Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Chopin Mazurkas - 2013 Recital!

Damon - I could immediately tell from the recording that you were using a digital - and a quick look at your "profile" confirmed that. I just bought a digital myself (Kawai CA65) to use for silent practice when the wife is at home - and I think its nifty. May even try to record on it sometime instead of my acoustic !! The folks here who submitted recordings made on digitals (you, Ganddalf, Dire Tonic, etc.) all had excellent results !!

I've just noticed that Beric's op 68 no 1 piece wasn't included in the relevant batch, though submitted on time. There was a misunderstanding over the way it was labelled, which I thought had been resolved.

Since I don't want his hard work to be for nothing, I've included his submission here, for your enjoyment.



Thank you farmgirl, ganddalf, Morodiene, Cinnamonbear, FSO and others for your generous comments made about my maverick contribution. Beric would also like to thank you for the comments made on his Op 33 no 3 piece.

Ah, yes, Dipsy, I sent you a PM about that. You can delete the post you just made; I'm replacing the performance now.

You bought a fancy one! One of my Yamahas has the full three pedal treatment and built in speaker system (but it's still a slab). My humble Technics becomes particularly obvious when single notes are held out. Someday these DP's will sound close to perfect and they make recording a snap. No dog or other environment noises. Reverberation is completely controlled, except my Technics has only 2 settings; on or off! Glenn Gould should have had one to eliminate his singing. The actions still feel funny to me even though I've used digitals for years, but that's the only downside for me.

Yup - the Kawai is fancy - and it was 10 times more expensive than the used Korg SP-100 stage piano on I bought on Craigslist a few years back. The action on the 13 year old Korg is OK - but the piano sounds aren't great and the 32 note polyphony is downright irritating. Digital is digital - but the technology is improving every year. The recordings submitted to the Mazurka e-cital that were made on digitals sound just fine - and some are exceptional.

I will chime in and thank the organizers profusely as well. I heard several Mazurkas that I never experienced before. So glad I had the opportunity to get in on this after I was unaware of it until too late.

56 1 Morodiene A most pleasnt intricale yet flowing piece, with dollops of light and shadeto bring it all together. Played with the requisite authority it comes over very well even for a non Chopin addict such as myself . . .(better get outa here quick!)

56 2 Carey You always give value for money, man! Love this one; it`s so strident and you give it loads of strength and character. How many times a month does the tuner get called in?

56 3 carey Hymn like with loads of dynamics and drama. This piece isn`t short. Dunno how you learn it all . . . .

59 1 Ganddalf It`s good to hear regulars who make a great showing on everything they do. Something for the rest of us to aspire to . .Here we have more key shifting stuff from Fred. He likes doing this and returning to the original by inventive means leaving us poor mortals with swollen brains and aching fingers. Well, me anyway. You obviously have no such problems . . .!

59 2 Musica 71 Did you do all these pieces in one sitting? Seperating them out for us to digest in swallowable amounts . . .! Nice and flowing; loved the LH melody and the quiet confidence exhuding form someone who knows what they`re doing. Brilliant piano!

59 3 Jeffreyjones Make way for The Beast! Swallows up all this music and comes back for more. And who better to feed it than you?

The complexities of Chopin`s mind have nearly done mine in . . . Think I`ll give the nocturnes a miss. Anybody up for a Rihanna recital? Robbie Williams? (Shrug )

Thank you to the organizers of this themed recital. And thank you to all the performers. Although I did not comment individually, I listened to each and every submission. Some really lovely playing throughout!! Very enjoyable. It is immensely rewarding to listen to an entire group of themed works. It really gives a more in depth look at a composer. It's amazing that there are so many Mazurkas and yet each is unique!! I'm a big fan of Chopin already. These performances did nothing to diminish him!

Thanks for putting this together, Polyphonist.



I still haven't been able to listen to most of the recital but I'm working on it. I just wanted to comment on this very well played Bb major Mazurka.

I had to give it a listen because I still remember being defeated by this piece long ago. My teacher gave me this to play and I thought it would be cake but then completely and utterly failed to make anything of it. I was playing the notes but there was just nothing musical coming through. I couldn't make sense of it. To this day I refuse to play it. But I was happy to listen to your performance. First time I've heard it in a long time.

I bet all the Mazurkas have been avoided because of that one. Maybe a little bit of a trauma? I will try to get over it and listen to the rest. These kinds of miniatures can be so deceptively hard, at least for me.

Thank you all for participating and making it possible. This really was a wonderful recital, and showed me, at least (because I did not know), how many truly excellent pianists we have here.

I second that notion, Peter! I was thinking that a Sonatina E-cital (pick a fave) might be fun, and we could give it a due date of Dec. 16, 2014! Anyone interested? But I am also in favor of a pop music e-cital. Could be a real blast!

p.s.--I am waiting until things quiet down in the house before listening and commenting on the Mazurkas, from where I left off at Op. 50. So many great performances!!! (And I like to listen to them closely.)

