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Hi friends, I'm posting my video of the first three pieces from my piano exam (it took me 6 hours to upload it! I hope you can watch it =P) beyond the obvious mistakes due to lack of experience (or technique?) and emotion, I would like to have some of your opinions. The first two pieces are by Bach, taken from the twenty-three easy pieces, then following that I perform Paradisi's Toccata in A major.
greetings!
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Despite the mobile phone audio format and the filming from behind, it seems to me that I can "hear" a good hand. I notice it from the sound, which is a correct sound when the key is struck with full awareness (thus disregarding errors). The recordings—I will never stop saying this—are an excellent way to combat performance anxiety and a valid method for self-reflection. Pure technique aside, it seems to me that, more importantly, it is the control of homogeneity that you lack. You should work more on the uniformity of the notes at an agogic level and on the uniformity of the touch, which is sometimes not very elegant. In particular, Paradisi's Toccata in A Major was a bit of a risky piece, considering that it is taught in the fifth year along with the English Suites and not alongside the 23 easy pieces. It is precisely on Paradisi that the flaws became most apparent. Let us remember that all three pieces you presented must have a harpsichord-like touch, which I feel you possess in the simplest parts but which then fails you due to a mix of issues: technical ones first, followed by control and stage fright, which take precedence over your musical ideas. It seems to me that you do not lack musical ideas, but in the technically most difficult passages, you rush too much, pushing the tempo forward when, on the contrary, you should control and work more on all the notes on the tips of your fingers. All in all, it seems to me that it was a great experience for you, so keep working on the technique and impose your ideas! Congratulations!
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Thanks Simon! I needed a comment from connoisseurs to help me understand what to improve. In particular, I wanted to ask you regarding the issue of finger homogeneity and agogic uniformity, what types of technical exercises might be useful??? In fact, your comment was very helpful because I compared my performance with those pre-recorded in the book of Bach's 23 easy pieces, noticing exactly this clear difference in (I don't know if it's correct to say) baroque touch that I lack =) anyway regarding the toccata, performance anxiety took over much more; other times it came out decidedly better. Shortly I will post two more videos on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 4... thanks again truly!
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You said "Baroque Touch" perfectly.
Very good for the other two videos (Beethoven and Chopin), at least we hear how you feel the pre-romantic and romantic periods.
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anyway, the more I watch this video, the more I wonder what people are even doing there if they have to chatter throughout the entire recital... one should offer a bit of Bronkenolo cough syrup and some polite requests for silence =P
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Pianist wrote:did it go well?
Schubert is all too loud and the timbre is very harsh.
Both Schubert and Chopin are too messy and lacking control.
Excuse my frankness.
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Carlos wrote:Schubert is all too loud and the timbre is very harsh.
Both Schubert and Chopin are too muddy and lacking in control.
Excuse my frankness.
Perhaps you were even too frank. There are ways and ways of saying things. He seems like a very young boy, both pianistically speaking and chronologically, and it is easy to misunderstand things, get discouraged, and perhaps even give up everything because of a comment like that (I have seen cases). I believe it is more correct to say what to work on and how to improve rather than saying what is wrong; I consider that the attitude of a "sterile critic"; it is a small nuance that makes a difference. Besides, we are in an exam, not a competition. End-of-year exams are known for what they are: you work for a couple of weeks on something to present and you play in front of an audience that most of the time is not expert; the preparation required is not like that of a piano competition. Moreover, he seems well-motivated to me, and if there is passion, that is all that matters... Excuse my own frankness as well.
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TheSimon wrote:Perhaps you were also too frank. There are ways and ways of saying things. [...]
Forgive my own frankness as well.
Yes, you are right. But I have seen too many kids—whose teachers do not tell them the truth—continue convinced they are doing things the best they can. I know very well that I said things in a drastic way (of course), but he seems like a boy in his 5th/6th year, and if he doesn't realize that there are certain (many) things to fix, it is because no one has told him (or hasn't told him in the right way). If he reads the message, I hope he wants to hear the reasons why I wrote those three lines in that manner. I am very willing to explain them to him.
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Well done Daniele. I wanted to say a few things specifically about Chopin. The prelude, which is relatively easy, tests the young pianist's understanding of Chopin's "rubato". You rendered it quite well in your own way, but sudden "lapses" can be felt. What does that mean?
