Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie Op 61

Hello Vladimir,
I did not listen your recording yet. The only think I wanted to tell you is that, with the limited availability of the few administrators, we try to minimize their work load. So we are asking members to stick to some rules regarding format, title and taggs of their files. These rules are accessible here. Therefore if you like to see your recordings uploaded to the site and enriching the data base, please shape your files accordingly. If you don't want to have your files uploaded, rather use the "Work in progress" forum.

Best regards, and "Vive la musique !"

 

Hi Vladimir, sorry I missed this re-posting. This is an improvement sound-wise, though I still think it sounds peculiar in places: there is a certain boominess to the bass and in the high treble I suspect the piano has detuned slightly (which of course can happen, and it sounds like it may be quite an old piano, from the prevailing impression I get of the timbre). Around the 2.50 mark, and also around 4.00 and some other places the sound does not appear especially natural to me. I listened both through decent speakers and through Sennheiser headphones. The recording sounds as if it has been treated in some way but not as heavily treated as the previous recording. Through headphones I also heard someone whistling at 5.40 (and in the original also)! I think the phantom whistler strikes at 9.50 and towards the very end. The mic position moves at about 10.25. Sorry for being awkward: I've spent the last few weeks doing studio editing and I am quite acutely conscious of such things at the moment!

To the playing, and as before I very much approve of your approach. Kaila's comments are thorough and it is hard to add much to them. I am just very curious as to how this recording was made, from a engineering standpoint.

Francois, I wouldn't mind your opinion on the sound if you are around.

 

It is possible that, if there was significant noise around in the original recording, the hiss removal might cause peculiar sonic artefacts to arise. To me it appears that the sound here has altered noticeably from what it should be originally. In contrast, having listened to part of your Waldstein first movement, the Beethoven is a natural-sounding recording.

 

Hello Vladimir,
Musically it is a very nice recording (I have listened it now !). It was particularly interesting to listen Kaila's and your rendition, which display some differences. But they both deserve to be retained on the site, I think. So when you have time to cope with title and tag, I'll upload your version.
Regarding the sound, it looks very much like my first recordings, when I was a teenager (more than 40 years ago !). At this time I played a small Yamaha upright, and I had a built-in microphone small Phillips cassete recorder that I put on the top of the opened piano. There were some resonant frequencies and some parts of the tessiture which sounded somewhat muffled... Also some hiss and wow... Therefore I guess that the mic placement is probably something which could be improved, perhaps the room acoustics (more difficult to change !). External mics are generally better (depending on their quality, of course...). But finally, the sound is decent and does not overcome (at least for me) the pleasure of listening, given the quality of the rendition.