rsl12 Thanks for you comment, Ron. ❤️ About the pp, mp markings I think I have an idea in my head how it should sound. It comes mainly from hearing other recordings and subconsciously I want to recreate them anyway. Often I play something a bit louder for the recording than how I practiced it. This is because of some nasty ghost notes that are happening occasionally. A pp marking wouldn't help me out of that.
What helps in any case are fingering markings. Having them at my stage is a nobrainer, anyway.
I like your analogy of cake decorating skills. But often I think a piece is good enough to move on. And sometimes it has to be good enough to be recorded; recitals have deadlines. I am still working on the piece I intended to submit the May-recital, will get it ready for November: I will try to follow your suggestions and make it nicer, softer, more emotional. Decrescendos, pp markings and tempo changes are already given by the author, no need to add more.
Btw: Haven't worked on the 40 pieces challenge so far. I think, I will miss it out completely this year. Maybe next year again. Playing simpler pieces with lots of new notes helps to practice reading. But not in any case. Unfortunately that repetoire doesn't come with the same range of notes as my regular pieces do. I am speaking about ledger lines. This is something I can't train from the easier stuff I would play for the 40-pieces-challenge.