Week 4 – Play Through & Share

Kerstin Wonderful Kerstin ! You inspire me to study it.👍😍

claudiadm73 Thanks! It’s absolutely worth to study it. 👍

Kerstin Wow, that was stunning! Gorgeous playing.

Kerstin really beautifully shaped and voiced! amazingly well played 👏👏👏 

Kerstin Excellent playing! I too was once obsessed with that piece which I consider to be a desert island piece! I played nothing else for a full year. You can hear the outcome on my YouTube channel. I have to say, I always struggled musically with that particular section. My teacher at that time, Greg Niemczuk, kept saying it had to sound more tender and dreamy. I think you're pulling it off better than I did. Good job!

Victoria Macdonald Thank you!

Noel Nguyen Thank you! I had some lessons with Greg too. Unfortunately he has no time because of his concerts. Last year I have played the 3. Chopin sonata. Took me 10 month. 🤣 Now I am on this op. 61. I try to memorize it. I have worked on it 3 month now, but it’s still a miracle. But step by step. 😇

Priya Viseskul Thank you! 

Kerstin Amazingly beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

Vidhya Bashyam Thank you so much! 

Kerstin So beautiful, gorgeous phrasing and musical flow. Bravo, Kerstin!

Peter Golemme Sounds great! So complex but carefully balanced so we can hear the interesting melody too. Your recording (video and audio) is so professional as always.

Peter Golemme Such intensity right out of the gate, and I got a bit of goose-bum towards the end. I generally find Schumann difficult to play and interpret but this piece feels very emotionally direct to the heart - and your playing here really delivers it ❤️ 

Peter Golemme Wonderful! 😇

Peter Golemme Really impressive: powerful expressivity and great beauty. Bravo, Peter!!

Peter Golemme OMG! Awesome (video transitions too!)

Vidhya Bashyam Thank you Vidhya. Yes Schumann's strategic use of dissonances really create an aura of complexity around what might otherwise be conventional arpeggiated chords. The balancing is an ongoing challenge, as you don't have a lot of time to linger on any of the melody notes due to having to pop right back onto the arpeggios.  Especially with the leaps. which add a high-wire-act level of tension that may enhance the emotional content of the music.  I'm really enjoying learning this piece.  Glad you like the production.  I obsess over the details of audio and video almost as much as I do the music!

Priya Viseskul  Thank you so much Priya, yes this piece is very direct and concentrated.  If it's giving you goosebumps then I'm encouraged that I'm succeeding in delivering what I'm hearing in the piece . 

To me the place where that effect is most prominent is the beginning of the B section (e.g. mm. 9-10), where he follows a half-diminished chord with an expecially dissonant  chord that I'm calling a diminished 13th.  for example in the first B section m. 10 it's a straight F chord, root position plus octave, played on top of a Gb octave in the Bass.  then he does the same thing in the next B section (mm24-25), transposed up a 4th -- a Bb Chord on top of a B naturalBass.

I call that first chord an A dimished 13th, and same with the second one -- I call it a D diminished 13th, i.e. specifically a D dim rather than some version of a B diminished or F diminished or Ab diminished. in each case because its characteristic sound seems to derive from the clash of the sixth degree of the scale (e.g. a Bb of the D dim scale), played aginst the 7th degree (e.g. the Cbb of the D dim scale).  I'm not sure that's correct textbook harmony nomenclature, but it helps me make sense of that combination of notes!

Juan Carlos Olite thanks Juan Carlos, that's high praise coming from you after that masterful Rachmaninoff display!

Kerstin thank you Kerstin, I feel the same about your performance of that very intricate excerpt from Chopin's Op. 61!

David H. A. Fitch Hey David, so glad you like it   and thanks for the comment on the video transitions too (I'm like the baseball pitcher who wants to hear feedback on his hitting!) --I'm new to all the video technology and still astonished at what you can do with these incredibly inexpensive programs!.  

Peter Golemme wow!, certainly tempestuous! That energy is captivating, right to the end.