[Journal] Brahms g minor piano quartet performance readiness

twocats · 2024-05-30T06:19:57+00:00

Hi folks! I'm calling this a "journal" because I've decided to document my next 26 days of preparation to get the Brahms g minor piano quartet ready for my...

twocats

I got the recordings on my computer and listened. The video has really bad audio quality and I'm trying to merge it with the .wav file using software. I'll see if it works.

But wow, the performance was a bomb. So many missed entrances, wrong notes all over the place, it was generally terrible! After the performance I was so emotionally exhausted that I felt like I was going to collapse. The violinist said we should have recorded the rehearsal and now I have that learning for next year. I'll share it anyway, even though it's not good 😂

rsl12

twocats I think no one is a good judge of their own recordings. I'm always harsh with my own, but my opinion mellows with time. Even if yours is full of mistakes, it will be fun for me to hear the result of all your hard work.

twocats

I ended up using Microsoft Clipchamp and it was easy to merge the files after a bit of learning curve! I just dragged and dropped the .mov and .wav files in and then moved them both to the left to start at the beginning of both files. And then (learned this the hard way) right-clicked on the video and muted the audio for it. Then exported at 720p. Documenting this for next time!

twocats

rsl12 thank you 🙂 Some of the missed entrances where we got off track from each other are probably less obvious if you don't know the piece. Luckily we recovered well whenever we did (i.e. no one just stopped in their tracks and needed a do-over).

twocats

Workshop Final Performance (2nd & 4th Movements)

I should probably never take on a piece this hard again. We were pretty solid during rehearsal and then the violinist and I could not hold it together for the performance. Luckily this has the reputation of being the hardest of the Brahms piano quartets so the others should be less challenging!

It is really hard to get the video blurring to work. There is this bug (which YouTube hasn't fixed after it was reported years ago) where if you apply the blur to the very end of the file, it doesn't work. So you have to apply it to almost (less than a second) before the end. And automatic face blur doesn't work so I just applied a rectangle blur to our faces and truncated the video before we stood for applause. It then takes a very long time to process. But anyway, here it is:

rogerch

twocats Wonderful! I am a casual listener and I'm not familiar with this piece. To my ears it flowed very well. Nothing happened to disrupt the flow of music that I could hear!

I think all four of you played very well. The passion, the intensity, the musicality were great! The strings and the piano played off of each other beautifully. As a piano player I of course focused on the piano part and I was impressed. Very well done!

Thanks for sharing your journey! It was great fun to follow your meticulous preparation at home, your travels to a far away place, rehearsal on site with your fellow musicians, and now the final performance. Thank you so much for bringing me along via this great thread!

twocats

rogerch thank you for your kind words!! Yes, we did manage to make a good save on all the missed entrances; with chamber music you just have to keep going and thankfully you don't have to memorize!

You can't see but in the fourth movement the violin just dropped out at a place where I always have trouble with my entrance and I count off her ornaments to enter. And suddenly she wasn't there! So I entered at approximately the right place (I don't even know if it's exact, I haven't counted) but I think maybe it was one beat off and our coach (the violist) was smiling and leading and a few beats in the cellist and violinist were able to follow him and come back in at the right place. If we didn't have our coach in the group I think it would have been a lot more obvious whenever we were off.

I also enjoyed sharing with you all; it was a great exercise to have to say out loud what my problems were and my plan for them, and also to have so much support as I got ready for the final concert! I think my next journal will be far less dramatic but hopefully is a much better test of Dr. Molly's schedule 🙂

Learnings

I think my biggest learning in this piece was use of una corda pedal from the part that was explicitly marked (previously I never used it at all) and finding out when it's an appropriate place for it, and being able to play with una corda while also using the Bluetooth pedal! I also started noticing more when pros use it and I decided to use it in a spot in the fourth movement even though it wasn't explicitly marked. And thinking back to this other piece where the piano part was supposed to be an ethereal accompaniment, it now seems like such an obvious place for una corda.

I also think my practice will look different going forward, lots of slow accurate practice for the hard parts and hopefully earlier and improved identification of optimal fingerings (I changed them so much over the course of 9 months). Also actually paying attention to what I'm playing and not just essentially sight reading all the time.

This was the hardest piece I've ever learned and my playing was still so far from where I wanted it to be (I think I'm putting it away; I don't have the energy to continue with it despite the cello coach saying that I'm just at the beginning of my journey with it), but I think I'm a better pianist now and hopefully these lessons will serve me well for the future! 🙂

PianogrlNW

I am somewhat familiar with this quartet having heard it performed live a few times. I think your group gave a very spirited and musical performance. I didn’t notice any missed entrances or flubs, so I think only those intimately familiar with this piece would have noticed those. That 4th movement sounds very difficult to hold together and you sounded like you were playing together the whole time. Your playing, in particular, sounds very professional to me. Your hard work paid off. If you choose a less challenging piece for your next workshop, it will feel like a vacation. Yes, I agree with you about your reaction to your coach’s suggestion that this is just the beginning. Time to move on to some new pieces.

twocats

PianogrlNW thank you, I'm so glad it sounded good to someone who is somewhat familiar with the piece!

The cello coach was an audience member but she seems like she might be the most serious and intense of the coaches (they are part of a professional string quartet, and they bring in additional coaches as needed for the workshop) so I took her words as a huge compliment. Also my friend pointed out that I'm a perfectionist (it's true!).

The next piece should be pretty easy (famous last words!!). I am definitely looking forward to hopefully playing it very solidly with not too much effort.

rsl12

I finally had a chance to listen through your performance. Lots of places in the 4th movement where the piano is exposed. You played delicately and fiery! I'm glad you can feel accomplishment even if you don't continue working on it. I don't think I would have the motivation to keep working on a piece like this without a regular ensemble.

It looks like you have more ensemble work planned next. Any chance of doing something for the recital?

twocats

rsl12 thank you! I got a compliment from my friend's mom (retired pianist who gave me some coaching through email when I sent videos and asked questions about how to approach some stuff) and she said it was "beautiful work". At least the spirit was good! It does make me feel better. It's great to be an amateur because there's no real consequence 🙂

Honestly I don't think I can keep up any major chamber work in my repertoire. They're like 40 minutes at performance tempo for the entire work and sadly I feel like it all leaves my abilities so quickly after I stop. But as long as this workshop exists I plan to go every year and learn a major work. It's all running on the passion of the organizer and I am fully aware that the workshop won't last forever, at least not in its current form.

I don't think I will likely be participating in any recitals, in part because I am busy and in part because I don't want to be that jerk who uploads a video but then doesn't take the time to listen to everyone else's and comment. But I love that it's happening and it's really nice to see the great energy around it 🙂

rsl12

twocats Aww, too bad! Well, I hope you enjoy your well-deserved break before you tackle your next piece. I enjoyed your journaling.

twocats

rsl12 thank you! New journal to start soon, but probably more boring this time 😉

Waiting for my paper scores to arrive but I have some Beethoven cello sonatas to start learning!

twocats

New journal!

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