Week 4: Post your Progress!

Priya Viseskul Bravo! You seem so relaxed playing this piece now. Looking forward to hearing you play this or any other Nocturne in the community concert!

Priya Viseskul WOW!!  Such lush, calm yet moving lyrical lines.  I love the way you breathe into the ornamentations and how you voice your chords.

Priya Viseskul I know what you mean by "forever unfinished", and I feel that way about many pieces. But from where I'm sitting, this Nocturne sounds technically clean and musically mature already. It has color and character and a narrative arc and is overall a joy to listen to. I think you've achieved quite a lot in the four weeks of this challenge! 

Alexander Weymann wow ... thank you so much for your kind and generous assessment!!

Vidhya Bashyam Gail Starr also thank you very much. All your comments help me striving to play better 

Priya Viseskul Lovely! I especially enjoyed the gentleness with which you approached this piece, and the softness/ease you maintained throughout.

Priya Viseskul Wonderful interpretation, Priya! As Gail I like the lyricism and character of your playing.

Priya Viseskul Bravo!  What a great job on a difficult piece.  Thank you.  And as you said, you did so well bringing out the melody among all the other things going on.  

Priya Viseskul congratulations on a wonderful performance, you bring this piece to a great climax !

Priya Viseskul lovely playing! This is such an emotional sounding piece and I love the sense of I tragedy that you convey!

Priya Viseskul  I find this performance quite listenable and engaging. Honestly I have mostly stopped listening to this piece when I can avoid it in recordings of competitions etc. on YouTube because professional performers often seem to take the life out of it somehow, but your rendition has lots of life in it. Part of that may be a result of your physical approach to the keyboard here, which I admire and want to emulate, and which seems to give full voice to your emotional connection to the piece.

Randall Wayne Thank you so much! Really appreciate it. In a way this piece is quite personal to me so it means a lot to know that my playing can convey something. And thanks again for noting on my playing - I really spent much of time in this challenge working out a way to play the second half without killing my limbs 

Priya Viseskul  I sure couldn't see much in your approach that I would have expected to stress your limbs excessively, so I take it you found something that worked for you...any discoveries you could put into words?

Randall Wayne Sure  Just caveat that this is just what works for me currently and it is by no mean perfect.

Mostly if I can get through the downward octave runs without tensing up and tire out my arms then I can pretty much play the final section to the end. It's mostly finding the wrist gesture that works for each octave pattern. Crucially in the downward chromatic run that the movement is initiated from the elbows, not the forearms ... I had to practise it quite a bit also to gain enough endurance for that in/out movement, also practise with thumbs only and pinkies only.

In the final section I try to give LH a little bounce when going between the intervals, and find that I can use the jump from the octave to the interval as relaxation point as I close up the hand.

Also I went to Penelope Roskell's in-person workshop earlier this year and she noted good movement in my hands and wrists but my elbows were a bit stiff which might be the cause of tension in my forearms so I'm now paying more attention to freeing up my elbows.

I also cheated by strategically dropping some notes  ... it would not sound good anyway if I had to do a full hand stretch and lost control of the sound. And I eventually decided not to chase after the speed ... so my tempo is very much on the slow side ... the danger then is how to make the first half not sounding sluggish. Musically I actually struggle the most with how to play the second bar 

Sorry for a long reply though I think it's good also for me to reflect on the work that went into those 4 weeks. Hope this helps, and hope you will find movements that work for you also 

Priya Viseskul So you could say a lot went into it!  Although  I've never played anything with octave runs, I can see how it would be crucial to turn them into  "gestures" where you are "thinking horizontally" and carrying the hand from the elbow rather than thinking more vertically as if pushing the notes down from the forearm.

I know the piece is "supposed to be" faster but I enjoyed your tempo, since you maintained the musical thought so well.  And I didn't notice your "cheating."

Elizabeth Wow - Bravo!!! 

It's truly an amazing performance and I love everything about it: the articulation, dynamics, phrasing ... and really marvelled at how well your fingers move together with such relaxed arms  Very well executed 

Elizabeth Wow! Wonderful playing. I loved the clarity and phrasing. Just lovely. Thank you for posting.

Elizabeth That was amazing! Bravo! Love this minor key sonata and you played it perfectly! FYI- You can submit your recording for the community concert to participate even if you can’t play live. 

Elizabeth Bravo, Elizabeth!!! What a wonderful playing, thank you so much for sharing this beautiful version of my favorite Mozart Sonata.

Elizabeth This is delightful!  Great job!  Thank you.

Elizabeth simply stunning. You are setting a very high standard here. Mozart is so hard and mercilessly reveals every musician's deficiencies, but you play this grand sonata so beautifully that one hears nothing but the music itself. Everything is natural and compelling. And, boy, do I wish I could play trills like you do! 

Elizabeth bravo!! Played with such marvellous technique, and with a wonderful musicality throughout!! 

Elizabeth really great playing of the Mozart! It sounded really polished. Bravo

Elizabeth This was simply PERFECT.  I love your touch and your light trills.  I've already listened twice...and I'll play it again and again over the weekend.  Thank you so much for posting!