New Recordings - Grieg and Bach

I have recently started to learn and record Grieg's Lyric Pieces and included the C Major Prelude of Bach as well just to keep it at 12 submissions. Lol.

I will be completing all the Lyric Pieces over the next few months among other works.

Hope these are satisfactory. There might be some wrong notes here and there as I have been learning and recording one a day basically.

Chris, I hope the tags are perfect this time. I am, again, sorry about the previous ones. :mrgreen:

 

Oh dear,

It's sends life I've struck a nerve when I did not intend to. I apologize. It also seems like I haven't made a good impression on any of you good people here and it seems I've broken my promise on being active constructively. As I really want to make some good music friends here I'll start setting out time to contribute in words as well. I haven't noticed that I've been here for 3 months now.

I have actually listened to some of the works here though I did not comment as I sometimes find it difficult to say the right words. Nonetheless, its no excuse and I wont form part of the group that only posts for their own gain. After reading your commentary, I've fully made myself familiar with the policy and ideology of the form and wil abide by that.

Now excuse me while I go and practice scales as punishment for my bad behavior.

Seriously though, apologies again.

 

It's nice that you aim to submit regularly, but do have mercy on the poor admins ! Take your time over learning and recording tons of easy pieces, and not just chuck them out as fast as possible. It would be good to live with them a bit longer. And yes, it would be nice to participate in reviews and discussions - not that there are many lately.

I generally like your Lyric Pieces so far. Your playing is musical, the pedaling judicious and your dynamics and articulation are great. However you DO rather play on safe with your very slow tempi of the Waltz and Elfin Dance. Also I hear way too many read errors (and the odd fumble) to be condoned in such easy and well-known pieces. Despite all the good things, this gives an impression of sloppiness. You being a piano teacher, recordings of repertoire like this should set an example and at least be free of read errors. I'll have to ask you listen back to your recordings and question every note, and to listen to other recordings of these pieces (not mine preferably, they are old and will have plenty of issues, I'll need to redo them at some stage) and see if you can spot the anomalies. I don't feel like pointing them all out, well maybe in one piece if you wish.

The more easy and/or well-known the repertoire, the more fastidious we get. I hope this makes some sense.

As for the Well-Tempered Clavier, we only accept Prelude-Fugue pairs these days. So you need to put in a bit more work here and not just pick out the easy pieces.

The tags are correct now. If only you can remember for next next time to add http://pianosociety.com in the "Album" tag then they will be 100% correct.

 

Please point out problems when you have time. I would like to learn.

Yes I agree - I'll be more patient in the future with submissions and mind my reading errors in future.

I'm aware of the slower tempi I've used in Waltz and Elfin Dance. I just didn't want the development of sound color go to waste in these pieces. I tried a faster tempo but it sounded too rush for my taste.

I'll definitely record the fugue as well then - I'll submit it much later.

 

Ok... I'll do this just this once, as it is very time consuming.

12.1 Bar 18 - Bb in RH should be Ab
12.2 Coda - LH chords tie over 2 bars
12.3 Bar 50 m.4 is not a rest
12.4 Bar 26 last two notes wrong
Bars 28-30 top LH note is F# not G
Same issues at bars 46 and 48-50
Bar 66 2nd RH note is F not F#
Bar 67 LH chord is wrong
12.5 Bar 3 LH chords are wrong (same in all similar places)
Bar 7 Dotted rhythm missing (same in similar places)
12.6 Bar 11 2nd LH octave wrong (in bar 15 you do it ok)
Bar 12-13 and 17-18 Top notes tie over
Bar 41 pp not observed
Bar 43 and 47 F# in RH should be F
Bar 44-45 and 48-49 Top notes tie over
12.7 This one is ok
12.8 Bar 3 5th chord is wrong
Bar 14 Eb in LH should be G (do this ok in two similar places)
38.1 Bars 9, 10, 11 and similar places : apoggiatura E should be played only once
Bar 11 2nd RH chord is GD not GE (same in bar 81)
Bar 13 Bb should be B (and same in similar places onwards)
Bar 15 1st RH chord is wrong
Bar 33 and 34 2nd LH chord missing
Bar 53 F# should be F
Bar 69 A should be G
38.2 Bar 28-29 G should be B (4 times) - rit. not observed
38.3 Bar 31 1st LH note (C) not played - same in Bar 47

All in all, nice playing but sloppy reading !

If you think this is nitpicking, wait until you submit some Bach :roll: At least it used to be like that, these days most of the notorious nitpickers are no longer on the forum, and I will no longer take the
time to write out misreadings in a fugue.

You generally observe dynamics, but they could be more pronounced, and you hardly ever ever
observe an accent or sforzando. Dotted rhythms are often too lazy (i.e. the last note too long). Grieg loves springy rhythms and spiky accents, and you should give them their due.

Lastly there is very little rubato and phrasing here, to the point that it sounds a little metronomical.
You don't want excessive rubato here (or anywhere else really) but some ebb and flow is needed to prevent things from getting boring.

I hope this helps in developing self criticism (sorry if that sounds pedantic).

 

Awesome Chris.

Thank you.

This is what I want and I don't see it as nitpicking! Raw critique is crucial for self development.

Thanks for the time.

 

I've listened to the Op. 12 set of Lyric Pieces. You stated that you basically learned one a day. The thing is that in so many cases, you learned the notes and the basic dynamics each day, but you did not learn the music. You missed tempo markings and titles that would have given you a better idea of how to play these pieces. You play with a good, even tone quality, but melody lines don't seem to go anywhere. Also, as Chris indicated, while these pieces do not need heavy, romantic, rubato, they deserve some "rhythmic flexibility" in phrasing.

I took notes on "Notepad" as I listened, so I will just cut and paste them here. I'm sorry if they may seem a little harsh at times, but you sound as if you have the ability to do so much better.

["Notepad" notes:

Grieg - Lyric Pieces, Op. 21 -- Pianosa

No. 1 - Nice, you have good tone quality.

No. 2 - It is a Waltz, a dance. Even without the tempo marking "Allegro moderato", one needs to realize that the tempo must dance.

Even before I looked at the score, I heard you do all of the markings, but there was no life in it.

No. 3 - Again, nice. While I know that the meaning of staccato with a slur is debated, what I hear sounds too detached to me. It seems too fussy. You are too careful there, but miss the emotion.

No. 4 - Your tempo is inexcusable. The music states "Molto Allegro" -- this is barely an Andante Minuet. The title is some variation of "Elfen Dance" or "Fairy Dance" (and please don't say that you don't read Norse. One must know what every word on a page of music means before one can interpret it.) Except for may Tolkien's Elves, I don't know of any Norse / Germanic Elf that is stately enough to do a sarabande.

No. 5 - It's pretty.

No. 6 - "Presto marcato" - You play the notes and the markings, but there is no life. Norwegians are not that dower.

No. 7 - The sounds are pretty, but this is no Allegretto.

No. 8 - Now that felt right. Interestingly the piano and acoustics sounded so different. This piano and the sound was very harsh.