one of rachmaninoff (prelude op.3 no.2)

and a etude by myself for the left hand.

I think your Rach Prelude is pretty good. Aside from the out of tune piano, and the few slips, the only other thing I noticed was perhaps too much pedal in the middle sections. Things were blurred too much. I liked your dynamics.

not bad playing I enjoyed the d#(second) one, I will listen the first one later.

What recorder do you use??. At 48 sec and ending, the rhytm must be more accurate on time to give a clean finish.

what sort of piano you played on?

well,

It was a prity good recording set. I don't know what it was.

I played on a very old zimmerman which was out of tune. But I needed the recordings for some intervieuwer and they will look through the out of tune piano I think.

Well, Rachmaninoff plays the famous Rachmaninoff Prelude 0p. 3 No. 2 !

First, I like your dynamic playing capability too in general, also your exploding in the middle part.

However, there were plenty much wrong notes throughout the piece, which did not sound like slips, more like score reading errors. In the fortissimo A-part after the middle part for instance I did not hear the left hand chords beside the octave notes although on the beginning they could be heard. It sounds to me as if you simply decided to leave the complete chords for some bars in the left hand out. Am I wrong? Be honest, please! That robs the second A-part all the deep russian bass sonority the piece is famous for. Also in the final notes something was missing.

The climax of the middle part you played very fast, but not precise. It sounds better to me if I hear all notes correct played, it must not at all be played that fast.

Rachmaninoff, please take this critique not as offend, but just for pieces like that what all the world knows and what many play, the correct notes must be there!

well minden,

I play the A part with my left hand the 2 lowest and with the right hand 4 notes. The higest note in the left hand is the 3 note in the right hand do you mean that?

You mean the second part of the B that's not good? I will listen to it.

yeah minden your right.

I don't hear them to

didn't heard that.

I will work on that because I played them

Ok, if you played those notes, it's easy to overcome - hitting them as strong as possible. I meant especially the following notes for the left hand:

yeah I notest that. I went a couple of minutes ago to my piano and played them like you mean. It is a big difference thanks for telling me that!!


what do you tink of the etude?

I can't download mp3's at work but will listen tonight. Will probably niggle about the wrong and missing notes.... Olaf's right, a piece as well-known as this must be reasonably accurate. Nobody cares much if I miss half the notes in a Liadov piece

Just listened to it - and I like it! Those left hand arpeggios, combined with a nice right hand melody in octaves played - and at the end with an impressive octave run.

I can imagine that it is really a good idea to improve the own technique through playing own things with specific technical difficulties. That combines fun with technique practising. Sometimes I do so as well but did not record up to now. The advantage is that one does not need to struggle through dense written scores and work on getting it into the brain, this work is not necessary. One "only" needs to get it from brain to the hands, thats usually the more funnier task.

I enjoyed listening! But please, do yourself a favour and let your piano tune, if you can afford it!

haha it ain't my piano it's from a teacher with a studio. It's an very old one.


P.S.

I'm sorry. I know the mistake with my left hand. I need to play the rachmaninoff in the left hand an ocave higer.

What a mistake

At last... the Rach is at loose. Things will never be the same again.

Technically, not bad at all. You sure can play this music, no doubt about that. You deserve a better piano or at least a tuned one - this old honkytonk is no fun to listen to.

About your playing of the Rach prelude, can I offer some suggestions.

Most important, PLAY IN TIME. What you do here is not rubato, it's tempo anarchy, like doubling the speed for no reason, and not observing note values. Do not attempt rubato before you can play like a metronome. Practise Bach if you don't do that already (but I can understand youg people find that boring - I used to be like that). Do you have lessons ? If so, what does your teacher say about how you play this prelude ?

Almost as important - play the right notes, all of them, and make all of them sound. There are quite some reading mistakes especially in the LH, more so than actual slips. You also leave out notes, and you do not apply sufficient weigth to them. This is important in Rachmaninov, every note has its meaning. Especially at the beginning and the end your chords sound very wimpy and uneven.

Pedal then. It is allowed and desirable to use much pedal in Rachmaninov, but not to keep it down for so long as to completely drown the sound, as you do in some places. Look at the harmonies and decide where to lift and retake it, to avoid unpleasant sounds.

The etude is a nice piece of work. Impressive beginning and ending, except for the very last bars which I found disappointing (as well as the part in the middle where you are not sure where to go). It could do with a bit more tidy performance.

thanks chris I will work on it.

can you tell me what you mean with this: as well as the part in the middle where you are not sure where to go

I meant the bit between 20 and 30 secs, where you've repeated the theme and I almost hear you, the composer, thinking "Oops, what next". Once you get back into the groove again, all is well. I am not a composer, but I think a middle section/development section may be the hardest thing.

It seems that you use way too much pedal, making the LH a bit of a mush.