Monica and me, we proudly present you the result of our Haydn four hands project. We decided to make a new thread, so that everyone can see, that it is finished, hoping that more than one or two members will reply.

We perform here the first movement, Allegro assai, of Joseph Haydns "Symphony of Farewell" ("Abschiedssinfonie"), Hob. I, no. 45, in f-sharp-minor, arranged for piano four hands by Hugo Ulrich. You can find the score on imslp.org, if you are interested.

Corresponding to our plans we have made an audio- and video-montage of our four hands performance. For giving you an impression of the hours of work I had with all the editing I post a screenshot of the audio-montage-window of WaveLab. (Every marker means a cut, which corrects a bit the synchronization of our playing, though I have to say, that originally I wasn´t really too bad together with Monicas recording (Monica first recorded the Primo-part, I had the task to play the Secondo-part together with her. That´s why you only on my head can discover some earphones and not on Monicas. ). But for making it absolutely perfect I had to do some cuts.
The video-editing took me a whole day. I had to fumble out the right synchronization and to develop some nice ideas for the collage. Having done that, I had to find out, how to realize my ideas technically...



In summary it was a great pleasure and fun. Monica searched the approximately exact distance of the places we live on my request. She found out, that the town she lives in USA and the town I live in Germany is nearly in a distance of 7130 km. It´s so great that four hands playing in such a distance is possible in times of today! We both love our video and we hope, you will enjoy it, too!

Monica, I thank you so much for your splendid collaboration. It was a true pleasure.

Feedback is very very appreciated!

Here are the video-links (it´s only one video, but one link goes to my YouTube-channel, the other to Monicas):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exmmse-NbRQ (Haydn, Symphony of Farewell, Allegro assai, YouTube-channel of musicusblau)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KZbaNaLoNY (Haydn, Symphony of Farewell, Allegro assai, YouTube-channel of pianolady)

The mp3-file below is exactly the audio-track of the video above.

Haydn - Symphony no. 45 in F-sharp minor "Farewell", I: Allegro assai

It was a pleasure for me too, Andreas. Thank you for all your hard work with the difficult editing. If we do this again someday, you can take a break and I'll do the editing...

p.s. I had earphones on too, but just in one ear - the one you can't see. I listened to the clicks from my metronome so I would stay steady. I thought it would help you when you listen to my recording while playing your part.


(I'll put up the audio file tomorrow)

Andreas and Monica,

Just watched your video. Well done and fun to watch! The musical synchronization was excellent—sounded like you guys were in the same room. Lots of nice dynamic contrasts, too, neatly executed.

It was kind of ghostly watching one of you fade out as the other faded in. Almost like watching a magical gender transformation, as woman became man, and then back again.

Andreas—I won't be too hard on you for using a smorgasbord of every video transition in the book, from circle dissolve, to page turn, to you name it. I can see you were having fun experimenting and doubt you were trying to create an art film here!

That sounds quite professional and well synchronized ! Also the pianos blend in very well together despite their different timbres.
Did you each have it tuned to the standard pitch before recording ?
Great job, especially in such a short time. I can see why you chose this Haydn movement, it's delicious early Sturm und Drang

Fantastic! I liked it much. Great video work also.

Thanks, guys!

We both did not have our pianos tuned. Mine was last tuned three months ago and I think Andreas said his was in good enough shape, so we just decided to go for it. As far as ghosts - well, it is getting close to Halloween, so perhaps our little video is quite relevant!

Pianolady wrote:


Ha, now the truth comes out! Nevertheless I have to praise your metronome for the quite nice and musical "uneveness" here and there.

Bruce Siegel wrote:


Thanks for that, Bruce.



Yes, must have been the crew of "Spaceship Enterprise", who has beamed us on and off.



And I don´t doubt, that I was just creating a film of the art of experimenting!

techneut wrote:


Thanks for that praise, Chris. Yes, indeed, the pianos do have different timbres and somehow they fit well together in that recording.



No, we didn´t extraly tune our pianos, but we have cleared before, that both pianos were tuned with 440 Hz when they were tuned last time. Monica said, she has let tune her piano not a long time ago. And I thought, my grand is also still well enough in tune.



I agree, it´s a fantastic Sturm-und-Drang-piece, with a lot of temperament like it is so typical for Haydn. I really love that strong energy, which comes from his music!

Didier wrote:


How nice to "see" you again here, Didier. Hope you are well and thank you for your encouraging words!

Pianolady wrote:


Indeed, recently I have watched a video on a good hobby-guitarists YouTube-channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C-UR6qpYOE
We really should have tried a version of Popper´s Gnomentanz as a four hands version, Monica!

ahahaha - that's funny! But watch out - I am a crocodile and you are an alligator.....

Pianolady wrote:


I´m very delighted to be the alligator, it´s the bigger and more dangerous animal! So, there comes the question to me, who has to watch out here!

Wow, that was so much fun to watch and listen to! Lovely balance and synchronization, which is very impressive to me - as well as all of that amazing editing. I must say that I greatly enjoyed the matching outfits and waving handkerchiefs, too. I'll be whistling Haydn's happy tune all afternoon...

BRAVO!!... BRAVO!!... (We desperately need an applause emoticon:)

The true intentions of music and the creative potential for Piano Society are clearly seen here in this beautiful recording and video. Andreas and Monica, you are torchbearers of compassion, camaraderie, and understanding in music. Under the metronomic conditions you had to deal with, the performance was wonderful and highly musical. Within 5 seconds of watching a performance, one can tell if the inspiration is genuine -- there isn't a hint of arrogance or selfishness in both your playing. For me, this represents the highest form of praise in music. I must say this because it's rare to find this quality in music or in performers these days. Your mutual project is a positive missionary for music in terms of originality, creativity, and excellence. This is what it's all about! Thank you Andreas and Monica. BRAVO!

George