rogerch oh my gosh, I really want to hear you improvise on this! Pretty please!!! 🙏
Returning to @Sophia ’s comments about comfort zone, I’m kind of struck by the irony of this being a not especially Chopin-esque Chopin, and it being very similar (musically, technique-wise) to a lot of pieces I play. Ah well, such is life. 😃
@Clara another idea for thinking about how to quiet the LH and bring out the RH is, perhaps a bit paradoxically, rather than practicing the LH, start with practicing the RH HS (hands separate). While you’re doing that, think about the melody line, how you want it to sound, which notes within the line should sing out (maybe) more than others…. Notice that the melody line is four measures long. Assuming you’re using the score linked above, there’s a phrase mark (that horizontal arc) that goes across four measures for every four measures of the piece. So you want to shape that whole melody line across four measures. That four-measure phrase is one musical thought. You also might think about there being a “sub-line” that’s two measures long, so the second dotted quarter note in measure 2 and measure 4 are the last notes of that sub-line, and those As could be played just a little bit quieter than the B flats. Maybe. I'm not in front of my piano right now and just saying this from looking at the score. I’ll try it later today.
Anyway the point here is that you want to have clear intentions for the melody line across the whole piece, and playing RH HS allows you to hear that, get that musical memory into your head.
Now go back to the LH and play HS, keeping it steady but not too loud, while hearing that melody line in your head. Try as much as possible to get that LH almost on auto-pilot. While you’re playing LH HS, start looking at the RH notes as well, hearing it in your head.
After you’ve done this, go back to playing HT (hands together) and continue the focus on the melody line, how you want to shape it, how you want it to sound as you move across each four-measure phrase. Notice that here you’re not exactly focusing on “quieting the LH,” and you’re not focusing on “bringing out the RH,” although that is indeed what you want to happen. But by focusing on the melody, on how you want it to sound, it should make this a little easier to achieve.
Lastly, I would say practice this way a little bit each time you play, but don’t spend too much time on this specific aspect. The RH notes are higher and will carry over the LH to a certain extent anyway. Also this is an aspect of playing that we build up and improve on over time, across multiple pieces, so although on the one hand, being able to bring out the RH is super important, on the other hand, you don’t want to make yourself crazy focusing on it.