Hi, friends!!! Happy New Year belatedly
I think all of us are busy, so being busy cannot be a proper excuse of my long absence on the forum. But now I'm having the most challenging time of my life. My husband is going to teach in Korea soon and I have to finish my PhD with my little daughter here. I already experienced the life of a "single mom" for a week and it was really exhausting...
Anyway I don't want to stop playing the piano and gave a small performance within the frame of the New Year meeting of the Protestant pastors in my city, which I did every year for several years. From the small program I recorded Liadov's pieces at my last "checkup" at home on the day of that performace. I was very nervous at the simulated "performance situation" in front of the recorder (after more than a year), actually much more nervous than at the real performance on that afternoon. So especially the piece Op. 10-1 didn't come off well. Oh, I must add that this is the first time for me to submit pieces which are already on the site. Both of them were recorded by Chris. Besides it's the first time again that I submit not the whole set but just a part of it. The set Op. 10 was played and recorded again by Chris and I wish I'll learn and record the other pieces from Op. 57 later.
The other piece I played on that performance was Bach-Kempff: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme. I've been never satisfied by my interpretation, so I didn't record that.
All kinds of comments and critiques are very welcome!

PS I'm not sure, if I made a correct ID-tagging. Please let me know in case that I did not.


Liadov - Prelude in D flat Major, Op. 10, No. 1 (1:17)
Liadov - Prelude in D flat Major, Op. 57, No.1 (2:06)

Happy new year too ! Kudos that you can be a single mom of a young child, prepare a dissertation, and still produce beautiful piano recordings.

Not sure why you say Op.10 No.1 did not go well. I don't like its digital sound, but the playing is perfect to my ears. This is a very tricky piece, or so I found, and you bring it off flawlessly. Having said that, Op.57-1 is by far the better interpretation here. Also perfect, but with more depth of feeling and sound. I think I'll withdraw my version now, or else redo it soon.

The ID3 tagging is ok except (just to nag !) that the album should read http://pianosociety.com, and you did not fill in the composer name.
The filenames are almost correct too, but for:

- No capital letters please
- You should be using "hjlee" in the name instead of "lee", which is because we have another Lee.

So the names should be

liadov-10-1-hjlee.mp3
liadov-57-1-hjlee.mp3

I shudder at the thought that more people sign up with the same name or, horror of horrors, with the same first name too.....
Are there more Koreans named Lee ?

Thank you Chris for your kind reply! I guessed I made some mistakes with ID-tag and file name and it turend out so I'll pay attention to those things.


Yes, it's tragic... My last name is one of the most prevailing family-names in Korea and there are also other Asians who are Lee. The other Lee on PS isn't an Asian... That is, the Lees are all over the world
The saddest thing is that also my first name is really often heard in Korea. I'm afraid that people would have a difficulty in googling with my name if I'll make a name later as a philosopher


Hmmm... Do I have to reveal that I hit some wrong notes with LH and the dynamic was not well controlled?

The dynamics could have been better indeed. But isn't it always so in amateur recordings.

I did not hear wrong notes but I did hear something that made me think that maybe I had made a read error somewhere. Not sure what it was, I'd have to check with score. Maybe that is what you are referring to. In any case, not at all something to worry about. Nothing sounded wrong here.

That piece is quite tricky as you mentioned, so if you pay too much attention to the thechnical things, you easily lose the control of dynamic. That was the case with me.

What do you mean by "amateur recordings", Chris? If you mean recordings made with not quite professional equipments, I would agree (but in my case I recorded on a digital piano , so it cannot be an excuse for me). If you mean recordings of amatuer pianists, I don't agree, or frankly speaking, I don't want to share that idea! Our job is simply no pro pianist, we should try, though, all the best to make a quality recording, also regards of the dynamic I saw your long "delete"-list (which was really shocking, but a big applause for your courage and responsibility!!!) and guess you meant the former.

Yes I meant 'amateur recordings' in the sense of recordings not made with professional equipment. I'm sure that non-pro's do not have the huge dynamic range of a concert pianist, and also that recording with cheap microphones flattens dynamics. Lastly I suspect that some dynamics you hear on CD may be doctored.

