Your conscientious feedback is appreciated Rainer, let there be no doubt about that. Just..... don't overdo it.

I laughed outloud! <Sometimes emoticons just doesn't do it.>

But I always believed those who can listen to the music so accurately can also be a good player! So Rainer, be afraid only a little bit and please give us the chance to listen to your playing

BTW are there just two - Rainer and I - who think the low E flat of Monica's grand out of tune?

Monica has said she doesn't think her Eb sounds out of tune, and I therefore believe that it almost certainly isn't.

In fact, if I listen to the recording while mentally trying to block out the RH chords and the LH off-beat E flats, focusing only on the LH low notes, the intervals of fourths and fifths in the sequence of alternating A flats and E flats sounds perfectly OK, including the low Eb. But if instead I focus more on the RH and the chord harmony, there is a slight sense of the low Eb not quite fitting with the remainder of chord in which it appears, even though there is no obvious reason to suspect the intonation of the higher chord notes.

So we have a mystery. The low Eb is both in tune and out of tune at the same time! The solution? Well, I think it could be related to the fact that piano tuners generally apply stretch to compensate for inharmonicity. This means octaves are tuned slightly wide of pure, to make them sound more in tune. But this can cause problems (as it evidently has here) with very big intervals of more than 2 octaves. The chord which is causing the problem here has a 3 octave separation between the low Eb and the Eb in the RH chord. One would expect, at that sort of distance, the intonation discrepancy from cumulative stretch to become noticeable.

Does this make sense?

Yes, I think it does make sense!
But to my ears that have heard this etude so many times, that note in this piece sounded never so strange before. Well, the tuners in my experiences with this piece must have all taken that low Eb into considerations, not to creat any dissonace in a wide interval , I guess

Just listened to the piece for the first time, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Your playing is very warm and you bring out the counter melodies very well (if I didn't imagine them!). You might as well record the first one as well to make the set.

Thank you, Jonathan! Yes, I plan on learning the first one too one of these days....

Very nice, Monica. The only thing I felt was missing was a sense of fantasy: it sounds correct, but a bit literal (compare Rubinstein, for example). A matter of taste perhaps; I'd play with more rubato and probably get roundly excoriated for it Re the bottom Eb, I think it was a bit "growly" but not actually out of tune: I listened to the opening one four or five times.

Thank you, Andrew! I don't think that bottom E-flat is such a big deal, either. I do LOVE growly low notes!

Hi Monica,

Happy belated birthday. Your interpetation of this Chopin etude has a waltz like flair to it, very nice.

Kaila

Hi Kaila, and thank you! These trips around the sun seem to be going faster and faster....

Monica, you were born on February 1st? That's a coincidence! I was also born on this day, actually I was born on January 31st late at night but got registered on February 1st. The sad thing, at least for me, is my birth year which being so long ago constantly reminds me that I can't be considered young anymore.

Anyway, you found a really cool way to celebrate your birthday. I loved the etude. Totally agree with your straight playing on this.

Hi and thank you, Pantelis. Always nice to see you!
That's cool we have the same birthday! (I'm probably older than you think, but let's not think about that.... ). I learned recently that the actor Clark Gable also has this same birthday. Do you know of him? His most famous role was in the movie "Gone With the Wind".

p.s. Would be nice if you'd make some new recordings for us. Are you still playing much piano?

Well I have figured an empirical way to determine whether you have become old. Are the photographs from your christening in black and white? Unfortunately mine are. And I would bet yours are in colour (never mind, don't reply to this ).
It's always nice to see that you keep playing and recording. By the way, your Schumann on another post was fabulous. Of course I still play but I've been busy with jazz repertoire until fairly recently. I hope soon I'll get some time to record for PS. Anyway, I enjoy listening to your pieces and I keep visiting PS to hear others play even if I don't submit my music or comments.

I wish I was born on February 29th. So then I would be 4 times younger.