Welcome to the place where critical discussion of the technical performances of the pieces from Recital 13 takes place!!

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Please use this thread only to discuss recital performances. If you have any comments or suggestions about ways to make the recital process better, please start a separate thread.[/b]

This one's for Babs and her Träumerei.

Very nice, but I have a few nits to pick that are personal feelings about the piece; you can take them or leave them.

1. Don't rush those rising figures that occur in bars 1-2, 5-6, and 21-22. I may have messed up those numbers because I don't have the score handy, but I think you'll know what I mean.

2. Play with a more delicate touch--especially in the lower 3 voices--in the opening and ending sections. Bring out the lower voices more in the middle contrasting section to give the contrast further emphasis

3. Remember that this is polyphonic music; play it left-to-right, not as chords.

4. Finally, I refer you to the very best Träumerei I have ever heard. It's after the Scriabin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2kLfkE1hRo

Keep up the good work!!

First of all I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to my piece. Thanks so much for referring to it as "Her Traumerei"! After all I would like to think of it as "my very own."

Thanks for your input--here in the Adult Beginners Forum I look forward to just these kinds of insights, which is why I post my work here. I have done much work to improve my touch, and as time goes by I hope to improve even more.

I am finding your comment regarding polophonic music interesting, but I also find it a little vague. Please explain further the statement, "play it left-to-right, not as chords" A more thorough explanation is needed here, so that I may have a better understanding of this comment.

Thank you again for your encouragement.

Hehe, sorry about that.

What I mean is that this music basically has 4 distinct voices: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. In order to make them flow, one must play them smoothly, "left-to-right", as if each is a voice all by itself.

It's kind of a mentality you bring into the piece as you play, instead of seeing the music as chords, you see it basically as 4 independent melodic lines all played simultaneously. To achieve this, you have to be mindful of the way you hold your hands in order to give greater or lesser emphasis to a voice. I recommend closely following the score while listening to Horowitz just above; Horowitz does exactly what I'm talking about. And it'll probably make more sense than me trying to explain it.


Now, clear as mud???

Thank you. As much as I enjoy listening to Horowitz , I don't ever expect to be able to play like him. I was only trying to play like Babs. :p

And of course I knew there were a few issues with the piece and I tried my best to overcome them, perhaps in the future I can continue to work on it and improve some more. This piece turned out to be more challenging than I anticipated. :rolleyes:

Thank you for clarifying your explanation.

I understand. You have to be your own musician.

But do follow along in the score; it'll give you great insight. And try to think of the music as independent melodic lines; that mentality helped me with it tremendously.

As a side note, Träumerei isn't all that difficult technically. But it's a bear to play consistently well, even when you've been playing it a long time. Ask me how I know. :rolleyes:

Hi Horowitzian

I know your post is for Babs... but, I have to say I am going to internalize that thought and think about in my playing too obviously in a more hack sort of way but, I understand the drift of your message and reckon it applies to most music there will always be a combination of voices that need to flow. Just great


Lee

Good luck!

That is a very good advice. Thanks Horowitzian. I've been playing piano for 20 years and I am a petty good player, but I play strictly by ear and cannot read. I'm currently learning to sight read with Schumann's Traumerei piece. Your advice really helps me understand what's going on with those spaghetti legatos and refrain me from using pedals too much.

You're welcome! Always glad to help where I am able. I must say, though, that Träumerei is about the last piece I'd pick to practice sightreading. It could be done, of course, but it's so complex. Be sure to work out correct fingerings if your edition is lacking in that respect because fingering is extremely important in polyphonic music. If you need any suggestions, I'll be happy to look through it and tell you the fingerings I use.

I picked Träumerei because it's interesting, beautiful and it's not a fast song. Yes, it is pretty complex, but this piece keeps me interested. I'm currently doing sightreading drills too with Jalmus, it's sort of like the Typing Tutor for piano.

I'm using this score: http://www.free-scores.com/partitions_telecharger.php?partition=9343

Yes, it's got fingering hints for the tricky parts.

I'm glad it's working for you.

FYI, the complete Kinderszenen that's on IMSLP is fine, too. I personally would prefer it; especially since the music is all on one page for this particular piece (it isn't necessarily for some of the others ). But that edition looks fine. You might seek out other editions to see what expressive text, etc they have because I think the one you are using has plenty of editorial markings. Not that that's a "bad" thing; it's just a good idea to always have a peek at as many editions as possible.


PS--I think there was a thread about editions of Kinderszenen in Pianist Corner not too long ago; you might use the search function.

Pianostreet have published their own edition of Träumerei and are giving it away for now. I'm no expert but looking at it there does seem to have been a lot of thought behind it...

http://www.pianostreet.com/
http://www.pianostreet.com/lp_files/schumann_op15_no7_psu.pdf