A nice quiet rainy morning, everybody away or inside, ideal to do some recording.
The Danse Bohemienne of 1880 is Debussy' earliest piano work, I think, and we did not have this on the site yet.


Debussy - Danse Bohemienne (2:17)
Debussy - Valse Romantique (3:35)
Debussy - La plus que lente (4:32)

I have never heard these pieces before. They are nice and you play them all very well. I like the third one a lot, followed by the first one, and wow that Valse really gets dramatic! Really, I can't find much to nitpick. Except...what is it with those page turns?? You give David grief about that all time and now here you're doing it too.
Also, why did you use 128 kbps?

Thanks. I think there's two page turns that can be heard (I thought they would be inaudible but alas not). On the positive side, they are not really obnoxious.


Good you saw that. My audio program has an annoying habit of resetting the bitrate when I switch directories. I've remastered them with 192kbps.

Not totally correct. That one page turn (I'm not at home right now so I can't tell you which one),¥ I think the one I like best...you actually pause at that page turn, which does indeed make it obnoxious. You are getting lazy in your old age.

Yea that first page turn in La plus que lente is obnoxious indeed. I could not cut out the page turn but I could at least cut out the hestitation. Now it's just annoying instead of obnoxious

Ha-ha! Page turns. I've actually gotten better with those this year having bought a home desktop copier in order to spread the copies over the music desk. So I can eliminate the page turns for anything up to four pages. Beyond that, all bets are off though. But I do think I've at least improved of late. I had one in my last Rachmaninoff piece that I courageously edited, but some laughed at the edit, so I don't know which was worse.

It's going on to 1:00 a.m., but I'll be back tomorrow to listen to these pieces. I've also recorded "La plus que lent" (or Slower than Slow) so am eager to hear this recording.

David

Hi Chris,

These pieces are all played very well I believe. I have a couple of volumes of Debussy's miscellaneous pieces, but neither included the Bohemian Waltz, so this is the first time I had ever heard it. For a waltz, it's quite energetic! I hadn't heard the Valse Romantique for quite awhile, so it was a pleasure hearing you play it.

My favorite of the three is La plus que lent. This is a mature work dated 1910, while the Valse Romantique was an early work from 1890. Between the two, I believe La plus que lent is the more sensuous waltz. I think you play it very well. I've played/recorded it myself, so appreciate the difficulty of those RH passages in slurred thirds. Not an easy task to get those just right! I'm looking at the United Music Publishers edition here. Just a few thoughts: On the third page actually marked page 4, starting at the very top, the section is played with abandon, which I think you do just fine. By the fourth measure the dynamic is up to ff with subsequent crescendos. In the second line, fourth measure in, after the third beat I like to make an abrupt break followed by a subito P in the next measure. This is an ultra-romantic waltz, so here again, another touch of drama. In the passage at the bottom of that page marked en serrant followed by retenu on the next page, I think you could make even more of the contrast of "pressing on" then "holding back" for greater dramatic effect there. In the top line of page 5 there is that fermata over the 8th rest. I think you could be more generous with that one, as the character of the notation changes somewhat in the following measure. It lets the piece breathe a little there. Again, well played. You've probably also head the version for violin and piano--every bit as enjoyable.

David

Thanks David ! Yes La plus que lente is quite a masterpiece, and rather tricky in places. In particular I still fumble with these ascending 4-note LH chords in the middle, I find those really very difficult. Maybe I should have another go, also to avoid the page turns. A bit more freedom could also do no harm.

Nope, I haven't heard the version with violin. I seldom find pleasure in alternative versions of piano music. Let violinists stick to violin repertoire

Chris,
I finally got around to hearing these, and I really enjoyed them all. Thanks for the submissions.

Eddy

Hi Chris,

I'd agree on your last point. "La plus que lente" was originally a piano composition. Jascha Heifetz later wrote the violin/piano arrangement intended as an encore. So pianists definitely have first rights to the piece!

David

Chris,

Those were truly enjoyable. I was not familiar with the first two. The first one, if I had not been told that it was Debussy, I would have guessed anyone but him as the composer. I actually have someone in mind but I can't figure out for sure whom. Besides the Bohemian dance feel, I heard a direct quote from "Götterdamerung" -- the 16th note transition is the "Vallhala is Burnt" music.

As always they are all well played. I won't comment on the page turn that I heard.

Thanx for the discovery.

Scott

Thanks Eddy and Scott ! I'm glad these could be enjoyed. I will probably re-record La plus que lente without the page turn

Hi Chris,

Hmmm... does this mean that full takes rather than editing is rubbing off on you?

David

Oh yeah, I'd love to do full takes and not having to edit. But I'm not good enough, I keep making mistakes

Just out of curiosity, when in your opinion, does editing cease to be the valid?