Last submissions for today - sorry for being such a spammer These are for my ongoing cycles:

Chopin - Mazurka in A minor, Op. posth. No.1
Chopin - Mazurka in A minor, Op. posth. No.2
Granados - 12 Spanish Dances - No. 4 - Villanesca

I'm not to keen on the 2nd Mazurka, too many slips and too little dynamics. May want to re-record some day.

I thought of the following Busoni Sonatina, which I had not played for years (and never very well) because it's nearly Christmas, the subtitle suggests it is a Christmas work, and I need to create a Busoni page for wmgan's Bach-Busoni Chaconne. It is not terribly polished and I needed to do some some light editing here and there. But it was on the whim and I wanted to get it in before Xmas . Hope you nevertheless enjoy Busoni's dark invention.

Busoni - Sonatina No.4 (In Diem Nativitatis Christi MCMXVII)

I detected no mistakes on either Mazurka. They both sound fine. Good job maintaining the long, long, long trill on the second one.

Spanish dance - Don't know it, but I liked it. I've been meaning to get into these Granados pieces some day.

Busoni - I definitely appreciate that you can play this so well. What a heck of a recording day you have had!
This piece is different, all right, as far a Christmas music goes. Probably not something I'll have on my stereo during Christmas dinner, though.

To the 1st a minor Mazurka: Sounds very well to me overall. I especially like your melody playing in the RH, distinct from the other chord notes of the RH.
Some dotted 16th could be sharper accented. Some of those dotted notes you accent so that the following main note has more weight and the dotted note is light. That I like much, however on some places you have weight on the dotted notes what makes them a bit tenacious. Why do you slow down in the beginning of the a minor reprise at bar 81? You do it in fully intent, I am sure, but I don't see the reason. It would be kind of deja vu, if the original tempo comes again if the A part starts again (maybe the B part could have another tempo instead). About interpretation one could endless debat, because it is so personal. So that is of course up to you, but finally we are here to share personal opinions! Some left hand notes were missing in the B part but nothing penturbing at all and no audible slips.

To the 2nd a minor Mazurka:
Confident played too. Also the melody in the left hand. Your rubato around bar 37 shows much feeling for the LH melody - great! I have not recognized too little dynamics here, and on this Mazurka you persuade me that it can't deny its dance origin and sound very well so. If you want to re-record (I don't see much reason for it), maybe you could try to play the upper note of the RH octave runs not only with pinky (it sounds to me as if you play without alternating fingers), instead pinky and 4th, maybe 3rd finger alternating in order to phrase a melody here.

Granados - Villanesca: I like it but have no detailed comments to offer.

Busoni - Sonatina: Yes, it sounds dark to me. What do you mean with some light editing here and there? CoolEdit on the page turns?
What a strange mood for an Xmas day piece as the title suggests? Busoni was wrong regarding the title - he meant Eastern instead with Christus suffering on the crux... This dark mood was captured very well however!

Listened to these recording while cleaning the silver so I just listened briefly (kids running around filled with christmas enthusiasm) but detected nothing strange. As always, you keep the melody lines very well and never hesitates over a sudden slip. You seem to always prioritize the musical experience for the listener rather than technical perfection and I think that it a good thing. Reminds me of Edwin Fischer.

Thanks for the reply Olaf, I value your suggestions as always.


Yes I have problems with these dotted notes. Some come out better than other due to my grand's inconsistent key weigth (always blame the instrument hahahaaaa...)


Dunno really.... it just feels to me like that is how it should/could be. No reason why a reprise should always be in the same tempos as the exposition.


I can't hear any missing notes but maybe some are barely audible. That middle part I am not very satisfied with, always found it difficult to bring off.


I was used to playing this much slower, but sped it up considerably after listening to Rubinstein's recording.


I do play with alternating fingers but not consistently, not following the fingerings to produce legato in the upper voice. I was all too happy to get it off without any major goof but it's far from polished.


This is more tricky than it sounds. These high bell notes are all played by the LH, which in the second half of each bar has to reach high over the RH. That requires attention to the hands and distracts from my sight reading Luckyly it is very repetitive and I know these bits by heart now.


Nope, I really goofed up in some places and hat to cut out the wrong bits. Also (uck...) I lowered the volume of two crucial chords I had played far too loud. Not something I do normally but time was my enemy


The title means 'On the day of the birth of Christ' so it's definitely about Xmas. But you never quite know with Busoni. There is always that dark undertone, brooding and glittering at the same time, and there's something fascinating about his deployment of deep bass octaves (which I appreciate more in his original works than in his Bach transcriptions). A weird and wonderful piece this is.