Hello everyone:

I recorded this performance a couple of days ago. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. I'm always looking to learn and improve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnH52Sxflhg

Thanks and I hope you all have a great weekend,

Phil

Phil, very nice playing! Tempo seems right, though somehow I felt like it needed a little more steadiness. Some of the ornaments differ from what I have in my edition, (it's edited by R. Kirkpatrick), but the differences are just fine.

I do admit to being puzzled a couple times, though. At about 0:30 and 0:48 you play the ornaments before the beat rather than on the beat. I believe they should always be played on the beat. Everywhere else in this performance, you play the ornaments on the beat. Were the "before the beat" occurrences deliberately choices, or did they just "happen?" If they were deliberate choices, I'm curious what your reasoning was.

Great feedback-thanks.

Re: the ornaments being played off the beat at times, no, that definitely just happened. I need to work more on being conscious of making sure to keep this consistent.

Thanks again for the feedback:-)

Phil

Wanted to share these comments with the community.

Here are the notes my very accomplished teacher sent me after viewing the video:

"1. It sounded a little too much. Maybe you can be a little bit more selective about what you do. I think it is hard to explain in email. Can I show you at our lesson?

2. I would try to layer the voices a little bit more, so one can hear the horizontal lines of each voice a little bit better.

Great work! Thanks or sharing this with me."

My teacher is right, in sections it is a bit too much - perhaps that was because I had to wrestle a bit with the Steinway D I was playing and time constraints-but those are lame excuses. I just need to bring in a bit more control and stay truer to the period.

I also agree on the horizontal voicing, I need to be more conscious of this and not be so focused on the RH melody.

I will be performing this live on May 24th in recital, and I will post a video of that performance for all of you.

Thank you so much for the feedback, please keep it coming. I have so much to learn.

Phil

this piece is interpreted by performers in so many 'ways'.

i enjoyed your performance, your ornaments. Are you studying this with your teacher? For some reason this piece is difficult to control..(particularly during performance) to steadily let the melody flow without tempo variations. I don't know why this is such a difficult piece. You've a great job.

If you really like love the Goldberg Variations, Gould (the '81 version)and Schiff both play them marvelously.

I do find your body movements a bit distracting.. thinking, oh no, there's the head bob again.. rather than listening to the music. The marvelous melody of the aria I think is 'entertainment' enough.

thankyou

Possibly the most difficult (certainly for me) facet of playing Bach (and other contrapunctual music) really well. And my experience - a really large piano (Bosendorfer Imperial Grand in my case) makes it even harder. Just too much. Much prefer my "A" for Bach.

But overall, a very nice job.

This was my feeling, from the very first notes. The question of polyphony is one side of that.

I have the impression that you are playing to what you have heard, instead of reading Bach.

Thank you for the comments.

It is deceptively difficult isn't it - and I agree, it's interpreted in so many ways.

I also appreciate the feedback on the body movements. I need to moderate these. I don't do it consciously - but I do need to remove that when it distracts from the music. Thank you for your candor.

Yes, I studied it with my teacher. But I took some liberties outside of her teachings and I need to revisit the piece with her and listen to more of her feedback.

Thanks again!

Phil

Yes, I think there is some truth to your comment. I think it's at a point where it's a combination of playing to what I've been taught, what I feel when I play and think about this Aria and what I've heard all at once! It's not cohesive enough yet.

Thanks for your feedback and for listening-much appreciated.

I will post my video of my upcoming performance of this piece on May 24th - by then, I hope to have some of this ironed out.

Phil

And Gould's '55 version, deliberately left out by apple, but a very important recording to me.

Philip, this is a very sensitive interpretation. Thanks for sharing. My inclination would be to have less tempo variation, and more of a sense of a slow, stately, steady pulse, unchanging, defined mostly by the lowest voice. I don't know how historically accurate the notion of the steady pulse is, or whether I'm just influenced by Gould, but I imagine it would provide some of the cohesion you say you're seeking.

-Jason

I agree. Not because it is the "correct" way to play but because it is the only way to get a firm handle on the piece.

By the way, I wouldn't speak of a steady pulse, but of a pulse that pushes forward, a very baroque principle, and tightly linked to the portato.

Thank you Jason - calling this is a sensitive interpretation means a lot to me.

And you're absolutely right about the "pulse".

I am going to put these comments to work later today at the piano and really focus on this to bring about more cohesion.

Again thanks.

Thank you - yes, "pushing forward" - my teacher has used this same phrase with me when we worked on this piece. This focus on a pulse, yet with the feeling of this pulse pushing forward.

Thank you for reminding me of this mindset - I will put this to work later today when I practice.

Thanks much!

Phil

Thanks for the feedback Bart. I agree. I recently came across an old Baldwin off in the corner of a practice area at MacPhail. So I thought I'd give it a play. I played a couple of pieces, including this Bach Aria-what amazed me was how light the action was yet the piano had a very nice tone.

The light action, compared to what I'm used to on my Steinway B, really helped with some of the ornaments in particular and the flow of the piece.

Pianos are so individual - especially Steinways (I've never played a Bosendorfer) in my experience.

But I loved this 5' 7'' or so Baldwin grand.

What you say gives me great pleasure. Makes me think, maybe I should go into teaching, open up "L'Andorrano's hair and piano institute".

Actually, I couldn't think of an appropriate word in English for what I wanted to say. In French one might say "allant", il faut avoir de l'allant, it should have allant. Allant strictly translated means going, but as a musical terminology it fits very well. Andante has the same sense, this forward movement of the music, but andante seems in English to be denuded of this sense and only infers tempo. Andante would mean walking or going.

I love it. First the hair - people always feel better after a hair cut, or for women, after they get their hair done. So what better way to flow into a lesson then when you're feeling confident, revived, etc.

L'Andorrano's hair and piano institute it is...

Really excited:

Just had a lesson with my teacher on the Bach Aria - came prepared with sticky notes all over the score incorporating some of you're collective feedback- nailed down some of the key areas that need to be tightened up and it now feels really cohesive.

I need to practice many of these subtle and not so subtle changes, exorcise the bad habits and then bring the piece back up to recording/performance level.

Thanks everyone!