Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Chopin Etudes Recital Live - Discussion Thread

Well, I listened to everyone's recording twice today. I don't know what else to say besides what's already said. Some of you that participated in the prelude recital, you know you've made a major stride forward since a year ago. Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful journey in memory of Chopin.

That's right: a journey, not a destination. As MaryRose observed most astutely, F. Chopin himself was a charitable man, and would hopefully be touched by how intensely he is remembered 159 years after he took his final breath.

These works in particular provide unique challenges, as clued by their moniker. I hope LisztAddict is correct in assessing growth. If anything, approaching an étude seriously is an exercise in humility and determination, a veritable test of the cloth from which one is cut - not the performance itself, mind you, but the perseverance that must undergird the learning thereof. For myself, it has revealed character flaws. There is much that I'd hoped to accomplish here and did not - a result of my own laziness in not bearing down effortwise until August. Will I learn from that?

Everyone who participated in this and who organized and produced it deserves a big pat on the back. Take a collective bow! This took determination, heart, skill and persistence.

I'd be very interested to know about the experiences with the studies. We can read about them, certainly, but firsthand experience from someone who has worked on it is hard to find.

Phlebas: to answer your question, no the LH/RH "crash" in the middle is not the most difficult part. Once it's in muscle memory, it's arguably the most brain-free part of the piece. The most difficult parts are in places you would not expect based on listening.

Thanks. I can see that. Actually, the part in the 25/8 etude where both hands do 6ths in contrary motion is not one of the hardest sections either. Before I worked on it, I thought it would be the most difficult.

My experience was pretty much as follows:

I was extremely busy this year, and I did not have a chance to start my etude until the beginning of Sept.

I thought, ok, let me work on it for a week. If there's decent progress, I'll give it a shot. Otherwise, I'll beg off.

There was enough progress that I could see short term and longer term goals on the horizon, as well as having some ideas on how to practice it, but I still kept the option of canceling open.

Since I have a digital piano at home, I needed to find a place to record it on a grand. I word fairly close to a small conservatory, where I rent practice time. I went there for a few days this week and last, and did a few takes and chose the best of the lot.

Learning this was a bit of a scramble, and I felt like it was pounding a square peg into a round hole.

At this point, I think the piece has a decent foundations, and I can take it forward from there. First order of business is to re-examine some of the fingerings.

Some impressions of 25-8 itself:

- It's one of the only Chopin etudes where I believe the first page is the most difficult part.

- The real obstacle to speeding it up is the lh.

- Fingering is a matter of compromise. Since I have a small hand, 1-3 on sixths is more of a stretch than 1-4 or 2-5, but 1-3 gives the 4th and 5th fingers and the wrist a break, but that's at the expense of the arch of the hand. As a result, you have to be really careful of the fingering in every passage.

Anyway, those are some initial impressions of my experience, and 25-8.

Phlebas, a sensible and well-organized synopsis. Especially impressed that you'd only needed less than two months to work it up.

From the DtC thread:
I want to call attention to Mati's selfless efforts on our behalf, just in case others may have missed Mary-Rose's acknowledgement. Being able to play the entire e-cital non-stop was very useful indeed.

Many thanks, Mati!

Steven

I will go back and apply Mati's programme to the other ecitals on chopinrecital.org when I have time.

Well, I hear him downstairs practicing, so I'll chime in with an 'experience.'

His teacher is of the 'restrained' school that does not insert a lot of unwritten dynamics and tempo changes into Chopin. For that reason, among others I'm sure, we did not listen to recordings (except for Berezovsky before she banned YouTube viewings!) until the piece was largely done. She has had him concentrate on voicing and on expressing the written dynamic markings well.

I think she also selected this etude as the starter precisely because it is not a technical killer. She could work assiduously with him on HOW to play Chopin properly. Actually, as a side vignette, his hands are so big that the left hand broken chords that can cause some people fits (because of the rapid shifts and jumps) caused him no problem at all. He just reaches the stretch and uses the middle finger as a hinge point. His teacher exclaimed in mock anger that that was unfair! She has a much smaller hand.

