Here's my recording of Standchen by Schubert, arranged by Liszt. This was a really fun and rewarding piece to learn.

Standchen, Schwanengesang - S 560

Constructive comments are welcome. Thanks for listening!

Wonderful!!! This is one of my top favorite transcriptions of all time. Other than perhaps a handful of spots, you carried the melody perfectly to my ears. I'll look at the score while listening later to pinpoint anything and to make sure it wasn't just me. The Steinway sounds gorgeous and very well tuned. Your pp touch is great, too!

Horowitz's recording of Ständchen is a must have. It's on the Horowitz at Home disc from Deutsch-Grammophon.

Hey, thanks Horowitzian for your encouraging comments. It was very hard for me to memorize this transcription. The left hand chording changes all the times.
I cheated in the bridge section by not playing some notes, because of very awkward fingering. It will probably take me a few more months to get them all.

I do keep the Steinway tuned.

What measures contain fingering that you find awkward? Perseverance brings reward!

Yeah, I think I was just lacking perseverance here. The fingering wasn't way too awkward, it's the "con agitazione" section. The right hand plays octave notes and has syncopated inner notes. I was having a hard time playing the inner notes.

I'm learning Tristesse right now. It requires _lots_ of perseverance there. Maybe after that is done, I'll go back and clean up the shortcuts I made with Standchen.

by the way, Horowitz' recording of Standchen is superb. His dynamic is so huge and the notes are very clean and distinctive.

I'm glad you enjoy it as much as I do. What's more amazing is how old he was at the time. I looked at my score...yeah, those look like a bit of trouble unless you have a really large hand. Pull those out and practice them by themselves until you can play them well.

Wow, wonderful playing!! Not only your playing but the recording quality and the camera work were mighty fine as well. I just recently listened to pianovirus's interpretation on youtube and was inspired enough to get the sheet music and try it myself. I've opted for the Heller transcription (although I like the Liszt better) just because it will be a little more my speed. Many thanks for sharing that.

Thanks Peyton! The camera work was a little trick I learned recently when making videos for family. It's poor man's multi angle trick by zooming and panning in the editing software.

I've watched your videos and you're pretty good yourself. Good luck on the Standchen.

oh i forgot that i have this piece, it's one of the best melodies ever written. It's gorgeous and you do a great job! I love your soulfullness.

I'll have to pull it out again.

Hi, excellent recording. i really enjoyed it. I wonder, are you playing the ossia staves at the beginning or the more difficult ones? I've noticed than even in recordings by professional pianists they tend to play a mixture of the two.

Thanks Apple for your comments.

Thanks for your comment bruce-san. Were you mentioning the staves on the bottom with smaller & thinner lines? I didn't play those, I was wondering what those are for. I didn't pay attention too much on those, but they looked kind of identical to the main staves.

I found your interpretation to be quite tasteful and respectful of both composer and transcriber. If I may, I would make a few suggestions though. Firstly, I would advise using more pedal in the first four measures (are you using any?). The notes in the right hand are supposed to be staccato but you still should pedal through at least a little bit (according to my sheet music, Liszt even wrote it in). It's a little startling when the melody in the right hand begins in measure 5 and the base line is no longer sounds staccato. Secondly, from measures 66-85 and 94-97, the top voice should act as a sort of echo so I'd suggest playing those parts a bit softer if you can or bringing the lower voice out more. Thirdly, let's see more videos from you!

Honestly, you did a really great job. I wish there were more people like you on YouTube. It looks like you've really worked hard and thought about this piece a lot. Keep up the good work!

I know the piece,have heard it hundreds times and different performances but it never touched me so much as now.
Great job!

akonow: Thanks so much for your comments and helpful tips. I used the pedal only the last 2 notes of every measure (just before each chord changes). In my mind, I was thinkinging of it being like marcatto string section. You're right though that when the melody comes in, the change was too abrupt. I need to figure out a way to blend it in just before the melody comes in.

I agree that I need to work on the echo to be softer.

snow: Thanks! I'm honored.

It's on my hard drive now. Great job!

This is one of the most enjoyable videos I've ever had the pleasure of seeing and hearing on YouTube. Excellent video and sound quality, and a really lovely piece of music... well done ab-ster!

May I ask what equipment you used to record the video?

It's obvious that you have taken great care in your performance.

I think the most important thing to work on is the dynamic shaping of the melody. For example, sometimes I think you accent the opening note of the main melody too much. Or compare the volume of the opening triplet after the intro to the triplet in the next measure.

There are other notes that shouldn't be accented at all that are accented in your performance(the first G at around .22 for example).

@Damon: Thanks!

