Scarlatti L104

Spring is coming to my part of the world! I know this should go a bit faster, and with cleaner trills, but what the heck, spring is here!

(A special thanks to Chris for pointing me to Scarlatti, and to my daughter who bought me the urtext for Christmas!)

Joachim

Scarlatti - Sonata in C Major, K159

 

Joachim,

Overall I quite enjoyed this and thought your rhythm generally seemed crisp and consistent. For me, your tempo, according to your conception, was perfectly fast enough, or at least it convinced me (I think tempo can partly be an illusion, a tempo that's held sounding faster than a faster tempo that's vacillating). So anyway, I think you captured the relentless, razor-sharp edge of Scarlatti's music well.

I did note a few points that could be evened out -- for example the fast, climactic scale passage was uneven/missing some notes. Also, you seemed to drop a couple of the notes in the downward broken triad at the end of the exposition and its repeat. As you suggested, some of your trills maybe weren't optimally clear, although many actually seemed quite good to me as well. Certainly no big deal at all about these. They are just suggestions that could IMO improve the polish.

But again, the rhythm and musical direction in your playing are very nice to hear. Thanks for posting this.

Joe

 

A good recording of this well-known Sonata. Like Joe I noticed a couple of tiny issues that could be improved but nothing really important. I could
imagine a little more playfulness, it's just a little relentless. The only thing that really bothered me is the ugly break (cut?) between the first and second parts. If you can hear that yourself, maybe you could fix that, if you still have the original waves ?

 

Thanks all! I'll fix the tags and bitrate and see what I can do about the splice (there are two but only one is ugly) in a few days. Yes there are a few details that could be evened out but I'm not sure I'll re-record it - no matter how much work I put into this there will always be details. I guess I rely on you guys to tell if it is good enough. It's true I opt for relentlessness rather than playfulness. This sonata can go either way but to me it is rock-n-roll!

I'd also appreciate your opinion on the sound since I'm now recording in a new way. I find it a bit thin in the bass, but that may not matter very much in this particular piece - what do you think?

 

Here is my resubmission:
The ugly cut between A and B is no longer there.
I changed bitrate, filename and tags as requested.

I'd still appreciate comments on the sound - it will affect how I do recordings. The mic is about 1m from the back end of the piano - perhaps that is too close?

Joachim

 

Hello Joachim,

Nice pacing. Why not do a bit more with the dynamics, i.e. shading some of the repeated phrases.
I would also suggest a bit more staccato off the keys and if I am hearing it as pedaling, a bit less pedaling.
I think the piece is coming along nicely.

Kaila

 

Very competent playing! Enjoyed the music a lot and also, I tweeted to advertise the recording.

 

Thanks!

Agreed I could do more with dynamics, in fact I tried to but it came out more in my head than on the recording, I was carried away and lost some control. I use no pedal at all except at the downward cascade in LH at the end of the sections.

About reverb, I am a complete newbie in audio processing and use audacity - is there some simple way to do it there?

Joachim

 

Thanks Monica, any help would be appreciated. I tried to look for reverb in audacity but found nothing. I tried google and found a million hits and don't know where to begin If you have pointers that would be great.

Also, is there any way to change the title of the post? I guess it should be K159 rather than L104.

Joachim

 

it depends, Monica: the newer Audacity comes already with the GVerb. At least I have it on my home computer, where I have the Beta version of Audacity (the other one will not work with Windows 7.

 

Thanks, I'll look into this. I'm on a mac though, it may not be the same version of audacity.

My problem is that playing the piano is so much more fun than editing - but I'll get there eventually.

 

By the way, a fine performance of one of my favourite Scarlatti sonatas (I only managed to listen to it today).

I am still to understand how to add reverbation, Monica. Every time I try it seems the piano is inside a cavern. I really need to study the programme, though I am not too keen to have to rely too much on editing. The other day I tried the equaliser... I decided it is better to practise the piece a little more instead! Not that my principles would have allowed me to post it in the first place.

 

I have used equalisation at times to correct a too boomy a bass on some orchestral music (Ivanovic and Bortkiewicz) I got from the Internet and there it worked so-so.