It sounds like you are not using very much(too little) pedal.

I think it's terrific!! Even though I 'disagree' with a key thing that you're doing, but heck, it's probably impossible not to 'disagree' with some thing that someone's doing who does a 'personal' interpretation, which this clearly is.

I like the fact that you bend the rhythms and that you play with a lilt that seems heartfelt and internalized. But, the bending very often involves playing notes a bit sooner than they "should" be, which bothered me a lot at first, less so as you went along, maybe because you did it less (I think you did!!) or maybe because I got desensitized to it.

I think your pedaling is extremely well done. I can understand the above comment about the pedaling and I might well have felt the same thing if not that I've worked on the piece -- in fact, continue working on it, on-and-off, and I find that as I go along, I keep deciding to pedal less and less because I see how much gets swallowed up otherwise. There's so much going on within the music, and I like having a good amount of clarity for it all. But, as a disclaimer, maybe the reason I have the different response than Plover is that at least on my computer, the sound was quite faint. I couldn't get it anywhere near as loud as it really is, and so maybe I'm not judging the pedaling very accurately.

BTW, the very beginning seems to be missing. I didn't start hearing anything till the 2nd beat of the 1st full measure, even though I tried repeatedly.

hehe, the problem with recording with a nice portable device is that it's hard to think of a nice and discreet placing for it on stage, where the sound is decent. I didn't have much time to consider this, and decided instead to hand the device to a friend who sat close to the stage - still, as close as at the 2nd row, the sound gets muddled and not clear enough. In any case, I just normalized the files and that's about the best I can do - listen back and see if it's any better, and yes, the upbeat and the first beat of the first full measure are there, too, I promise . I tried using "noise reduction" as well, but it seriously altered the quality of the piano sound. Next time, I'll make sure to have the microphone on stage instead

Thanks Mark for the detailed comments. Yes, the bending of rhythms is very much like you described - on the exaggerated side in the beginning, getting less extreme as the piece went on. I've listened to a decent amount of performances of this, finding it interesting that there's such a variety of interpretations to basic issues of tempo, pedaling, articulation etc in such a tiny piece! Kapell emphasizes the sad, wistful singing quality of the piece (the kujawiak aspect, one could say) while Rachmaninoff almost makes it playful, with the lightly detached left hand chords and rhythmic alternations in the melody (he's not always doing what Chopin wrote). Sokolov is a completely different case - while his playing is beautiful and articulate as always (take note of the exquisite trilling somewhere in the beginning), one wonders if he would be able to justify his tempo choice as being anything near an actual "Allegretto", or if someone unexposed to the piece previously would guess that it is in fact a Mazurka... My own leanings with this gem are somewhere inbetween Kapell and Rachmaninoff I suppose, and I might perhaps justify some exaggerations in rhythm with an attempt at a more vocal style of playing Note that it usually happens after a long (and high) note, followed by a sequence of smaller note-values. Having played a note, there's pretty much nothing we pianists can do about it - but playing with agogics we surely can do!

In any case, thanks both of you for the remarks! In the future, I'd love to do a whole Mazurka concert, including works in the genre by Chopin, Szymanowski and Maciejewski...let's see if there'll ever be time for it

I love it--I think the spare pedaling gives it a sparkling quality.

Fnork: Only now just noticed your reply!

I've heard the Rachmaninoff and Sokolov recordings and had exactly the same reactions as you.


Could be great!

it's a nice idea I think I'm trying to figure out if there are any other mazurka composers worthy of attention? I'm not too fond of Scriabin's efforts...Apparently, Thomas Ades has been writing a bunch recently and has been performing them himself - have to check that out.

fnork, Alexandre Tansman has written some elegant and wonderful Mazurkas -- most of which he calls "Mazurkas", but also a few of his "Intermezzi" which are in fact mazurka-like. Highly recommended!

I played one of them (Impromptu a la Mazur) at the Cliburn amateur competition and it went over quite well.
Maybe check it out.
Rather than a link to my performance how about Sofronitsky.

pretty neat, but nowhere near Szymanowski's or Chopin's contributions to the genre, IMO!