I am referring to the concept that within the freedom of rubato, or simply within the freedom of tempo, it is appropriate to take into account a slight slowing down or speeding up of the base rhythm (the beat or subdivision) and not simply "of the notes". By operating in the first case, sudden "lapses" will not be felt because the listener will be "guided" by the slight "perturbations" of the tempo in a "controlled" manner.
A good metaphor is to think of braking a car by shifting gears instead of slamming on the brakes. A driver who uses the brakes excessively will not make their passengers feel safe. Whereas, by changing the engine's "gears," they will enter different speed conditions with gradualness and security... almost without making one notice the large or small variations. Anyway, well done. Try to reflect on and put this concept into practice and tell me what you think. When you slow down, try to think of a slowing down of the base tempo, and then try to slow down at will by thinking of slowing down the individual notes you are playing. Appreciate the difference. Bye
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Carlos wrote:Yes, you are right. But I have seen too many kids - whose teachers do not tell them the truth - continue convinced they are doing things the best they can. I know very well that I said things in a drastic way (of course), but he seems to me like a boy in his 5th/6th year, and if he doesn't realize that there are certain (many) things to fix, it is because nobody told him (or didn't tell him in the right way). If he reads the message, I hope he wants to hear the reasons why I wrote those three lines in that manner. I am very willing to explain them to him.
Here, this on the contrary, seems like an excellent intervention
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How useful metaphors are! =) they make you understand things that otherwise, theoretically, you wouldn't get to immediately.. Thanks Paolo!
so if I haven't understood correctly, when I have to perform a "rubato" it is as if mentally I have to prepare the tempo for that rubato, I have to "visualize" it and prepare in the same way as when driving I prepare to brake (maybe because I am at a traffic light) by downshifting gears and not arriving with the same momentum and then braking suddenly... I must keep in mind this possible distinction between a slowing down of the tempo and a slowing down of individual notes. Am I right? If it hasn't already been done in the video lessons (which I am following bit by bit), it would be wonderful to have a practical demonstration of what was explained...
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All right. Here one could cite the famous metaphor of Paderewsky (perhaps not Liszt, as Baremboim says in a video....I really believe it was Paderewsky....but that doesn't matter much in the end).
A student asked him what "rubato" was. Then the Maestro (...whoever he was.....) invited the young man to go outside and observe the tops of the trees. Look, -he told him- how the wind makes the top of the tree sway... which always returns to its position anyway. Adding - but the trunk, however, is quite steady.
With this romantic metaphor, he meant that the basic rhythm must not be altered; that is, when listening, we must not perceive an alteration of the base tempo. Rubato.... "holds back and recovers," if we want to invent a definition. Naturally, one shouldn't overthink it. With time and practice, one will learn this "diction" which will become natural, a natural way of expression. Listening to the Greats helps us. Rubinstein was a Master at this. He knew well how to choose when to mark the Chopinesque rubato and when to be in absolute rigor. The two fundamental characteristics of Chopin's music are indeed (as Cortot says in his book "Some Aspects of Chopin") "rubato" and the "classical vein." Tempo in Chopin is much more rigorous than in Mozart (even if this statement of mine might cause a scandal!). It is an urban legend (that's how people say it... right?) that attributes temporal rigor to the Classics and "tempo rubato/a piacere" to the Romantics. These little tales are on the lips of many Masters who suggest to their students to play Mozart inexpressively and without pedal... to save themselves from the risk of making it "romantic," and to play Chopin with useless, bad-taste decelerations at the end of phrases.
Therefore, I suggest practicing "rubato" without "letting go." Always be vigilant regarding the base tempo and.... good taste.
As usual... it is I who have let myself go... and talked too much!
P.S. Naturally, I am available to provide examples and perhaps I will talk about it in a Tutorial. Thank you for suggesting this topic to me.
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Crystal clear... indeed, the risk of playing romantic pieces is exactly this for me too: sitting there and thinking that you can afford more, that you can put more of yourself into it... I will try to implement what you said, thank you again!
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Stellina wrote:There are 2 interesting texts on the subject of "Stage fright"
“Il corpo” by Umberto Galimberti, Feltrinelli 1983.
“Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind”, Brian Frederiksen., 1996 John Taylor editor, U.S.A."
... does anyone have them in PDF?
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Kappa wrote:
I quickly read the article and, as the conductor Herbert von Karajan said, those who have achieved all their goals had probably set them too low. Perfectionism can also be a driving force... I have never known musicians who were truly satisfied with their -albeit excellent- results.
