills of Your Mind - In spite of the subtle variations challenge, the nature of how the song's verses flow into each other can give an impression of a sameness, but I noticed that you were able to add an impressive amount of expression. Well done! You also seem to have mad skills at page turning without a discernable pause in your playing.

Sophia

lilypad You also seem to have mad skills at page turning without a discernable pause in your playing.

Hahaha thanks!!! Funny enough I dreaded page turning, I avoided it like the plague. Then, just like the trill, one day I sat down and gave it some dedicated practice - and suddenly the penny dropped 😃

Player1

rsl12

A metronome will not help me play better at this stage because my playing problem isn't tempo related.

Actually, upon reflection, my problem is entirely tempo related. Specifically, my entire body beats uncontrollably at 3 beats per second.

MarieJ

ShiroKuro

I know you don’t post at PT very much, but if I start a thread about Einaudi here, will you join in? I can tag you to make it easy to find. (Probably won’t start it till this evening, and I’ll have to decide whether it belongs in the Pianist Zone or the Learners Lounge…)

I don't post anywhere very much, but an Einaudi thread sounds like a nice idea. (I wonder if it would ever grow to the massive size of the one in Piano World?) 😊

rsl12

lilypad It sounds like a very nice arrangement of Rainbow Connection. I can understand why you want a few more recording tries. Mostly just little mistakes things that popped up, and the kinds of things you're skilled enough to avoid normally. But still, I enjoyed it.

rsl12

plop_symphony Hey, good job (as always), and I like that you're being bold with your interpretation choices! You're really developing your musicality. I think you succeeded in what you were trying to do.

Peyton

navindra Now don't go burning the book. It's been a real friend! Really nice playing. AND...the piano sounds awesome!!

Pathbreaker Ahhh, so smooth and seamless, just like it is supposed to be. Wonderful.

rsl12

ShiroKuro This piece has a lot of rests and places where the composer has you not play the end of an expected sequence of notes. And even the ending stops like an unfinished thought. So I tried to make the piece breathe, feeling like I was waiting for the snow to melt between the notes.

Yes, that's the tricky thing--making it sound like an natural pause in thinking, and not like a performer mistake. I struggled with it in the sonatina I did for recital #4. My stops were rather abrupt, and I wish I had been a little more gentle like your approach (and maybe even gentler).

MarieJ

Nightowl

I loved reading about your suitor from long ago - he certainly knew how to impress! I'm curious to know more - did he win your heart?

It was the music that won my heart - not the suitor! 😄

Nightowl

MarieJ Ah, that's quite ironic, because the same situation happened with Beethoven - people loved his music but it seems he was unable to win the hearts of women that he pursued. I was listening to a podcast about him recently and it seemed that he wasn't an easy man to be around (to put it mildly). It's a shame that he composed such romantic music but never experienced real love himself (putting aside his "immortal beloved" relationship, although the facts are sketchy about that).

MarieJ

navindra

navindra t's a very interesting piano as well, at times I heard it singing and was convinced there was at least a second instrument playing along, so kudos on that! It appears you managed to bring out different voices in this piece. Which Pianoteq piano was this?

That was Pianoteq's C Bechstein DG . I used the 'Under lid' preset, and (as I usually do) tweaked the action noises right down to almost zero.

MarieJ

Player1
Thank you SO much for the detailed info! I've saved it all for future reference; you've given me a head start with my quest for the 'best' version. (And I'll repeat here, your performance was an inspiration.) 👏

Player1

MarieJ

If you're good enough to play Moonlight, you're more than good enough to do justice to Passacaglia. Moonlight is level 5-6 while I believe Passacaglia is only level 4.

Which surprises me because I didn't think I was that far along.

lilypad

ShiroKuro - Song for Gavin - That may be the most interesting Einaudi piece I've ever heard. One of my worst habits is not observing rests in the music, so I like your image of waiting for snow to melt between the notes. You definitely breathed life into the piece.

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