If you go onto YouTube and listen to others who play the 10/9 -- Grante, for instance, or Kempf -- you'll hear way different interpretations. Anthony listened to about four different versions a few days ago and was shaking his head a lot at the over-interpretation of the piece (our view, of course). He positively recoiled at Grante's playing. The Berezovsky is actually closest to what he does, except that it is a bit slower and he uses a touch more rubato.

BTW, we're doing a video recording. I'll post it when it is done. He now plays the piece with a different voicing in two places. Kudos to whomever can spot the differences when we put the video up.

Piano*Dad, it is refreshing to hear the methods Piano*Son and he teacher used to approach Chopin. Sometimes performers all seem to copy each other and build up habits that go completely against the composer's intentions. When you make the video, be sure to let us see those hands please!

I am jealous too.

Stubby fingers of Essex

Piano*Dad/Son, I can't wait to see the video! Large hands are a great perk when playing such pieces. I envy your son and others like Rachmaninoff that can play tenths+ at moderate speeds. I have a recording of Rachmaninoff playing Liszt/Schubert Das Wandern arrangement that requires eighth note tenths at Moderato assai tempo. Even though they are written as rolls, Rachmaninoff effortlessly plays them as solid tenths. I was shocked and semi disappointed that I would never be able to play it like that. Ah well Check it out:

Yes. It is so easy to get caught up in trying to mimic the professionals. For that reason I like to listen to as many interpretations as possible, amateur to professional, trying to determine the reason for their rendition and whether or not is worth adopting it in my own playing. Many times I follow along the sheet music with a recording and hear so many violations and "artistic" freedoms and learn how not to play them.

That's excellent!

Both of you are so right about the propensity to copy. This was not so easy in the Romantic Era, wherein the only way to "hear" the piece was to play it or hear it played.

Piano*Dad, I'm looking forward to that video, and the challenge of spotting the voicing difference.

I sometimes wonder if Chopin's advice that his students should listen to as many practicing artists as they could might have been a little different in our world of media saturation. Sometimes it's good to seek out the heart of a piece for oneself without preconception.

It was inspiring to hear everyone's playing, and I'm impressed with how well you all did. I think you really got into the purpose of these pieces as etudes -- you can hear how each person was striving to meet the technical challenges and was reaping the benefits.

Also, thanks for the nice compliments on my playing. I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what one could get out of this piece. I had so much trouble getting started on it; having a deadline and a commitment is what made me push myself to get it to a coherent level.

I think Steven is the one who asked, rhetorically, "when are these pieces ever NOT works in progress?"

I'm still finding new ideas and new beauty in pieces that I started or originally learned over thirty years ago.

BTW, PianoAgain I too liked how you put together the 27/7 without overdoing the schmaltz. It's so easy to sentimentalize that piece, especially the beginning.

Congratulations one and all. Perhaps Chopin wasn't really meant to be background music for doing chores, but it's the only thing that works for me! My house thanks you

Cathy

I have begun listening to these and I am really impressed. The only I've even attemped is the 25-1 (very beautifully done, Jazzyprof), and it finally wore me down. I dream of the 10-12, but I think that's out of my reach, so maybe I'll listen and find one I can do. I might have to wait until the kids are grown and I've retired to give one of these a decent attempt!

Thanks for doing this. It's really a wonderful thing to see everyone honoring Chopin and our own piano goals in this way.

Nancy

Congratulations all of you! I was completely stunned when I downloaded all the files and listened to them. I did it again and again and am still listening to them and the only thing I can say is that all the performances are exceptional.

I won't say which one moved me the most, as it highly depends on my love towards some of the etudes and even I can't tell - but every single one is crisp and heart-warming.

I am proud of you!

Thanks for this immense pleasure!


Mateusz

I haven't had a chance to listen carefully to all the performances but I was not surprised at the unbelievable quality of the playing. We really have some fine pianists in this group!

I'm very honored to have been included.

So am I. I was blown away by every performance but my own.