I am aware of imperfections, but still, I hope you enjoy, and would love some comments. Wish I played violin, but this works too

https://www.box.com/s/l3ldpiszr1j10oz48ijv

Stop it! *sigh* Sorry but...this is just too good; you're making us half-hopefuls look bad! 12:39-ish variation... !!! You know I'm in no position to say with any validity (at least by now ), but, um, this sounds pretty technically solid to me and there's some interpretation going on...it may be a while before Grimaud is shaking in her bootlets, but...well, I won't say you *will* get there However, um, I doubt there's anyone in attendance who'd tell you to give up on it; perhaps by the time you've polished this and are performing it in front of the awed masses I'll have gotten past the first few pages ^>^ I...well, um, sorry, but it'd be remiss of me to not indicate; I'm not a fan of the Picardy third in this piece...but I just hate major chords and *musically* I'm not sure that's all that hefty an argument against popping it in there...*grumble*
Xxx
P.S. Fan-bloody-tastic work!

Bravo! It must be quite thrilling to play a piece like this. I think if one made a list of very great pianists one would would find that a significant percent of them have played this work.

For those like me, who cannot hope to play this piece because of it's technical requirements, I recommend the Siloti transcription which is probably the closest to the Busoni version but significantly easier (although I think it still sounds quite good):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuQqvhwaD4w

Thanks to both of you for listening!! Yes, this is very thrilling. Such RAW passion I will listen to the Siloti arrangement; I've never heard it before.

Good stuff.
I have the Bollet performance, always thought one needs 12 fingers to play this thing...

Surprisingly, Busoni had rather small hands.

OSK, a very musical rendition of this piano realization. I've heard other performances which tend to overemphasize the virtuosic implications, which IMO has the cumulative effect of driving the poor piece into the ground. For me, this was a quite satisfying presentation, in the rough general terms of honoring the many emotional peaks and valleys of this extraordinary piece.

As good as this was, though, I still remain unquestionably more a fan of Brahms' realization, for the left hand alone. For me, confining the demands to one hand alone inherently creates a better "match", if you will, to the struggles of a solo violin.
Brahms composed this realization (I hate to even call it a transcription, although it is much closer than Busoni's to Bach's original conception) for Clara Schumann in the late 1870s -- a little trifle for her to work on while her injured right hand was healing. If you haven't as yet visited the Brahms composition, I strongly recommend that to your attention - to assess comparative visions, if nothing else.

Thank you for your comment! I'm also very familiar with the Brahms arrangement, though I haven't played it. I'll read through it again sometime.

...and you want to be a choir director???

Thanks for listening and commenting! Yes, I do; I'm not going to give up playing classical piano, though!! My choir director was a good pianist in his undergrad and master's days. One of his big pieces was the Prokofiev Toccata (which my teacher wants me to learn; wish me luck).

I know many, many conductors who are fabulous pianists, so you will be in good company

My dad was an accomplished organist and pianist. He could play, conduct, and chuck a hymnal at miscreants while hitting the target, all at the same time, without missing a beat.

That made me laugh, because I can just envision that

Conducting class went very well today. We've actually been working a lot with conducting Gregorian chant, and that's helped a lot. Next semester I want to take instrumental conducting courses as well as choral conducting studies

You'll get there...

I'm overawed, OSK. This, for me in all honesty, ranks among the great recorded Chaconne performances - spectacular playing that's wonderfully sensitive to its ever-changing textures and at the same time magically capturing the large-scale narrative drift of Bach's (and Busoni's) architectural vision. I've bookmarked it and will surely find myself re-listening to it repeatedly over years to come.

My sincerest thanks,

Richard

Thank you very much for listening and enjoying!! I still plan on fixing a couple misreadings and improving the recording quality.

OSK - By all means do so. Get it to the point that YOU are satisfied with it - then please share the new version with us so we can enjoy it as well !!!!

It's been a real pleasure to observe your growth as a musician over the past few years. Keep playing, learning and improving your conducting skills. I think you have a wonderful career ahead of you.

Bravo OSK !

I have listened to parts of this and it seems you have almost solved all the technical difficulties. Of course there is still room for improvement.

That said, I would use the pedal more sparingly for the moment. You have learned the notes and brought the tempo to a certain level. But this is still not your piece yet. You have a long way to go.

I am sure with time you will get this to a perfect level and own the piece.

Thanks for sharing and please do post another one soon.

Congratulations!! I really love Bach, I really love Busoni and I really love your performance!!

I think you've done a great work with this beast, so you can be very proud.

Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks to all of you! Hakki, someone else also pointed out some pedaling issues to me, and I will be much more careful with my pedaling in the future.

I think this is one of the best recordings here at PW (and elsewhere too).
You should (and will) be a conducting pianist!

Sorry for a month-old bump. Original link doesn't work anymore, but I YouTubed it. Also, ChopinAddict, thank you very much for that comment. I did not see it.