@cruiser: Thanks. I used Canon VIXIA HF200 to record the video. For audio, I used M-Audio Pulsar II matched pair, Tascam US-122 soundcard and recorded straight to PC. I used compressor to trim the loud sound and bring the level up, then Freeverb2 to add grand room ambience.

@pianoloverus: Thanks for your comments on dynamic. I didn't pay attention to the dynamic markings on the score and went with my own feeling. I'll study that when I come back to work on this piece again.

Actually it's not the dynamic markings in the score I was talking about since I didn't have the score in front of me. But if you listen to only the melody I think that playing the first triplet f or ff and the second one pp would not make sense. Also, the first G I mentioned should not be accented because it sounds wrong(in a descending second the lower note is rarely accented). If you sing a melody, almost everyone get's things right almost automatically, so it can be helpful to to this. Also helpful is to ask yourself "What is the most important note in within a group of notes or a phrase?".

Thanks ab-ster...

...and there was I thinking I might get similar results with my Canon IXUS and Windows Moviemaker - oh well!

This melody is so familiar to me and yet until just recently, I owned no recording of it. Since I don't listen to the radio, I am at a loss as to where I've heard this. Does anyone know if this has been redone as some sort of (older) pop song, or perhaps in soundtracks of some old movie(s)?

Thanks again to ab-ster for posting this.

It's one of Schubert's most well-known Lieder, and you hear it in this form (voice and piano), but also in all sorts of orchestral and instrumental arrangements. I should think it would be difficult to get through your life without hearing it at least 20 times.

I've never heard it sung until about a week ago. (that's not the sort of singing my ears can tolerate) Must have been a movie.

Great job ab-ster. What a pleasure to listen to your performance. Thanks so much for posting this. And as said above, let's hear more from you!

Very beautiful. I love the sound of the piano and the recording quality.

@Damon: I haven't heard this song anywhere else except from my mom piano playing when I was a kid.

@heidiv: Thanks for your comments. I'll do another video soon for the most recent learnt pieces. I need to have them polished first though.

@babama: Thanks! I was trying different micing positions and got that sweet spot. Hopefully I can recreate that for my next recording.

WOW!!! you did AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! A lot of people play this without the staccato, however you played it 'the right' way which is awesome, i tried to play it with staccato but i cant make it sound as nice as yours!

Thanks Oblacone. Have fun with your new KG-2C!

Nice job. This is pretty good ab-ster. Whatever you used to record the audio it certainly worked very, very well. I think your pedalling in the opening measures works perfectly. This is a work that you REALLY have to listen to yourself with. If you don't all of those dynamic nuances will be lost. Nice attention to the details.
Have you ever heard the Horowitz recording of this transcription? It's one of the most beautiful things I've EVER heard and left me stunned speechless the first time I listened to it. Perahia, has recorded it as well, and it's fantastic too, but not quite Horowitz.

I linked to it above; really a must-hear.

Oh, I hadn't seen that. It's amazing isn't it?

It sure is; his playing during those last 3-4 years (beginning with the Soviet Union tour) was nothing short of phenomenal.

By the way, your link doesn't work any longer, because, apparently, the video has been pulled. There are a few others on Youtube, of the same recording though. I was listening to my recording again earlier and every time I hear it, I say, "how the HELL does he do that?"

I hate when that happens...feel free to post another.

You know, I would, if I could figure out how to post links here (can't seem to figure out how to post images either). I'm sure once I figure it out I'll give myself a big DUH.

All you should have to do is paste the URL; it will convert to hypertext automatically. If you wish to get fancy:



That will allow you to name it whatever you want, or shorten a long URL.

Horowitz plays Schubert Serenade

Yay! I did it! Thanks H.

No problem!

I know this is an old thread - but Apple (I could set up an Estonian keyboard - sorry) has summed it up in exactly the words I would use - but would have been too embarrassed to. As they say in Australia, 'Good on you Apple!'

Very nice playing.

Very delicate playing abster, very very nice.

Could you tell me a bit more about the gear you've used to record audio and video?

Thx

PS

Thanks for the comments Stores, Semper Bosendorfer, TheSockPuppet & Pianostudent77. I just realized some traffic in this old thread.

I used a matched pair of M-Audio Pulsar II microphones and Tascam US-122 sound card with its built in humble preamp. The software that I used was Reaper multi track audio recorder. I used a touch of Reaper's compressor to bring trim the loud areas and bring the overall volume up. Then I used a touch of Freeverb2 to simulate a large hall within Reaper.

I used Canon HF200 to record the video and Sony Vegas 9.0 for editing.

So beautiful!

Very excellently-played piece. It is clear from the recording you are connecting with the music, expressing it very well.

Thank you for posting such a beautiful melody!

Glen

Thanks HappyApple & Glen