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I am truly staggered. Never expected such quality; I am seriously encouraged to DO BETTER! Ha ha

Dire Tonic op38 1 Who knows his stuff then? This is another for me to have a go at; I did miss a bit o` reverb like you had for the last one you did! Truly astonishing in every way. I`m lusting after that piano . . what is it?

Rostosky 38 2 Loved it man. Nowt wrong wi yer Pianoteq . . Heck, it`s a long `un . . one might say you drew the short straw. Maybe I should say I drew the long one. . .

Moriedienne 38 3 Wondered who`d get this one! This and 38 5, I just shook my head to. It was so nicely played I wish I`d had a go meself now. But I bet everybody here`s darned glad I didn`t lol Lovely job lass!

Peterws 38 4 Couldn`t ya lay off the beer just this once, man?

Dipsey 38 5 Another which I wisely decided against . . you`re showing me the way home on this one. No doubt about it. Great vid . . your music moved! Went like a train . .

Sam 38 6 Another long `un! How d`ya play without music for so long without messing up? Well executed, man!

Mendelssohn`s rather good isn`t he? Very well done, guys!

Congratulations to everyone today. This is so inspirational and it is an honor to be associated with so many talented pianists. Every one of these performances is highly musical, and I think what is being revealed here is how truly great a composer Mendelssohn is. Pianists of all sort - amateur and otherwise - could do much worse than devote a lifetime of learning to the Songs Without Words. Not every day, but now and then, one piece after another. They are never musically tiring, and they are always technically challenging. The only other large collection of accessible music like this is Schumann's Album for the Young, and one of the last ones published was written on learning of the unexpected death of Mendelssohn from a stroke. Schumann was devastated by this news and fell into an emotional collapse from which he never recovered - that's how much Mendelssohn meant to him. This project is helping us understand why.

Another nice round of Mendelssohn.

peterws, I love the video, and your playing. It looks like detached hands playing!

Dire tonic / you are so good. What a naturally musical performsnce!

Rossy - love both the music and picture. I never knew you are such a skilled player! Are you happened to be a druids at stonehenge? Just wondering.

PeterWs - I loved both music and performance

Meridian - needless to say wonderful performance. It sounds great the way it is but I'm looking forward to your future work.

SamS - you nailed it. This piece sounds wonderful and you brought the best. Congrats

Listening to each new piece on the list has been a real treat. This is also true for Op.38.

38/1 played by DireTonic: This is one of the pieces I haven't often listened to or attempted to play. I was most impressed by your performance of it. Once again you make out the melody line very clearly, and makes the music smoothly flowing.

38/2 played by Rostosky: A very emotional performance. You make real music out of this charming piece.

38/3 played by Morodiene: This is one of the nearly "unplayable" pieces in this collection. It is very beautiful and contains many nice modulations. As I understand from what you have been writing, you haven't been working on it for a very long time. You obviously is a fast learner, and I enjoyed listening to your performance.

38/4 played by Peterws: You really make out the special character of this piece. I didn't realise that it was such a great piece of music until I heard your performance.

38/5 played by Dipsey: This is one of the longer pieces, and technically quite hard. You managed to bring out some of the dramatic character of the composition. It must have been a lot of work needed to learn it.

38/6 played by SamS: The Duetto is one of the more famous Songs Without Words. It is a most beautiful piece, and much of the challenge is to bring out the "vocal" voices clearly. You play this piece very well. I noticed particularly that you have worked a lot on the awkward 3:2 places. Very inspiring to listen to.

Dipsey - You are no doubt a true daughter of your great father Beric. Great performance of the long and challenging piece

This continues to be a very rare treat. A wide spectrum of skill and possibility is on show. Although we’re of varying abilities it’s impossible not to be moved, listening to those of us who’ve put themselves to the test like never before, knowing of the determination and sheer grinding effort involved. No matter how halting a performance, the magic in these pieces is still vibrant, still drawing us in. And songs that I quickly rejected as being close to impossible for me have been chosen and played by the more experienced with style and aplomb – sometimes after no more than a run-through or two. Will I ever be able to do that?....err, No.

So, play on!! Nothing else this week much matters.

for info: -
wouter79 – I had a couple of weeks for 30-6 but I’m retired so lots of time to work on it.

peterws – what you’re hearing is the galaxy vintage ‘D’ piano – a sampled piano that runs inside the computer (needs to be at least medium performance) triggered from the DP. You’re not hearing the DP at all. All you need is a midi or usb-to-host connector on your DP and you can have the same sound (or tweak it to your own taste - reverb/tone/pedal noises etc etc). £100 or thereabouts – you should treat yourself!

Thanks for all your kind comments Recaredo, Peterws, Ganddalf, Dire Tonic, Farmgirl and Numerian. Its such a pleasure to be part of this project. There's no sense of competition, no egos, and the feeling of non judgement and acceptance from everyone for every single contribution made, is just wonderful.

Taking part has for me been a broader experience than 'just' attempting to learn a piece of music. There's feeling of being in a team - working towards a common goal, helping each other out if necessary, learning new skills, (awareness of technical equipment/recording process), and being creative in other ways too - making a video and writing and sharing our thoughts about the experience if one chooses.

