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Very beautiful Monica................you're really good at playing his music. Nice grace notes too, I always like those grace notes they have a way of adding flavor.

I know I have heard this song before but I cant seem to remember which CD this song was on. A couple of his CDs' were stolen out of my car a year ago when I was at the mall doing Xmas
Shopping.

Monica,

As usual, you put your heart and soul into your piano. Nice work, girl.

It's beautiful.

Sincerely,

Lisztener

As per AnthonyB's encouragement, I have, as of this weekend, officially embarked upon Limbo.

AnthonyB, by the way, is kicking some serious tail on I due fiumi. He shared a recent take on it, and he's thisclose. Hats off.

Ok, y'all, I posted a clip of where I am with Limbo on my blog. The recording has a few errors in it, the tempo is uneven, especially in that buildup section, measures 31-54. I need a lot of work there. And I also have to pay better attention to dynamic markings, and overall do a better job with legato. But if I waited until all that was done, I'd never get anything posted.

I do have a question. How can I even out the tempo? Is it just a matter of practice? I am still really choppy.

Finally, a clip for you

I think you're making terrific progress, AWTPP!! Yeah, there were a couple of small hesitations, but that's something that will work itself out with practice. I'm guessing the hesitations occur at the same spots, so I would just practice the measure or two before and after each transition five times in a row.

I don't think I had clicked on your blog before... that's really impressive! I love the layout and how easy it is to navigate, and all your links. (And I would have been complimentary even if you HADN'T have mentioned me. )

I definitely think you should submit Limbo to the recital and earn your Order of the Red Dot medal. You'll have two weeks to try to get a smoother recording, but even if you don't, I think the current version is more than adequate.

That was great AW2PP. I understand where you are at with the piece since I've been there too.

Some of the sound is a bit lousy due to what youtube has been doing to audio. Some horrid stuff with compressors and the like that usually causes some notes after some silence to be a simple "thud" as well as amplifying the low volume stuff horribly. I do hope youtube sorts the issue out rather soon, as a lot of people that post musical performances are really upset.

While I do have a video camera I don't have any way currently to get any video into my computer so you'll just have to settle for a possible audio recital by myself. But it was nice to get a peek at the old piano and yourself as well!

It's probably more appropriate to play Ragtime on that old piano, but that stuff it so hard.

I'm embarrassed to ask this, but here goes. What do the horizontal bars over individual notes mean? (For instance, the very first RH note of Melodia Africana II...)

It's an accent marking, AWTPP... hold those notes a little longer to emphasize the melody.

In my fun attempts at beating that darn red dot for today I think I need to add notes to the sheet music to see if the poor piano player is remembering to breathe.

I'll have to admit I crashed horribly when I got close to finishing my first good recording. I'm sure that happens to all of us too.

But yes, Monica did state that correctly, a bit longer on those notes with the little lines like that.

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

Samba

La Nascita (Ludovico Einaudi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnhaMn3_UNc

"Samba" sounds very nice, I like it.

Seeing as Einaudi is not composing music fast enough to suit me, I've been digging up some of his more obscure albums. I recently bought "Stanze," which I think is one of his first releases. It's unusual in that (a) it's harp , not piano; and (b) he's not playing the music. Amazon.com in the States doesn't carry it, but amazon.co.uk does (and iTunes carries it as well):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Einaudi-Stanze/dp/B0000264YQ

After listening to it a few times, my assessment is that:

*I prefer his solo piano albums, BUT

*it's still very pleasant music, ALTHOUGH

*it's a lot mellower with fewer distinctive melodies.

This would not be an album I'd recommend to introduce anybody to Einaudi, but diehard Einaudi fans should still enjoy it, and if you like harp music, you should definitely get it.

I might as well post this question to the Einaudi thread here.

I'm wondering if anyone has the sheet music books for some of the other Einaudi albums and where they got them from.

I've got the best of book so that pretty much covers Le Onde, I Giorni and Eden Roc albums leaving Una Mattina and Divenire uncovered. It's never too early to get started on my Birthday and Christmas lists, you know.

Is anyone out there just buying a song or two online rather than the entire album worth? (The best of book from Amazon was a steal compared to buying a few songs.)

I've got both the Una Mattina and Divenire books. The average level of difficulty is a bit harder in those books than the Best Of collection, though. Of those two, my (slight) preference would be for Una Mattina. From that book I've played the title piece, "Dietro Casa," and "Nuvole Bianche" (my recital piece ). And I really really want to learn the 12 minute epic "Ancora" someday, but it's way beyond me at this point.

It is not an exaggeration to say that I want to learn everything Einaudi has ever written or will write for piano, so I opt for buying the books over single pieces. Even if I can't play them all yet, with luck, one day I will!

Monica, maybe you can answer something for me. (Or anyone, just chime in...)

I've shelved Fuori Dal Mondo for now, as the LH is a bit beyond my level. I could probably memorize the pattern done with enough time, but I think there is some rememdial work I need to do first. I figure if I work on some of the simpler LH patterns for awhile, while learning a simpler piece, it will make this (and other pieces) easier on down the road. So, I've been talked into giving Ombre a try.

Ombre seems very easy, on first glance. The RH, in fact, is trivial. However, there are some LH intervals that thoroughly confuse me.

Starting on measure 9, there is a whole note on the LH (an A), followed by some 8th notes. I can manage sustaining the A with my pinky, and hitting the 8th notes with 3 and 5. This gets trickier as the span increases (measure 16, for instance), but it is still manageable.

Later on, not so much. Measure 33, for instance, is the first LH span of octave plus two. I can barely manage this, but it's a real stretch. I am certain people with smaller hands could not make this reach, which, in turn, causes me to wonder how this is really supposed to be played.

Ombre gets worse. Much worse. There is no way I (heck, no way Shaquille O'Neal) can cover the spans in, say, measures 79, 87, 93... and yet, there is no sustain pedal called for here.

I took a look at various Youtube clips, and based on what I can tell, everyone simply makes a quick reach for the lowest note, then returns to the middle of the keyboard. From the sound, I can't quite tell if they are able to sustain the lowest note, much less how.

I figure there must be some basic technique I need to learn here. And whatever it is, I figure I should be doing that even in the measures like 9 where the span is not a problem.

So my question is obvious: how is one expected to sustain those super low notes, while keeping up with the LH arpeggios higher up the register?

I have a second question, related to this, but I don't want to be greedy. This is long enough as it is.

Use it anyway. That's how I play this piece... I pedal the heck out of the left hand. You have to, especially starting with measure 53 when you're holding those octaves and playing eighth notes.

The Einaudi book only very rarely indicates pedaling, and usually only when it's not immediately intuitive. But I pedal heavily through all his pieces. Well, truth be told, I pedal heavily through EVERYTHING I play.

In Ombre, the trickiest part for me was measure 25, where you're playing the triplet and the E in the right hand is doing double duty with the bass clef pattern. It's hard to voice that so the melody stands out clearly.

So basically you pedal every measure. Cool. I haven't been getting my cardio in this summer, I could use the extra workout.

(Seriously. The pedals on my old piano are pretty stiff.)

Thanks for the info.

Well, it's more precise to say I pedal with every chord change, rather than every measure. (Even I have my limits. ) e.g., I'll pedal with measure 9, 10, 11 and hold down through 12; pedal 13, 14, 15 and hold down through 16, etc.