Been in the mood for Grieg and Mompou lately. Mompou will have to wait until probably next week, but here are a few Grieg Lyric Pieces. I picked them out because I like the titles - but I do also have to like the actual music too before I'll devote practice time to it. Three of these happen to fall in the same Op. 57. "Puck" just got in there because I think it's cute and fun to play - not as easy as it sounds though....


Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op. 57, No. 3 "Illusion"

Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op. 57, No. 4 "Secret"

Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op. 57, No. 6 "Homesickness"

Grieg - Lyric Pieces Op,. 71, No. 3 "Puck"

I listened to the last two. Well done.
The Ppuck could perhaps be a bit sharper and more puckish. The double notes don't always come well together. I find that tricky, a lone double-note in the midst of a single-note sequence (Kapustin does that a lot too).

Thanks for listening to some. Regarding double notes.....hmmmm....I don't get it...I hear every note, so I wish you'd enlighten me as to what is not coming out right.

Starting at bar 3, the RH has thirds interspersed with the single notes. It is these thirds that don't always come out clean. Some are fine but some are quite unequal, making things sound a bit sluggish in these places. If you listen back and concentrate on these thirds you should hear what I mean.
I don't mean the ones like in bar 5 and 6, those are fine (but they are the easy ones).

Oh, so you mean the thirds, not the double notes. I admit that some of the combinations are hard to play evenly. Grieg must have had long pinkys! Still, I do not hear that I am sluggish in these places.

Hey Monica,

I finally got a chance to listen. These are beautifully done. You are truely invested in these pieces.

(I hope what I am saying will come out right in typing.) I have listened to your many wonderful performances. In these pieces I feel that I am truely hearing Monica making the music. Grieg may have written the notes, but this is your music. In many of the other performances I have felt that I was listening to Monica playing Chopin or Faure or whoever. (Is this making any sense??) Here, you have a full connection with the music.

Anyway, great job.

Scott

Sluggish maybe not. Let's just say that it slightly impairs Puck's impish darting around.

I Do not seem to comment on most of your efforts, but this is becausde very often you take me out of my territory, but here I am in a land I like, so I have listened to these and the big picture is that I like what you do and they way you do it.

Maybe my understanding of dynamics needs to be revised (and I mean just what I say and am impying nothing else here), but maybe there needs to be a little bit more difference between pp and ff. I only say this because these markings appear on the score, as this does not at all disturb me. Maybe I better stop looking at scores! To me your version does fine and I felt merry, mischieveous Puck in the eaves, looking down at you and nodding.

In Homesickness I prefer the A section a shade slower, to bring out the yearning quality of the theme.

@Chris - Maybe my Puck had a couple cocktails and that's why he is impaired a bit...

@Scott - thank you, I think that's one of the nicest things anyone has every said to me.

@Richard - You don't have to redefine dynamics: I admit that my dynamics come out better in some recordings than in others. Sometimes it's my lack of applying enough forte to the forte parts - but other times I really think it's simply the recording device that is not quite picking up everything. Things sound plenty loud or soft to me as I'm sitting there. Well...that's my story, and I'm sticking to it....

Sounds plausible. Though I thought you were blaming it on the Short Pinky Syndrome ...

Hi Monica,

I know some of the Lyric Pieces, but not all, as there are over 70 of them I believe. Grieg is quite a story teller able to create instant visual images, as in "Secret". I listened to all four pieces that you presented here and want to compliment you on your very fine playing. You definitely brought your artistry and thorough musicianship to bear in all of these pieces. I especially liked "Homesickness" where in the middle section I marveled at your extraordinary dexterity there. Remarkable! You relate to Grieg well, and it shows in these performances.

David

Wonderful suite, Monica. I liked Homesickness and the Puck the most. These pieces really "Pucked" me up. Go Blackhawks! I think you shoot that "Puck" well. It seemed that the thirds weren't together in just a few places where you have the white and black key pair. I just looked up the music to see how you were playing those triad passages. There's no fingering on my urtext score, but I tried to see on the piano how one can play it accurately fast. What fingering do you use on the triad passages? Starting the root note on the thumb feels tricky, except for the A-flat triad passage. Have you tried this fingering 2, 1, (24), 1, 2, etc. on the E-flat triad?... I always think that thirds are the most difficult technical feat for a pianist, at least for my hands. In any case, very nice performances!

Ohhhh...yes, playing while tipsy and having Short Pinky Syndrome - a double wammy! Poor Puck....(but you know, this may be hard to believe, but I can relate.... ).


Thank you, David. I love Grieg!

We're all quite flabbergasted at what our Blackhawks are doing!( I have no fingernails left!) But anyway, thank you. And that fingering is interesting, but I'm sure I would not be able to do that because the piece just goes too fast - I don't think I could whip my fingers back and forth around like that so quickly.

As I say, without the score no one notices it, so, what matter?

As for my remark about the definitions of dynamics I mean it: I am forever wondering: how soft is p and how much softer is pp? And between p to f how much Dbs are there? Has anyone ever defined these, the way that one finds "allegro" defined as, say, 150 to the crotchet? There! There is space for a new invention: not the metronome but the decibelnome! One programmes it for an f and up goes the needle to 50 and all one needs to do is to hit the keys until the needle reaches 50 again.

That is a neat idea, Richard. You should call it a decinome. Maybe make it a combination deci/metronome.