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Well, friends, maybe it’s a mistake to post this. If so, someone is sure to let me know.

Now that I've performed this piece for a generous audience, I feel it could be a useful exercise in anti-perfectionism to share this rehearsal recording.

There are some misplayed notes–but part of the aim was to train myself to recover and get back into the music. My ambition, as my playing develops, is to make ever better mistakes.

Thanks to any who care to listen.

[url=http://soundcloud.com/user705948225/
brahms-intermezzo-118-2][/url] http://soundcloud.com/user705948225/
brahms-intermezzo-118-2

The URL doesn't work. I get this from soundcloud: "user705948225 hasn’t shared any public sounds."

Oh, sorry--the link worked for me so I didn't realize it wouldn't work for others. Thanks for letting me know. I think it's fixed now.

https worked for me.

This is very nice.
You feel the piece and present a convincing performance.

I enjoyed listening to it, thanks for sharing.

Very nice introspective performance. Thanks for posting it.

Thanks, Hakki and Chris--I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I would try to control the dynamics more carefully. For example, the first long phrase should contain a crescendo followed by a decrescendo. If a melody note in any phrase "sticks out" by being too soft or too loud it destroys the line.

Hi jdw,

I liked what I heard. To be honest upon the first listening (early early morning) I didn't spot any "sore" mistakes really. Perhaps a few mishappenings, but nothing too bad really.

The one thing that I would like to complain is your rubato. It is there, but generally I'm used to a much more flexible tempo. Then again that's what I'm used to and not what's supposed to happen really, so perhaps my comment isn't all that useful.

In any case thanks for sharing! And, yes, you should be sharing your recordings! It's worth it I think!

Hi, jdw! As others have mentioned, a solid, and really mostly note-and-rhythm-correct reading of this very familiar Intermezzo. However, unlike Chris Keys, I don't find your rendition introspective enough -- it feels a tad too "dutiful" to me. I have two specific criticisms: the repeat of the opening statement in the first section needs to be noticeably softer and, well, more intimate than the opening statement. Also, the "B" section needs to be noticeably faster and more urgent than the "A" section -- with the exception of the block chord chorale in the center, which IMO was the best thing in your performance. In more general terms, the piece sounds too "note-y" to my ear. I think you need to think more in terms of how a string quartet would present this piece, rather than a piano soloist -- with all the voicing implications that this would imply. But still, a solid and sensitive performance -- and thanks for sharing it!

Thanks, PL, Nikolas, and Tim--I appreciate your taking the time to listen and comment.

I'm actually glad to see the comments asking for more rubato. In my first, self-taught discovery of rubato, I developed a bit of self-indulgent excess (and also used rubato to cover my inability to get to the next note soon enough!) But maybe now I've reined it in more than needed.

On dynamics, I know the occasional note may slip out of the texture. But truthfully, on the day when that's my worst issue of control in performance, I'll feel it's a great advance.

Very good playing of this piece. You know the notes so now it's time to make some music.

If I may suggest, try to voice every chord you play. By that I mean pick out a single note in the chord which you feels contributes most to the melodic line. Emphasize that note over the others in the chord. In other words, not all notes are of equal importance when played together. Now you will start to create a melodic line that moves over these huge chordal tones and sounds almost separate from the rest. Once you've accomplished this then think about your dynamics and rubato, but never loose that line.

Following upon what Ralph has posted, particularly on "never losing that line," I find that there needs to be more work on balance/voicing to bring out the melody. Too often I hear that the melody line doesn't rise above the accompaniment. This is, essentially, a very lyrical piece and sometimes the melody line in this performance gets lost in the accompaniment.

Regards,

Thanks for sharing this, I love this piece and you do play it nicely. I think the left hand is a little heavy which kind of agrees with Bruce and Ralph except I wouldn't want to hear the melody line any louder.



More Brahms!!!

Thanks to all for listening and commenting!

Voicing is always a work in progress. I can confidently say that I am vastly better at it than I used to be!

Okay, since every one, maybe no one, is waiting for my opinion on this, here it comes.

1) As I have stated incessantly, rolling chords is an "expressive device" (R. Levin, Harvard) that has been around since the pre-Barogue era. If you don't believe me or Dr. Levin, just ask anyone who has ever seriously studied the harpsichord.

That does not mean that you continually express yourself with every single chord. That, as stated in Neal Peres Da Costa's book, "Off The Record," is what Karl Czerny complained about during his day (Yo, Dr. Mark C.). Arpeggiation, like everything else, has to make musical sense.

In the case of the OP, the rolling of practically every single chord dramatically takes away from the melodic line of this great piece. No harm, no foul, and I didn't expect anyone to get it right the first time.

Conversely, as an example of what a rolled chord should sound like, please listen to the "piu lento" section. This rendering by the OP is practically perfect.

Next, the essence of romantic pianism is the tempo modification that establishes the melodic line. This particular rendering (like most Brahms recordings) is way to metronomic.

A player should "follow their ear" when shaping a line, in terms of tempo. And, that includes climaxes, which unfortunately this recording does not have.

Dr. Robert Winter of UCLA refers to this as "push and pull" - that is the stretching of the line with proper rubato.

The problem with playing it in strict tempo is that (in the case of the "piu lento" section), when you get to the next "Tempo I" section, it calls for espressivo and a sudden crescendo. That is not present in the OP's rendering.

Hey, boys and girls, Johnny Brahms used to support his family by playing in brothels. He knew what a climax sounded like!

Finally, playing Romantic Period music is not rocket science. One should just effectuate, as accurately pointed out by Dr,'s Clive Brown, and Neal Peres Da Costa, the manner in which it was originally performed.

Thanks for listening and commenting. I actually agree that the asynchrony is too much in portions of this recording. I thought someone might mention it earlier--or maybe people felt the issue had been aired in another discussion of this piece, which I remember from a few months back.

You are "Wrong." Every pianist in the 19th century who played romantic music utilized this device, extensively.

Then, when Claude Debussy came along, who was as anti-romantic as you could get, he did the same thing, as evidenced in the CD, "Claude Debussy: The Composer As Pianist."
http://www.amazon.com/Claude-Debussy-Composer-Pianist-Collection/dp/B00005IC03

If not, you can listen to the following link of a pianist whose piano teacher (Marguerite Long) learned the work personally from her friend "Claude:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwhbOrmxcsQ

By the way, this world renown "Columbia Artist" pianist is still very much alive, so you can contact his agent and tell him personally that he is mistaken in his extensive use of asynchronization.

Are Brahms and Debussy the same thing, in terms of "original" performance practice. Yes, they are!