My 1st recording post. I just had my Estonia for one month and it is freshly tuned. Start learning this piece last week & still reading the score. Suggestions regarding my playing and the recording quality are welcomed. Thank you!

Chopin Nocturne in C# Minor (Opus Post)

Thank you for sharing your music

You have a very sensitive touch with this piece, and it sounds like you are connecting with the music and piano - most excellent!

Very good recording...what micrphone(s) and program, if any?

Glen

Thanks. Glen. I used the M-Audio Pulsar II matched pair and the Presonus Firebox connected to my MacBook Pro. I used Cubase LE to record & add reverb, Audacity to amplify and convert to MP3.

Youre off to a very good start!

Some things you need to improve:

1. The tempo. It should be a slow dreamy nocturne, but if you play it to slow you kill all the life in it. So go a little(!) bit faster and i promise you it will sound better

2. Rubato could be a bit more well placed. Now you're adding a small pause between all the notes in the main theme, but youre oddly metronomical in other sections, in particular the 4 against 3 parts, where you really need to loosen up your play. If you practice both hands separately for some more this will become natural and easy

Some things that i would do differently but im not sure that you want to alter your:

3: Dynamics. I would play with a greater variation in dynamics, as the challenge really lies in not to make the piece boring. Not exaggerating the pp and f, but let your listeners know the piece changes colour from time to time.

4: Rits, you do some slowing where you shouldnt. With your current tempo it sounds very wierd, but might work if you increase the tempo a tad.

That was my suggestions, just dont take what im saying for granted. Test it out and see if you like it, if not go with your own instincts.

Otherwise a nice recording, i hope you make some more

Adapa, thanks a lot for your excellent suggestions. That's exactly what I'm looking for. I will keep all your suggestions in mind when practicing. I also need to work on my trills. I tends to get tense during recording

I've given a lot of thoughts on the tempo for this piece, and listen to different performances. It appears the tempos are all over the place. Some perform this piece under 4 minutes, while my reference for this piece (by Artur Pizarro) perform it for 5:36. My tempo (5:30) is influenced by him, but perhaps I don't have the skills and maturity to perform at such a slow tempo without making the piece too boring. The playing of this piece in movie "The Pianist" is very nice, but seems a bit too fast for my taste.

I tried speed things up a bit (to more of Andante rather than the designated Lento). The piece seems to be easier to play, but then I tend to play faster & faster. Need to be calm and in control.

Thanks again! Hope to see you more here! I'll make more recordings for archiving purposes. I think it's also very beneficial for me to listen to my playing because I can hear many imperfections that I somehow didn't notice when I was playing.