Hello all, its been a while since i've posted on this site! Lets just say i've been busy...practicing piano! Lol, but a few months ago I posted a video of me playing Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux #5 Adagio Sostenuto (I can't find the post anymore, or else i would've posted this on that thread) and I got alot of good critique. I would like to share this new video with you of me playing the same piece. It's not the entire piece like before, but I start playing right in the middle and go to the end (I can't play too long for the camera without messing up!). Please tell me what you think!

IFMO -

I don't know this piece well, but overall your playing sounds just fine...

EXCEPT its hard to tell what's really going on because the "sound quality" of your video is pretty poor.

I bet some of the good folks here will be able to give you some suggestions about how to make future recordings...either with or without the video. You might even send PMs to others who have posted their recordings with video to see how they went about it.

Best -

Sounds like the sustain pedal was engaged from start to finish. Was that intentional?

yeah but i lifted it. dont you see my knee moving?

i know right...you think that when you buy a new computer and it says 'HD video and sound' recording that it would actually be high definition...but it sounds shittier (excuse me) than my phone.

It's pretty difficult to make out much because of the poor sound quality of this video; it's all compromised by a bass hum that almost over-rides everything.

That said : a couple of comments :

- I think your basic tempo is too fast. This is marked Adagio sostenuto with a MM indication of 54 to the quarter note. Part of the difficulty and beauty of this piece is maintaining not only a singing sostenuto, legato line at this tempo, but also in keeping a sense of forward movement even at the slow (recommended) tempo.

At the return of the theme (measure 38) after the brief E-major section, the theme mf should be distinctly fuller in sound than the "echos" pp that follow. You should make an attempt for the long melody notes (whole notes at measures 39 and 41) to carry through the entire measure while the pp "echos" above the staff are just barely heard. Those "echos" - as I keep calling them - should not be played detached as you are doing (your fingers virtually bounce off them as though they were semi-staccato) which gives them a sort of jaunty quality, but should be as smoothly legato as the rest of the piece.

I think my main concern in your rendition of this section of the piece is that you don't seem to make much effort to play it with a real, seamless, creamy, vocal-like legato line which should be, to me, at any rate, the very essence of this piece. This results, in part, from your choice of fingering; you often play successive notes in the melody line with the same finger, often 4 or 5 on successive notes, thus leaving a gap between the notes as you move from one to the next; this should be avoided by using a great deal of "finger legato" along with the damper pedal. This surely takes away from the almost somber but surely reflective nature of this work and which suggests to me that you don't fully understand the character of this Moment Musical.

Regards,