Chopin: Mazurka in c#m, op. 50 no. 3

[elvenpianist]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hgmbag

mp3 format.

Not perfect- uneven in places and I got too excited in the coda and messed up a bit dreadfully- but anyways.

-elf

[PianistSk8er]

I think that you don't give yourself enough credit! This shows a lot of improvement since your last recording. Congrats!

My main suggestion is to shape your musical ideas a lot more in terms of nuances. Some sections seemed too loud or too soft and overall it seemed to lack a certain romantic property of sound. Now that you have the notes down, I would go through ask myself "What does this particular phrase mean to me? How should I shape it?" and questions like those.

Hope that helps... and great job!
PS

[elvenpianist]

I dunno, the recording equipment was very harsh on my tone and made it sound pretty awful in spots, I think, and my piano is a piece of crap, and my tech is basically crap. Didn't help that I was totally exhausted by the time I made that rec, and.. it shows.

But eh I'm glad you saw some good in it. One other person I've shared it with has liked it so far (out of... um... 5? haha) so I guess I'm doing ok.

I perform it on Sunday.

lol aaaaahhhh

-elf

[PJF]

The piano is very, very bright, not unlike the pianos of Chopin's day. Maybe try to limit the dynamic peaks to a mezzo-forte, or possibly a forte at the most? I don't know if it's the recording, the piano or a combination of the two, but I really begin to lose sight of the expressive contrast in anything louder than a mezzo-forte. The softer parts showed glimpses into a very sensitive interpretation!

On your next recording, try a slower tempo (this is far too fast, IMO) and restrain the dynamics to ppp to mf.

This is not an easy piece and you manage the technical demands very nicely! Your technique is fine, you're not gettin' off the hook that easy!

Looking forward to hearing more...

[elvenpianist]

lol aaaahh I'm a speed demon!

<anakin voice> NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! </anakin voice>

*ahem*

Well it is a bit fast, I guess, though I "clock in" about the same as Kapell and Lipatti (the difference being they play the slow parts slower and the fast parts- faster). The main problem I think tempo wise for me is that I get excited and play faster than I can handle (like in the coda where I tripped up badly). This is one of my faster recordings though (I clearly was operating under the rule of "the faster you go, the less time you have to make mistakes").

Ah yes.. the infamous "elfzando". My ff's really are too loud for comfort on my piano (though they sounds amazingly wonderful on my teacher's steinway). I will keep that in mind the next time I record, thanks.

What I hate about this rec is that you can tell so horribly awfully blatantly that I'm more concerned about hitting the right notes than playing the right lines- that I *had* to make the rec (masterclass audition tape) and was really stressed out about it. There's hardly any of that graceful, mysterious pathos which I really am capable of achieving and is so necessary to my interpretation of the piece. I think you can still see that I have a decent grasp of the overall structure, that I can hear the different lines and am capable of playing the piece well enough, but you don't hear it anywhere near as perfectly as I want, and it upsets me. I work very hard on my music and not being able to record it as well as I can when I really need to is very very frustrating.

Thanks for the kind words on my technique!

-elf

[PJF]

I know it's frustrating, just don't push your piano past its capabilities. In the soft parts, I indeed heard some very good sounds. Perhaps, access to a grand can be obtained?

[jre58591]

the sad thing is that this piano IS a grand piano.

[Brewtality]

the sound quality is actually not so bad. I think you probably know better than us the strengths and weaknesses (sorry to give such a vague response but it's true). I didn't have any problems with the dynamics. Rhythmically I personally prefer a bit more of a lilt even though thats probably not 'authentic'.

I love Lipatti's recording of this too btw.

[elvenpianist]

Thanks for the comments, Brew.

The piano is a baby grand, 90 years old- getting a bit bottom heavy, with the heaviest action I've ever met, haha. It's a great practice piano though.