Week 4 – Play Through & Share

Dustin Anderson Thanks so much for your encouraging and detailed feedback, and for your explanation of this piece. As an amateur, I sometimes play without a deep understanding of the musical structure and flow, and mostly I just try to reproduce what I hear from others. If you don’t mind, could you share your thoughts on my tempo (I suspect it’s not entirely consistent throughout), and on my use of rubato—where you feel it works well, and where I should avoid or adjust it?

Hae Young Kim You are very welcome. I actually found your tempo to be pretty consistent throughout. For such a lengthy nocturne with a relentless 16th note LH pattern, some orbital tempo is actually going to feel more organic. If you listen to recordings, you may notice that even within the span of four measures a performer may not actually be 100% 'steady'; there are often small fluctuations in tempo. For instance, if playing at a bpm of 60, the piece will likely shift a little to 58 or up to 62 here and there (my students often try to point this kind of thing out to avoid using the metronome!). This is more what I meant by experimenting with tempo.

However, if you are also wondering about your overall tempo, I thought it was a convincing choice. This nocturne is performed at pretty wide range of speeds. For instance, Arthur Rubinstein is on on the faster side while, Maria Pires is a bit slower and Ivan Moravec is VERY slow but still makes it work with such beautiful tone (but it is still too slow for my taste despite this admiration). You are actually well on the faster side, very much like Claire Huangci's recording. I feel all these tempos are viable, though a faster tempo does mean the fiorituras have to be a bit more virtuosic.

Your question of rubato is a huge point of conversation! In just a few words I suppose I would say that rubato should be used rhetorically; it should be used draw attention to structural elements like important harmonies, details in the form, textures or voicing etc. Which particular elements are really up to the performer because you will value elements differently and will want to take your listener on your own tour of these features. This does mean that a knowledge of structure is key to making convincing rubato choices. Some places that come to mind are the beautiful slide into Bb minor at m. 10, the busy textures and layers of mm. 14-16, the chromatic harmony at mm. 42-43, or the re-coloring of the opening at mm. 49-50 as a dominant 7th.  For listening, Maria Pires' recording of the nocturnes is noted for her thoughtful use of rhetorical rubato without excess.

Hae Young Kim Hae Young this sounds fantastic. One of Chopin's many greatest pieces! Thanks for posting. Another recording I like is Claudio Arrau's. 

Hae Young Kim Wonderful playing, Hae! So elegant and sensitive.

Dustin Anderson 

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and give such detailed feedback. I truly appreciate your time and effort.

About the tempo: I’ve listened to other performances where some sections are a bit faster than others, and I once received criticism for making the tempo differences too extreme. Because of that, I’ve been a little afraid to vary the tempo between sections.

Your suggestions about rubato are especially helpful. I really value the specific places you pointed out where I can express the music more through rubato, and as I refine this piece I’ll experiment with both tempo and rubato to find what feels and sounds most convincing.

I’m very grateful for your feedback and appreciate it again!

Andrew Smith Thank you! I have never listened Claudia Arrau's playing, I will definitely check it out. :-)

Juan Carlos Olite Thank you! I really tried to listen carefully. One of my bad habits is that I sometimes stop truly listening and just play on autopilot.

Hae Young Kim I love how you avoid falling into the trap of playing this piece too slowly. Excellent!