I have recorded two pieces by Haydn from his set of 12 Easy Pieces, the 1st and 5th. These pieces are not originals, but piano reductions of orchestral works. The pieces were not incredibly challenging to learn, but the double dotted rhythms took some work to play. I mean, I have enough trouble as it is with dotted eighths

I enjoyed playing these pieces. I heard them first from a youtube pianist: asiafin.

The 1st piece was taken from Haydn's String Quartet Op. 74 No. 2, 2nd mvt.

marked Andante Grazioso

The 5th piece was taken from Symphony No. 92 "Oxford" 2nd mvt.

marked Adagio Cantabile

I put together a video of the first, enjoy:

Video File:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIvnW5-2PkE

The video is an exact soundtrack of the audio

Audio Files:





Riley

Nice playing, especially in the second piece.

In the first piece, I don't like the wobbly reverb. Did you experiment here ? This piece would benefit from some phrasing, it seems to be an uniform legato whereas the score has quite detailed instructions on slurring etc. Some more dynamics would also help here. The rhythmic figure at the start of the second half is just a tad sluggish, holding up the pulse.

The second piece (more interesting than the first) fares better in all respects, sound, articulation and dynamics. Still, you should maybe follow Haydn's phrasing rather than invent your own. The 32th runs could be a bit more smooth. The half-hearted ritenuto at 1:15 seems inappropriate, seeming to suggest the piece is ending. A ritenuto should be reserved for the very last.

Names and tags look correct - I assume these pieces have no Hoboken number ?

Hi Chris,

Thanks for listening and your feedback.

Interesting you picked up on the reverb of the 1st recording. No experimenting with the reverb, it's the same with both recordings, "medium hall." This is the default reverb that is set when I open my piano sampler. I probably should add the reverb later in adobe audition. What I have been doing is just using the program for cutting and saving, not adding reverb then.

I agree, the 1st seems to shapeless on a repeated listening. I think the main theme should be more "de...DA.dum..dum" instead of "de...da.dum..dum" There is some beautiful phrasing in the orchestra version http://youtu.be/R4cBYCWgQGQ?t=6m15s I wish I could have seen this video before I played it . I think then I would have tried to imitate a violin bowing across strings to really capture the right phrasing for the piece.



Yes, I must have run about 30 takes for the 2nd piece. By this take, My hands were really shot by doing this quick 32nd notes in succession over and over. I agree, listening back the ritenuto is inappropriate. I wish I could give the recording another shot, my digital is way far away in Michigan now..



Yay, I got the tags correct! That's right, I could not find a Hoboken number. My edition is russian, from a company called Muzgiz. This makes one wonder if "12 Easy Pieces" by Hadyn is spurious, if it wasn't written by the great composer but by a loving fan who decided to arrange Hadyn's larger scales works to a set for piano (and say it was written by Hadyn it would be partly true..). It's interesting, because apparently not every piece Haydn wrote had a Hoboken number, for example, his symphonies are listed by number and some in groups by location for example, his "London Symphonies" are Nos. 93 - 104.

Riley

Hi Riley, with the holiday today, I have not had time to listen to your recordings here but I will try to do so tomorrow. I did however briefly look through the score to the 12 Easy Pieces and noticed that no. 3 is a transcription of the "Surprise Symphony", so maybe you are correct in thinking that this set was written/transcribed by someone other than Haydn. A little mystery for us to solve....

A mystery indeed. I've given it more thought and if Hadyn wrote it... if Hadyn actually wrote it, he must have written the 12 pieces after the originals for example, the surprise symphony, the oxford, the string quartet, and so on.

I realize now, I made a mistake in saying the symphonies don't have a hoboken number. Apparently the Hoboken Catalogue is set up with roman numerals. Instead of having the same categorization scheme as Bach (with each BWV corresponding to a specific work) the symphonies are I.--even though they are no. 1, 2, 3, etc. with various names--the piano sonatas are XVI, the piano pieces are one more, XVII.

Hopefully this case will be solved soon!

Ok, I just listened to your two recordings here, Riley. The sound quality does not bother me, but there are a couple things about your playing that I want to address. The first is about your repeated sections. I think you should try to make a repeated section sound a little different than the first time around - like play it softer or louder or emphasize certain notes, etc...something. At the very least, I often apply the soft pedal on repeated sections to give it a bit of interest; your repeated sections sound exactly the same. The second thing is about the slurs in the second piece. The second bar on the second section has slurs which indicate two-note phrases. I think you played them a little heavy-handed and staccato.

I'm sorry, but I don't think these two are quite ready for the site. With shorter and easier pieces, we have to make sure that every dot and slur and dynamic marking is there. You do have a real good start, though, and most likely you can turn these two pieces into nice little gems upon your next recording session.

Who's this Hadyn anyway ? If he wrote them, they're not by Haydn

Monica,



Thanks for listening. I agree, the repeated sections need more variety. If only my digital had a port for a soft pedal... I only can control sustain. There is probably some way to control it, but only through digital means and I don't care about bothering with that..

I will have to redo this when I see my digital again. Or maybe I will buy a new model when I move this august. I think weighted keys might improve my playing

Chris,



Good point. Maybe this fan coincidentally had the same name

Riley