ABEGG Variations - one of my favourite pieces ! By playing this I really felt in love with Schumann

This is a live recording, from June last year, on Schumann's Birthday.

I didn't found any recording on PS...

I hope you like it


Jana

Schumann - Variations on the name "Abegg" in F major, Op. 1

Jana, bravissima!! Truely excellent artistic playing, and the piano and the recording itself sound wonderful too. I can tell I'm really going to like your presence here. (Not bad writing for an Op.1)
Best wishes and thank you!
Eddy

This is up, Jana. Very impressive playing!! And in case I didn't already say this, welcome to Piano Society. We hope you will hang around for a long time and submit recordings, but also listen and comment often on other members' recordings too.

I have tried to listen, but the recording is truncaded right at the start.

I have not heard a great many performances of the ABEGG's, but it seems to me this is as good as they come. The stuff that can win you competitions (which you have done already, isn't it ?). Not saying that a top-flight pianist could not make even more of it, but to my amateur ears this is just perfect. Especially how you keep a keen eye on the theme in the LH whilst the RH is merrily frolicking about. True class.

I must say the same thing. Chris or Monica could fix it...

I can't right now, while at work. I listened from the copy I get sent on my Gmail, and that was complete.
Probably something went wrong with Monica's upload.

Not sure what went wrong. And I uploaded it twice! I'll fix it tonight.

Thank you! I'm really happy about your comments here

@Eddy: I agree with you! That's really not a bad writing for an Op.1

@Monica: I think, I will hang around for a long time here

@Chris: Yes, I'm already done with the competitions... don't really like them anymore Chris, my last name above the bio text is wrong, It should be an R instead
of the L.


Should I upload the recording again? Don't know, what happened ...

Ok, the link works now.

Hi Jana

This rendition of the "ABEGG Variations" in most impressive. Fabulous!

David

Right ! It's corrected.

Jana,

That is absolutely stunning playing.

I'm already looking forward to your future recordings.

Regards
Mark

I seem to have a neighbour next door with his mobile in his hand. What interpference! I am happy to say, however, that the recording is pristine and complete. Very good playing. I have not followed it with a score, but how many people at a concert do? What is important is the quality of the playing and this is good.

I agree this is very good for an op 1, but do we know for sure this is the fisrt work he ever wrote?

Indeed, very impressive playing for a live performance of what I consider to be one of Schumann's more difficult works technically. However, this performance fails to thoroughly convince me musically (and technically, to some extent).

IMO the most difficult aspect of Schumann's music generally is the tonal balance between melody and accompanimental figures. Lush orchestral sonorities abound, and the difficulty set before the performer is to differentiate these. No mean feat when the texture is as dense and the spacing is as close as it is here in many places.

In the theme, for example, I fail to hear the wonderful ascension of the bassline against the waltzlike accompanimental figures, most of which seem overly loud to me. Some nice phrasing, and I like the dimenuendo to end the thema portion, but the overall dynamic just seems a bit too loud and the texture too thick. The melody, for example, starts off with what to me sounds like a ff rather than a mf, so it has nowhere to go to be shaped.

The quasi-filigree figurations in Variation 1 are quite well done, but I think they'd be even better if they were just a tad lighter (i.e., more elegant) and then the "tops" could sing out more. The effect to me is more a string of notes rather than an airy, dancing lilt. The permutation on the primary theme around measures 10-14 should IMO be brought out better; I can barely hear it in the overall texture. Also, the sforzatos to start the repeat lack point to me because the overall dynamic seems too forte.

Variation 2 I thought was the best. Better treatment of the melody here. The only suggestion I would have here is that it seems rather too mired in pedal so that it sounds a bit muddy and turbid.

Variation 3 - I would personally favor less pedal and more point and clarity for the triplet figures. This variation, which seems an apt example of the French notion of "jeu perle," I find rather too enjambed. Again, the melodic statements in the bass appear rather lost in the overall texture.

In the finale, I very much like the pianissimo and the gradual crescendo that ensues. To be honest, though, I think this really needs to be less cautious. It needs to really move more in relation to the overall tempo as marked "Vivace" by Schumann.

Just my two cents. One certainly can't fault the professionalism here in any way, but the effect to me is a bit more of piano hammers and fog than of delicacy and dancing grace.

Joe