Well! It is with great pleasure that I inform you that Simone Renzi, our friend and Administrator of this Forum as well as founder of Pianoconcerto, will sit for his piano Diploma exam at the State Conservatory of Music of Rodi Garganico next Wednesday the 5th.
The program is very interesting: Bach, Partita No. 1 in B-flat major - Beethoven, Sonata Op. 110 - Saint-Saëns étude - Chopin, a Mazurka Op. 7, a posthumous Nocturne, and the famous Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52 - Bartók, Allegro Barbaro.
Simone has prepared very well and with great effort... and this program in only three months!!!!!
I listened to him yesterday and was very impressed by his performances. His pianism is modern and his personal style is elegant. He will surely have a good exam. The preparation work has been very hard for him, but his talent helped him.
A Bach with a brilliant touch and not lacking in surprises in the dialogue between the two hands. A measured but expressive Beethoven. A noble and eloquent Chopin, a courageous and aggressive Bartók.
We wish him a great "good luck"!!!!!!
P.S. Naturally I will be present in the hall...... for a ..Reportage!!!!!! 😆
Our Simone has returned victorious from his diploma exam.
Our friend played truly well and deserved the best grade of the session.
Congratulations. Having listened to him, I witnessed a mature and interesting performance. His performance technique is natural and measured. His musicality is full. Clarity in pedaling and phrasing. In short, an excellent exam.
Congratulations to Simone, the sacrifices and hard work have finally paid off as they should. I wish him a career full of satisfaction ... he deserves it!
Finally Maestro, what a strange word after years of sacrifice! Ehehe
Unfortunately I couldn't make a crazy video like the one I posted for the eighth year; however, for those who might be interested, I will post some recordings I made a few days before my diploma in audio format and parts of the exam video. The only recording I am missing is that of Bartok's Allegro; for that, I will send you a fragment of the exam video which, for obvious reasons, I cannot post in its entirety: first, there are people who perhaps do not want to be filmed, so for this reason I have significantly lowered the video quality so that faces are not easily recognizable; second, it lasts an hour and a half!
The piano had an extremely hard keyboard, despite being a Steinway Grand Coda Mod. D. According to Paolo, part of the hardness derives from some modifications that Steinway has made to the transmission mechanism; on the other hand, I felt a sort of sluggishness in the action since the piano is played very little, perhaps because it is believed that the less a piano is played, the better it is maintained (completely wrong). Perhaps both things contribute to this weight which is decidedly out of place for a 120,000 euro piano! In fact, in this video clip I stand up to check the condition of the action, although nothing can be seen without taking it out of the case. This weight was very counterproductive in fast passages. The key did not lend itself to descending even though the return weight was very high. In scales, for instance, it was difficult to manage, but the high return weight made it practically perfect for trills. Having come from Paolo's piano with a downweight of around 50g, playing on that piano was much worse than playing on my Kawai which is around 60g. I believe the Steinway at the exam was roughly at least 70g. However, the sound was magnificent, perfectly balanced between highs and lows. In the mid/high-highs, the partials could still be heard very well (very beautiful, rich, and colorful by the way!), considering that in a 180/200 cm piano, the sound in the upper-mid region is now almost entirely fundamental. The bass was full-bodied and very resonant. Furthermore, the hall did not lend itself much to interpretation; the audience heard perfectly, but the pianist heard nothing. This effect was due to the fact that the hall was normalized, so the sound that traveled vertically at the height of the music stand to bounce back to the pianist was stopped by the ceiling. In the hall, however, the sound that bounces off the lid proceeds horizontally, so the acoustics in the hall were excellent. In such a condition, however, it is very easy to raise the volume too much as one tries to compensate for the lack of sound. I am therefore posting this video (shot on the rehearsal day) in which you can visually perceive the beauty of this piano. A pity about the action!
Greetings to all and thank you again for the well wishes!
WELCOME BACK MAESTRO!! 🙂 :) Truly, congratulations. I am sorry for the inconvenience you encountered during the exam but despite everything... 🙂
I listened with pleasure to Chopin's Nocturne, which took me back in time. When I was a little kid, not yet a piano student, I bought a Chopin music cassette from u.p.i.m. (they gave it as an offer for maybe 5000 lire I believe... imagine that!) and I fell in love with this wonderful composition. I must have listened to it about 2000 times... what memories! I must find the sheet music to learn it.
ps: Meco.... and how you sing!! This is another passion in common.
Unfortunately, the inconvenience was completely unexpected since I had set out with the idea of finding a keyboard that weighed around 47 grams!
Even with the volumes, listening to the recordings, I kept myself significantly higher than how I normally sound; the problem is that I couldn't hear anything. Playing a sforzato in the hall was for me barely more than a forte, I am not exaggerating! The ultimate test could only be achieved in the forte due to the change in timbre. In any case, between the hall and the mechanics, the performances were truly very difficult to manage. "The exam session was unfortunately distressing", these were the words reported by the chairman of the commission in the prelude to the proclamation of diplomas. 13 candidates - 9 failed and 4 passed. It was truly a massacre! But fortunately, this is also over.
P.S. I don't sing, I enjoy playing, although I would have liked to learn vocal technique... Do you sing?
I don't sing (at a professional level) but like you, I enjoy doing it. I studied vocal technique for three years using the Sett Riccs method at a private school. There I met my other half (the teacher 🙂) who does it as a profession. She is a jazz singing student at the conservatory of Benevento! She is in her third year.