63 1 Ganddalf So beautifully ornate and simple. Well, maybe not soo simple . . now, why can THAT man NEVER stay in one key? Notwithstanding, this is a very likeable melodious piece. I think you do too. Sterling work!

63 2 Sandalholme SOOOO pleasant to gear this. Love your easy going strong delivery combined with superb recording of those dark chocolate and red wine tones . . . well, it is Christmas . . .

63 3 FarmGirl A chip off Waltz in Csharp minor; Loved the steady fluid rendition on your lovely piano!

Have ye a goodly one folks!

The piano gets tuned every six months - whether it needs it or not !!!

Glad you liked the 56 2 - it's a fun piece to play !!!

The piano gets tuned every six months - whether it needs it or not !!!

Sounds like my underwear . . . .gets changed every 6m whether . . .

LOL !!!

"With Chopin nothing simple is easy" is a brilliant statement.

I've only listened to a few of the entries so far and I don't have comments just yet except to say THANK YOU to everyone who has participated including Polyphonist for putting it together. It's been a few years since I recorded anything for an ecital; it's a tough project and I have respect for anyone who is willing to do it.

Elene

Opus 50 No 1 Performed by SlatterFan

This is one of the more extrovert mazurkas with some pretty catchy melodic material. Noticed particularly your tempo variation. Nice performance.

Opus 50 No 2 Performed by Ganddalf

The middle part of this Mazurka has the stress on the third beat while the rest has the stress on the second beat. I'm not sure if I managed to express this well.

Opus 50 No 3 Performed by Damon

This is one of my favourite mazurkas with its great thematic richness. I think you managed to bring out the contrasts of the piece, and handled the difficult chromatic sequences very well.

Opus 56 No 1 performed by Morodiene

This mazurka has been a favourite of mine for many years. More optimisitc and with a lighter character than many other Chopin pieces. You managed to express this very well. Quite impressive, taking into account the technical difficulty.


Opus 56 No 2 and 3 performed by carey


It's so obvious that you are a very skilled pianist. These two mazurkas differ a lot in character, but you show the capability to handle all kinds of technical and musical challenges. I'm particularly fond of no.3 which you play beautifully.

I'd like to add my thanks to Polyphonist and Derulux for organizing this recital. I got up to Op 59 and I hope to finish listening tonight. It has been fascinating to hear so many fresh aspects to these pieces. So many highlights, especially for me:

* the fun and audacity of Peter's (peterws) Op 76 No 5

* the joy of Jeffrey's (jeffreyjones) Op 17 No 3, especially those frisky upward runs (which might have influenced Rachmaninoff when writing his transciption of Kreisler's Liebesleid?)

* Damon's beautifully controlled epic Op 50 No 3

* the graceful phrasing and charm of Judy's (musica71) Op 59 No 2.

This recital in particular has made me feel very much part of a community. Many of us seem to have gone through ups and downs taking part: exhilirated to dive deep into such special pieces, while being wracked with self-doubt, mumbling apologies to the composer, and realizing how much more there is in these pieces than one guessed at the beginning!!!

Thanks to those who commented about my Op 50 No 1.


Wow, thank you! My instrument is a Yamaha NU1 - it has the action of an upright (a slightly miniaturized version) but with digital sound. It doesn't sound quite like the real thing but it is much closer to an acoustic piano in feel and sound than my previous Yamaha Clavinova CLP-230.


I like this! A confluence of contrasting elements sums up how I see the piece, too. Opening the little rondo, ABACAD{A}, A contrasts an initial boisterous theme with a calmer, slightly sad one, and these two moods take turns in the following episodes. In B the former scampers around; in C the latter sings serenely at first but becomes wistful; at first the return of A is quiet, but then becomes brash again, and in D the mood is impatient (the accented chords are like the petulant stamping of feet!) and wildly exuberant; and finally in {A} (the coda) we have a balance or compromise between the two, with a calm version of the initial theme, which is wistful at first but becomes serene. An extraordinary amount happens in such a compact form and only two and a quarter minutes of music. While the piece stands on its own as a little masterpiece, I see it also as a kind of compositional practice run for Chopin to explore tight interactions between contrasting themes before he did so again with a larger canvas and more complex structures and emotions in his later mazurkas Op 50 No 3 and Op 56 No 3.

I tried to portray the interactions between contrasting themes as though they are friends. They may rub each other up the wrong way at first, but ultimately the calm one helps to soothe the wild one, while the wild one cheers up the calm one. While the piece could easily and appropriately be nicknamed Light and shade or Yin and yang, I prefer to think of it as The Odd Couple! As I have not heard anyone other than myself play the piece, I really appreciate the feedback.


Thank you! I see what you mean about macabre. This will help me adjust what I'm doing. I probably need to play the coda slightly more flowingly and aim for a lighter timbre. Perhaps the melody can remain as it is, but I'll need to lighten the accompaniment and adjust the pedalling slightly to convey more relaxation, with more warmth and less of the macabre!