Need some help! Could you please add your critique? I just recorded the Liszt Sonetto 104 del Petrarca. I will be auditioning with this piece in 8 days *gasp*

http://www.pianoworld.com/cdproject/uploads/files/Sonetto104delPetrarca-MikeShao.mp3

You may have to turn up the volume a little bit as my mic is not the greatest. Major problems that I know of:

1. from 2:46 to 3:10 I missed a bunch of LH chords, it can get pretty brutal to the ears during these 25 seconds, please forgive!

2. at 5:06 I misplayed a pretty important melody note. doh!

There were also a couple of dinks and dunks here and there. Consider yourself forewarned! What do you guys think though, is it really "awful"?

EDIT: The piece starts at the 00:10 mark

Bump is it really that bad??

it doesn't sound 'awful' to me or at least i enjoyed it, but i am not much of critics for any of Liszt's pieces. sorry...

I am not at all qualified to place judgement on this work (or most other works for that matter) but I will say that i enjoyed it.

Thanks guys

Mikester :

I don't think it's an "awful" performance; there is much about it that I like. I do wonder, though, whether it's performance ready - you say for an audition? Wow!

Most of the problems I hear, though, are technical ones, not interpretive ones, and not necessarily insufficient technique to handle the problems just not enough sense of technical assurance. I do sense that you have a "feel" for this piece; there are sections of it that come off quite well.

What about the opening four bars: do you really feel that you are playing them "Agitato assai"?

Starting at bar 15 where the melody is in the LH, you are not observing the tempo strictly enough. You seem to be "short" by almost a full beat in bars 16 and 18. Bars 17 and 19 come in too soon.

The only other problem I'm aware of is - and it's a very minor one that could be more interpretive than anything else - is that I don't always hear the syncopation in those bars where the melody comes in on an eighth note leading to a quarter note on the half-beat. It sometimes sounds as if you are trying to make the quarter note the first beat of the bar.

I think this piece is well "on the way" although I cannot judge how soon you can have it performance ready.

I repeat: this is not an "awful" performance; it has much potential.

Good luck!

Got there, but the puter just kept freezing up. sorry!

First of all good job, you're doing much better than I am.

I agree with Bruce D for the most part. Also I'd like to add, at some points in this piece it sounds a lot better, and more interesting with less/ or shorter pedals on the rolled chords.

If I were you I'd get Alfred Brendel's recording of this piece, not sure what year it was, and compare.

Even if you don't use some of his ideas, it's always good to try different things, just to see if it works/if you like it

BruceD and decibel, thanks for your comments. Let me just reply to the points individually:

1. Good point. I'm still trying to get this section more aggresive sounding. These four bars are pretty hard to play at "agitato", haha. It's hard because there's the inner melody with the mini-chromatics. My teacher wants me to pedal on each chromatic, which is, basically every note. But, I'll try my best to play this section with more "agitation"

2. I could be wrong if so, please help me correct this, thanks! I counted this about four of five times today on the recording, and the tempo seems to be right on. The last note on bars 16 and 18 has a value of quarter+eighth, plus an eighth rest, so basically two quarter notes.

3. I'm like, not smart enough to figure out the jargon hmmm can you give me a bar number?

decibel101,
there are so many rolled chords in this piece I don't really know which ones you mean. Like, I assume you don't mean a shorter pedal on *every* rolled chord? Cuz in some spots it does sort of need the rolled chords to be sustained.

Thanks guys, look forward to your responses

I listened to those bars again, several times, slapping myself on the head for each beat (damn! that hurts!), and you're still coming in half a beat too soon in bars 17 and 19! I've also got a problem with your bar 17; you don't give the third beat its due!

However, since I never took Math after tenth grade, maybe I can't count as high as four
Have you tried putting a metronome to those bars?

The metronome reveals all...

ok thanks BruceD, I'll give it another try What did you think of the performance ryan?

Mikester, I remember your saying you were performing this in a audition. How did that go?

Mike, it's not awful by any stretch of the imagination, I think you have great feel for the music. As usual BruceD and Ryan are spot on. It's not performance ready and certain sections need work. Ryan is right, keep to a tempo, and work on the detail.

I agree with DairmuidAbroad, BruceD and Ryan, I think you're doing great, just needs a little polish, then it will be quite something excellent.

Thanks! Went well (meaning I got the part ). A couple of things I still need to clean up include 1) keeping even tempo in the big chords part, 2) overall some runs are still kinda sloppy, and 3) getting a deeper sound with the chords. But overall it's going pretty well.

I'll post a "final" recording in these forums right before or after the live performance which is on April 22nd.

Next up: Hungarian Rhapsody nr 10. *gulp* wish me luck!

do you mind me asking where you're auditioning for?

Hi Laura, the audition wasn't for college ... it was for an "honors" concert that our music institute puts together a couple of times a year.

Congrats on getting the part! That's a good feeling eh?

It does feel good. I'm so grateful