I never thought of that. But it's possible...

Chris, I corrected the file names etc. and here I'm attaching the files again.

Hello Hye-Jin,
Simply put, beautiful playing and a delight to listen to! Thank you for these submissions!
Best wishes.
Eddy

Hi Hye-Jin,

I listened to both of your recordings several times. I think you play these pieces very well. The way you handle the cross rhythms in both the 57 and 10 which Liadov seems to write in a lot of his preludes comes together. The rubato wasn't overdone, which was nice. Each phrase seemed to flow into the next which is challenging for me and if I can speak for the community, many of us here at ps. The tone of the instrument was a little on the brittle side, (you say you recorded on a digital piano?) but much better than the built-in "grand piano" tone on my casio

Nice to hear you play,

Riley

Wunderbar ! That is just how we like them
Though in the Composer tag, we only want the last name (this is just for consistency).
These are now on the site.

Hi Hye-Jin,

I just listened to your two Liadov preludes and loved them both. You bring out their ravishing beauty, especially in Op. 57, No. 1. Whenever I hear you play I admire your very accomplished and exquisite pianism. Excellent!

When I was doing a number of Liadov preludes awhile ago, I had considered Op. 57, No. 1, but it's quite Chopinesque. Where it was my first outing with Liadov's music, I decided to choose pieces that I thought displayed more of his own originality. But still... Op. 57 is terribly hard to resist! Maybe I'll play it when I revisit him someday. I doubt though that I could approach your artistry that gives the piece such an ultra-romantic sound.

Don't feel bad about the tags! Chris and Monica will testify that it took a tutorial plus two dress rehearsals for me to get them right. lol:

Also, best of luck in completing your doctoral program!

David

@Chris: Thank you for putting them up! I appreciate your efforts

@Eddy: Thank you for kind words! If I remember correctly, you gave your recital in last fall, didn't you? Was it successful? Are your recordings from that recital already on PS?

@Riley: Thank you for your detailed comments! You seem to be familiar with Liadov's music. Isn't it beautiful? Even though I know just some of it, I must say I like Liadov very much The recorded sound is just the default one at my Kawai digital. I didn't do anything to the recordings. But after reading your comment I think that the sound is too bright, too.

@David: Thank you for the encouraging words!!! I'm very happy that you like these pieces that I love a lot. Also very proud that I'm co-submitter of Liadov's music with you and Chris About the Chopinesque style of Op. 57 I must agree. But I personally feel more familiar with the melody and the emotion required in Liadov than those in Chopin.

Liadov Lovers Unite, hehe... I think we should be starting a Facebook group

Nope. That was too unrealistic; I slipped it to fall of this year. As it goes I haven't done too much for about 2 months now and am thick into a job search that will involve a move to a different state. Just this morning was offered one job and have a phone interview for a second in 2.5 hours from now, and more possibilities. Uugh! The stress of it all is not good for dedication to the arts! Nonetheless, last weekend I could sit down and play almost the entire program from memory, but though that is accomplishment enough for this stage, it still needs a lot of command, control and consitency. Thanks for asking, and again thank you for the lovely Liadov. I hope you do more!

Best wishes,
Eddy

Hye-Jin,

Beautiful playing of beautiful music. Liadov may of course be a bit derivative (Scriabin came to my mind while listening) but often seems to have this ineffable, salon-style charm that I find irresistible (it's too bad few, if any, composers of ca the past 50 years have been able to write a melody half this convincingly) .

I agree with Chris that I think the second one came off best; I would have nothing to criticize there -- exquisite voicing, phrasing, and pedalling. The first one was good too but it seemed slightly stiff, especially in the second half, understandable for what seems to me too like a fairly tricky prelude to sustain for the duration. The only other thing I noted is that the run toward the end seemed a bit muddled. Maybe just a bit more freedom of expression could be in order overall. That's pretty nitpickey on my part though. Overall, I did find it quite clear and controlled.

Anyway, thanks for these; I very much enjoyed listening to your playing.

Joe