Here's a little something different. I put this on my Facebook page earlier this evening, and figured I'd submit it here too for review.
I have always loved Granados' Spanish Dance No. 2 the "Oriental". Just recently, I got my flute totally refurbished by a musical instrument technician, and now I'm trying to play it again (not easy...it's been a long time!). So on this recording, I am playing with myself - I took off some of the RH lines in the piano part, recorded the piano, recorded the flute, and then synced it together. I have not uploaded the file onto the main site yet; I'll wait to see if anyone thinks it's worthy of our site.

Granados - Spanish Dance No. 2 "Oriental"(piano and flute)

Hi Monica,

I had a listen to your flute and piano arrangement of the Spanish Dance No. 2. Very cool, one-person duet! First of all, I didn't know that you played the flute. Now you will have to start flutesociety.com I think your trills sound crisp and the phrasing between the two performances was good. I think the places where you breath make sense, creating a characterful feel to the piece. One criticism is in the mix (levels) between the instruments. To my ears the Piano is at the same level as the flute and should be a little less. In my Piano performance class one meeting we had a collaborative seminar where a pianist played with a singer, and the main critique my teacher had with the performance was the singer was not loud enough, the pianist was playing too loud. But I really enjoyed hearing the unique timbre of the flute to characterize the melody of this piece, it has a way of "singing" that a Piano, however good, cannot achieve. Also you get bonus points because this piece is subtitled, "Oriental" and I can enjoy it all the more because it (presumably?) describes the place I am now living in, the Far East!

What a nice idea! Yes, imo this should definitely go on the site. The only place where I questioned the balance was in the piano ostinato sections (e.g. the start) where I'm inclined to agree with Riley; other than that I think it works very well, and the piano interjection just before 3.00 I liked.

Great idea, surprised how much the combination goes in this particular piece. Was really soothing and enjoyable to listen to. Definitely put this up.

Hello Monica,
This is a beautiful version, and the flute fits very well with the nostalgic ambiance of this piece. Congratulations for the idea, and for the rendition ! I am a great flute lover, but I only use to play the Irish flute (a wooden, 6-hole one), which is easier than the classical one, but only for folk music...

Your flute playing sounds amazingly good for having been a long time dormant. I think it will get even better as you get back into it; for now you are still sounding a little bit restrained, and you could do with playing out more. This is not just a question of balance (which has already been mentioned) but also of attitude. The flautist needs to sing out more soloistically and assertively, while the pianist needs to take a more subordinate role and accept that she is only accompanying.
So that's where all that heavy breathing is coming from! It might be nice if it didn't show up on the recording quite as much as it does. Not sure how easy it is to avoid, perhaps more distance between flute and microphone and crank up the sensitivity?

One big advantage of doing something like this is that there is a high degree of rapport between the "two" players, as each "instinctively" knows what the other is about to do next. I think this recording shows the benefit of this. You play well together.

Thank you for listening, Riley, Andrew, Jonathan, Francois, and Rainer.

This is probably going to sound very odd, but I don't like listening to flute music very much. But I like to play with myself a lot and my guitar playing is not good enough (yet) to play something together with myself. Really, though, it's flute music that is played on very high notes that I don't care for. Middle notes and lower notes on flute are fine. I arranged this piece a little bit in order to avoid going into the very high register notes. But then I also intentionally lowered the overall volume of just the flute part, because I wanted this to sound more like as duet, rather than a piano accompanying a flute. I wanted the flute to be heard but too prominently. Hope that makes sense...?

The breathing....I'm the one who is always commenting that I don't like when people breathe when they're recording. Yet, obviously I couldn't help it here. I didn't think it would sound so loud on the recording...grrr. A couple times I got dizzy and almost passed out too. Oh well, it was a fun little project. And because you think it's okay for our site, I will put it up soon. Thank you again, everybody!

Time for me to undust the contralto recorder and try a Telemann sonata with the piano!

Cute. I'm no great lover of the flute as a solo instrument but this is well done and sounds relatively good, given you have not played for so long. Would it not be better to pick some original repertoire for the combination ?

Funny, I was thinking along the same lines yesterday. I have a couple recorders sitting around at home. I thought maybe something like by Couperin. Or else some sea shanty like "what shall we do with a drunken sailor"....haha

Thank you. I just love this piece and it worked out well for trying out this little project. What do you mean by original repertoire? I'm not a composer, so I have to use other people's music.

I mean pieces that were composed for flute and piano.

Oh. That's a good idea. But when I was in high school and playing in flute competitions, not only was the flute music advanced, but the piano part was equally hard. I had to use the best accompanist in town. It would be too much work for me to do both parts. But maybe I can find something easier....hmmm...I'll look. At first I was going to use one of Satie's Gnossiennes.

Yeah, that will be more work for sure. But just taking an (easy) piano piece and playing one of the voices on flute, hmmm.... You
do it just because you can, which I understand, but I'm not sure it is the way to go. There seems little musical value in it and the result never improves on the original. You hear it a lot with violin also, I hate that kind of arrangements. Of course I'm a bit of a puritan in this respect

I would never dream of improving Granados' music. And to say there is no musical value here is pretty harsh. I love doing this sort of thing! But ok, I guess I will not share any future 'playing with myself' projects again.

Ooh, the H-word
I should really have written "added musical value'. At least that was what I meant to convey, FWIW.