This is for anyone who wants a good laugh.
It's raining here today, my son took my car to school, and I'm stuck at home with nothing to do. So I think, "okay, maybe I'll try recording that Ballade." Hours later, my wrists hurt, and I can't get a mistake-free recording. I know there's a lot of missed notes here, but if you have any ideas besides that, please let me know. Believe it or not, I once played this in front of an audience and it went pretty well. That was a year ago. Also, the audience didn't know what to listen for, so I never got any helpful feedback.
I started practicing the Ballade again when I got this Edirol, but it's like starting all over again. Also, I know my tempo is slow in the fast places, but that's probably because I'm tired now. And since the piece is so long, don't feel you have to 'niggle' every section.
Anyway, watch out for the last page. That's where the biggest laugh happens. I couldn't hold my tongue or my bad mood any longer.

nice touch piano lady. I am very proud of your willingness to record this even you are busy with the family.... . If you enjoyed it, thats the most important thing.

This would take many years to master unless lock youself in apiano room from for 1 year....-physically impossible.

Your tempo is fine, the speed will come eventually.

I find the same problem with my op31....it required a long focus inorder to play a mistake free, this can not done without a full commitment to abandon other things.

at least I enjoyed your playing ....

Wrong notes aside, very artistic performance! You played it really well. Once during a sholarship audition, I let a few choice words fly.

Pete

This is not half as bad as you seem to think it is. Some parts are a bit stiff and tense, but others come off really well, like the grandiose ff sections. Even the scales at the end are pretty accurate (well, not spotless, but quite passable). The real difficult parts, in particular the coda, need more work, and there's the odd clonker, but overall do you a great job. Keep at it ! Bet you can beat Mindenblues to it, providing us a benchmark recording

Some assorted observations:
Take care in bar 3 to play the G as a quart, not as an eight.
The rhythm in the Moderato in the first page is a bit strange and jerky, as if it is not a 6/4 but 4/4 rhythm.
In the part with the left over right (the piu animato) you play wrong notes in the LH.
You could use more pedal occasionally, some parts sound inexplicably dry all of a sudden.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I've been afraid to come back online, but now I feel better.

Well, I am very good at telling others to watch their counting, but it seems I should tell myself that too. All this time, I never played that third bar g as a quarter note. (thanks, Techneut) I'll watch that Moderato section too, although I thought I was playing it in 6/4.

So, yes, I still have much work to do on this, but since I love it so much, I'm not ready to throw in the towel. You'll hear it from me again, someday, and I'll try to keep my mouth closed.

The race is on! Make sure you win with quality . Nice piano what is it? So this is how my Edirol could function if I had a real piano . I can't add too much because what I would say has already been said. First come first serve Was this all from memory?

Yes, but I better look at the score more often. Seems I made up some of my own rhythm.

welcome to the memory club.....

Bravo !

It's a good performance ! I'll like to have student in my school who could play in a so sensitive way.

Yeah, I knew you will record that g minor ballade ,Pianolady, and thank you that you did!

For me it is still 6/4 clock you played in the moderato part, combined with a pretty strong rubato so that the first and 4th beat is prolonged. That is personal taste, but I would call it neither strange or jerky.

Yes, you played it sensitive and with good dynamics both in the soft and strong parts. You have really good technique too, otherwise you would not have managed to play that surely no easy piece. Especially I like your accord playing in the middle part, right hand - up to now I don't get it that smooth. I bet you play the chords not with thumb and pinky, instead thumb and switching fingers for the upper note to get it legato. Since I practise it too, there is so much to say, I like to discuss it further via pmail instead to highjack this forum, if its ok for you.



Hehe, hopefully we can beat each other to further diligent practising on this Chopin masterpiece, in order to place some more recordings on this ballade to the already existing live recording (what is played with lots of passion even if it contains some wrong notes too). That is anyhow the great thing from the PianoSociety: it helps to practise a bit more to get hopefully something useful to record anytime, to share it here. At least in my case it happens so, but will take at least a month or two or three, to come up with my take on this ballade.

Thank you for sharing, and it hopefully will not be the last recording on this ballade from you, Pianolady!

That's not so bad and musically a pretty good performance. But I lack the speed and power in the coda where I believe one should play with fury. A piano ballade is really a store telling on the piano and this story has a lot different moods involved and I feel that some are missing on your performance. But you are of course aware of this and know what to do. Good work!

You know there are many interpretations on what is the story behind this Ballade. One I read recently said this: The Ballade in G minor was inspired by a poetic work of Adam Mickiewicz (the “Shakespeare of Poland”), based on a tale that centers around an incident of a wife killing her husband and ending with the laugh of the devil.

I told my husband this, and now he's worried because he hears me practicing this piece again.