Debussy, Scarlatti

Got some spare time today when I was home with my sick daughter. Perfect time for do some re-recording .

The Debussy re-recording was a must with the previous containing too much mistakes and unorganized. I hope this is better. The previous Scarlatti sonata was too stressed and I tried to make much more of the music this time.

Debussy - Preludes from Book I, VIII. La fille aux cheveux de lin
Scarlatti - K.27, Sonata in B minor

 

Hm...it is perfectly audible, however not accented.

I play the top note (Eb) and the bottom note (Db) together first as a chord, then roll the remaining 3 middle notes. I should do according to my teacher.

Perhaps but I don't like to increase the tempo too much.

Bars 24 and 25 came off well. So did bars 28 - 34. Nice, singing melody lines.

Same again. It is there for sure but not accented.

Thanks! This as dreamy as I could ever do something without totally loose the rhythm and tempo. I count all the way and "tick" the tempo with left foot when not on the sostenuto pedal as if I don't, I have no idea when to start again with the many pauses and stops. But perhaps that is how it should be? Very loose connected.

My wife comment on it as it is just a sample of different notes, chords with nothing that ties it together. Like I just sit and improvise after too much wine .

The sound did not turn out very well this time. Closed lid with the Edirol on it beside the notes. Perhaps a bad idea as it records all donky sounds in the wood and some treble is probably lost because of it.

 

Thanks for your kind words.

I definitely know Michelangeli's recording inside out but have not the ability to copy it, though I have tried. He is extremely exact (well, as always) and plays it very fast, almost angrily forcing his way through it. I have always wondered about that last chords he plays and why he does it. Usually, he sticks extremely tight to the score but this last chord is his own invention. I guess he just wanted it there to release the tension.

 

From what I remember of the previous recording, these are better indeed, showing increased familiarity with, and command of, the music. My overall impression though is that the sound is rather muffled, not as bright as we are used to from you. Lid closed is never a good idea IMO. Have you not found the 'ideal' setup with the Edirol yet ?

I also hardly heard many of the top notes even though of course you do play them. Might have been better with the lid open, I am sure. Some parts of the Scarlatti sound a bit swimmy. Are you using pedal here ? Otherwise it's the reverb or the recording making it sound like that.

 

You play here better, with more control and relaxed. Very good work, congratulations.

>I definitely know Michelangeli's recording....

I find this version not more than curious. Nevrotic and without colours and soul, and with that
ridicoulous chord at the end (that particular italian decadentism, so interesting but also so
humoristic).
The Gilels' versions of his last years are IMHO much better.

S.

 

(about Debussy)Very pleasurable playing, congratulations.
Free and happy. Here I see the "sans rigoeur" indication more literally than you, but these are
subtile and subjective questions....
I too hear some "strange notes" here but I think more probable the mistakes are in my version
and in my ears and brain, so...silence


>
The sound did not turn out very well this time.

I think this is the better you can obtain with the poor mics of edirol. The problem is there, not
in the lid (if not in a very large hall, better closed or near-closed).
The problem is the noise ( s/n ratio is in that kind recorders is very low...), not terrible in
itself, but sufficient to squeeze the dynamics.


>Closed lid with the Edirol on it
When (I hope for you) you'll buy two good large capsule condenser mics, please DON'T put them directly on the lid.


All best,
Sandro

 

> Usually, he sticks extremely tight to the score

In the Brahms-Paganini (maybe his masterwork, in the first recording and in live versions)
he made many cuts and re-arrangement. Other years, it was normal for an interpreter
"to adjust" a piece to his tastes...

All best,
Sandro

 

Oh my, MA! I can't imagine any sort of critical censorship being of use, here. IMHO, of course! :lol:

Gee, it's been a long time since I've participated in the discourse, so here I go!

Robert, closed-lid definitely creates a strange effect with the Edirol; I've noticed this "swimmyness" with my own closed-lid recordings; . Open lid is certainly more sonorous and far more preferable, IMO (as is high-gain on a very low input).

I'm not sure about the Scarlatti; it is well intentioned a little short-winded. I kept wanting more in the way of large-scale dynamic structure. The fine phrasing is mostly there; there just needs to be more of a relationship between the smaller details and the piece as a whole.
You know what I mean?

 

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the Scarlatti ... in fact, I saved it to my Ipod to for nighttime snuggling.

The Debussy was nice as well. My only quibble is that I felt almost as if I could hear you counting in your head through the whole piece ... those interminable rests in this one are tough. Anyway, I thought the last restatement of the MT was stunning ... the upper register shimmered beautifully over the chords.

 

Thank you very much for your encouraging words Nathan!

 

Yes it is fascinating fast! I checked and it is 2:28 which of course cannot compare with my own recording on the site for which I had a totally different purpose. I played it really the fastest I could and clocked it at 2:55 and that goes with much trouble and wrong notes and it probably sounded tensed. The sensation with Michelangeli's recording is that it is executed, seemingly, with ease and without tense or stress. That is about irreproducible by any pianist...but for perhaps Cziffra or Hamelin.

 

>
Yes it is fascinating fast!

And the indication is "Allegro". If it is "Presto" which will be the tempo!?
But correctness of tempo indication, internal phrasing, modulation of dynamics here are an
optional. The only modulation is the FF on that incredible final chord, which is a masterwork
of bad taste.....


>That is about irreproducible by any pianist...but for perhaps Cziffra or Hamelin.

I think many "virtuosos" could be play so at the same or major velocity, without errors
or visible tense. In ABM (I'm a fan of him, be clear) the tension was concealed, and it's possible to
see the action of concealing (and the stress that this was for him, then his bad relation with public
playing).

All best,
Sandro