Dire tonic Op 38 No 1: Another nicely done performance! I'm impressed by your memorizing all your pieces too. I really appreciate the singing melody you bring - not once does it get lost in the busy accompaniment!

Rostosky Op 38 No 2: Perhaps it was the recording process that brought about the "lost happiness" you were looking for . The editor who chose this title must have had a premonition of the troubles you would encounter when choosing the name! I agree the name doesn't suit the piece very well. A fine result, however, in spite of the camera issues. To me it had a sense of urgency to it, like someone was anxious about meeting up with someone they care about who lives far away.

Morodiene Op 38 No 3: Well, I know what *I* think about my playing, but I'd like to hear from you guys on this. Please offer any constructive criticism or advice on what I should do to help as I will continue to work on this one. Thanks!

Peterws Op 38 No 4: Great arpeggios! And nice articulations throughout as well. You gave this piece a sense of being stately without being stuffy about it

Dipsey Op 38 No 5: Wow - a real challenging piece, and you really pulled it off! This whole adventure has really helped me appreciate Mendelssohn much more. I had played some of his SWW and while I loved them, I had no idea of the variety of skills needed to play these. This one in particular is among the trickier ones. The back and forth between the hands is not easy to do evenly, especially over an entire piece - thank you!

SamS Op 38 No 6: OK, I'm in love with another one of these I'm going to have to learn now! Was the laptop recording the audio for you? I see what you mean about that being tricky when the two come together at the end. Still, you conveyed that it was a very powerful moment and it was exciting to hear the two "lovers" finally come together!

And here I thought it was just me LOL!

Thank you, I started it when I found out about the recital mid-Feb. I think it was, and I was out of the country for 10 days in March where it was impossible to practice. So all things considered, not as much time as is needed for this piece. So thank you!

This was really inspiring for me. As a teacher and accompanist, I play out of necessity, but rarely for myself. The pieces I want to learn usually take a back seat when other music is needed for some purpose, so I find myself working on pieces for way too long. Doing something like this with having a deadline helped me retain the focus to see it through. Thanks to Rostosky and wayne33yrs for coming up with this and running with the idea.

I can't help but think: what's next?

Thanks Morodiene. Yes I am recording the audio with the laptop and audacity and a microphone that might not be visible. Then I have to sync the audio and video, which is a pain.

By the way, whenever I see myself in a video, all I can think is - who is that old man? That can't be me!

Sam

I believe it is going to be the Grieg lyric pieces (I think theres about 60 to choose from) this was suggested By Recaredo a while back....

But keep it quiet shhhhhsh!! we are still only half way through this when todays are posted!!

MENDELSSOHN AGAIN...
Mendelssohn the young man, spent much time travelling, especially between London and Germany. He first came to London as a gentleman amateur, an observer, with an entree into polite society.


He then added to his circle of friends...and by 1833 he was a celebrity.
An organ recital he gave at St Paul's cathedral was an immense success.

Here is Mendelssohn in the company of Queen Victoria and Albert....



On romanticism:
'Mendelssohn was not of the stuff that romantics are made: 'pining for what is not'. Like anyone else, he had his aspirations, but they were attainable ones. He shunned the grotesque, the exaggerated, the heroic gesture, the histrionic pose the promotion of the great ' I am'.
... He was born to rationalism, to moderation, to virtue ' (though he was also 'volatile, restless and irritable').
'Though proud to call himself a German, consious nationalism, in whatever form, was something he liked as little as cosmopolitanism.'

source :Great Composers series issues 11 and 17 and the Great Musicians series issues no 34 and 35

Taking us to the Halfway mark in this recital we move onto opus 53. And starting us off with Opus53 no.1 we have Morodiene .

Here are Morodienes thoughts on this piece:

"I chose this one because of the slower tempo, which always gives more room for "musical moments" than a fast tempo does. There's always room for improvement, so I can't say I feel this piece is "complete" or "ready", perhaps "sufficient" is a better word for it."

Moving onto Opus 53. no. 2 we have Ganddalf, who tried a very cunning trick to confuse me by calling it Opus 52 on his youtube page!!

You have to get up earlier in the morning than that to fool old Rossy!

Musicusblau performed the next piece Opus 53.no.3.

Musicusblau had this to say:

"I play here the Song Without Words, op. 53, nr. 3, Presto agitato, by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy."

Note from Rostosky:
After checking everyones link at least five times, I failed to check when they had been posted here, In this instance embedding has been "disabled by request" So, folks you will have to click on the part of the video that says "watch on youtube"

Musicusblau, if you see this could you change your youtube settings?

opus 53.no4 was played here by Wisebuff...

SamS took up opus 53.no5 and had this to say about the piece:

"Comments: Mendelssohn titled this piece himself: "Volkslied". It brings to mind a rousing male chorus, belting out a heroic song. It's difficult for me to shape the music, since it is marked "con fuoco", "con forza", "sempre con forza", "assai forte", "sempre forte", with a liberal sprinkling of sforzandos. It never lets up, except for the brief interludes and the coda. Hope you enjoy it!"

And to finish off todays Opus and take us up to the half way point is Kaz63piano,

Kaz63piano is an amateur pianist from Japan.