Week 4: Share your Recording!

Here is the recording of Paysage for the Transcendental Etude Challenge portion. I'll try to post a recording of Vision before Friday. 

Hi everyone, here is my recording of Eglogue! Looking forward to hearing all the other Liszt pieces for this challenge! Rgds

Derek

These 4 weeks sure went by quickly! With only a few days left, I won't have a chance to make a full new recording of the Eroica etude but I did work quite hard on the sections I broke it down into, so I have compiled them into a single video with slight trimming edits for continuity. As I mentioned in week 2, I organized my practice into 7 sections and I have left section markers in the video for those who are interested. I also added an updated section F as I have continued to work on this challenging part and it is steadily improving.

I am pretty satisfied with the progress I made on this difficult etude over these 4 weeks. I plan to record an updated full playthrough for the follow up portion of the Transcendental Étude challenge in October. Thanks to everyone that has listened!

Here is my week 4 recording. Work in progress, of course!

It is very hot here in Switzerland (100 degrees F 🥵)! Difficult to enjoy playing the piano with no air conditioning 🤣. I had a nice swim in the pool and then made a recording of Schubert’s Lied “Frühlingsglaube” transcribed by Liszt. So please excuse my poor hairstyle!

These four weeks passed very quickly. I will put the piece aside now for the moment and then start working it with my teacher in September.

Thanks again for organizing this challenge.

https://youtu.be/86a_FepgR2Q?is=iHAwmw2_YRXxkLBe

Joining the set list with Mazeppa. I gave myself two attempts at filming, and this is the second/final! (for now) TIA for your understanding and patience 😅

https://youtu.be/545Sb4uOx0w?si=QddsRxW2shyH_9U5

Looking forward to hearing as many folks as I can tomorrow! (have to leave after about 45min)

p.s. I didn't post an update for Week 3 - basically I was trying to decide whether to go back to Liszt's original fingering (42 42) and ultimately decided to stick with the easier (42 31) fingering for now. The 42 42 fingering actually works much better at high speeds for the thirds, but I can't keep up with that tempo for the big melodic and left hand leaps with any sort of accuracy. 

It's certainly ok if you don't want to show this at the watch party since it's not played on a piano!!

Sancta Caecilia (for harmonium and mezzo soprano) "Fiat cor meum, immaculatum, ut non confundar."

And now for something completely different - one of Liszt's liturgical pieces in honor of Saint Cecilia (patron saint of music). It is written for the organ or harmonium plus voice, so we pulled out our old field harmonium and commenced to getting timing and other fun things figured out. I'm still laughing after making this recording since I'm pumping, singing, and still trying to read the music which is at an odd angle for me. It's a pretty rough performance, but this is the best recording from our evening of recording fun - which was enjoyable for us both.

Here's my Second Transcendental Etude recording, this time of Vision. It's not as polished as I might have liked it, but I did make it to the end without any disastrous hiccups, so that's a plus :-). Hope you all enjoy!