Week 3: Seeing the Big Picture
Hello and welcome to the WEEK THREE Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between August 14th-21th I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
I am sure that you have been busy at work on your pieces, fixing fingerings, dynamics, articulation, and so-on!
But this week I want us to focus on big picture work (outlined below) as a lot of us may be gearing up to play in the "back to school" recital OR use recorded videos from this challenge in a Watch Party! (Watch Parties are "pre-recorded" video celebrations, Community Concerts are LIVE performances of pieces).
Assignments:
1. Try and focus on playing larger chunks of your piece this week. Focus on broader strokes.
2. Record yourself in "run-throughs" of the piece, share with all of us! :)
3. Why? because we always need to remember to strike a balance between working on fine tuning the piece, and making sure the gestures and larger picture remain in focus, not becoming to "granular".
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Here's week 3 where I'm trying to play through the entire Etude, bringing out interesting LH harmonies where possible. Still not at the right tempo, but it sounds too rushed when I play faster.
Any suggestions to help retain the lyricism without making it sound like I'm running late to work?
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Gail Starr the sound is beautiful and plenty lyrical; it certainly doesn't sound hurried to me! On the contrary - you relax slightly at the beginning of most phrases, which is very wise from a technical standpoint. (My last teacher used to say: "If you listen closely, you will notice that many great pianists are taking a little bit of time a lot of the time.") You are avoiding to make this piece sound like a sewing machine - which, let's face it, is a way we've all heard it played often by professional pianists.
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Gail Starr I like this tempo! To me it sounds good, I agree with those who say choose the right tempo for you. I look forward to hearing it after more practice!
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Alexander Weymann You are SO kind. I wish you lived closer so we could play 4-hands in person!
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Gail Starr agreed; that would be lovely!
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Gail Starr that is very poised playing! Sounds good, and you're doing great things with this piece!
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Natalie Peh Thank you so much, dear friend!
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Hello, busy week for me again with family around. I have continued my practice of the beginning and the ending of the Polonaise-Fantaisie. This time the video of Part 1 covers bar 1 - bar 116 and the video of Part 2 starts at bar 214. Watching the videos I've realized that I still feel tense when getting to the more challenging passages. You can see it in my body language. I will continue to work on that, and I also need to breathe more. Next week I will focus on the middle part, with the beautiful second theme. Well, I knew it already, it is going to remain unfinished business at the end of this challenge ... :-)
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Ursina Boehm You play really well - it sounds amazing!
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Ursina Boehm Amazing playing! So much depth emotionally! Love it.
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Ursina Boehm I think you sound wonderful!
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Ursina Boehm This sounds so beautiful! I’m very much looking forward to hear the whole thing when it’s ready :)
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Ursina Boehm What a wonderful playing! I like how you manage the tempo, the breathing of the music. Sounds beautiful and with character, bravo!
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Priya Viseskul thank you. That is very kind of you
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Vidhya Bashyam thanks a lot. I love this piece, but it is definitely a challenge for me
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Sindre Skarelven thank you. I am not sure whether I will have the time to make a decent recording of the whole piece in the next days. We’re moving to Switzerland mid of September, and there are so many things that I need to get done beforehand
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Juan Carlos Olite thanks a lot for your kind words. I think t need to breather more. And I still get tense when getting to the technically difficult passages.
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Ursina Boehm no one who hasn't attempted the Polonaise-Fantaisie herself or himself can truly appreciate how very, very hard it is. I agree with everyone that you play it amazingly well already. Even though we haven't heard it yet in its entirety, you manage one of the things here that are so difficult to pull off: to let yourself be surprised by each of the many sudden changes without losing your grasp on your overall concept and architecture of the piece. It's beautiful.
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Ursina Boehm ‘this is an amazing piece! Beautiful, and you play so well.
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Ursina Boehm You sound gorgeous!! I'm just in awe. You've inspired me to learn more about this piece just to be able to appreciate and understand it more. Thank you for sharing
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Alexander Weymann thanks a lot for your encouragement. This piece is a huge challenge for me. I have tried to find my own storyline for it when playing it. For me it involves so many different emotions as well as sad and joyful memories. In that sense it is already emotionally exhausting when playing it. And on top there are these passages that are (at least for me) technically really difficult to play. As I already mentioned before it will remain “unfinished business” for me.
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Judy Kuan thank you very much for your kind words. The Polonaise-Fantaisie is such a great composition by Chopin. There are so many different ways how you can play it. I’ve heard it in several concerts in Paris. I do not have a favorite version, but it helps a lot to listen to different interpretations. It took me a long time to find my own approach and in January I gave it a try and played it at my teacher’s student recital. After that I put it aside to give it more time. With this “unfinished business” challenge I started to work again on it. I love to work on it, but for me it is very difficult to play it in public.
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Ursina Boehm I love listening to your beautiful and sensitive playing, Ursina! The phrases are so exquisitely shaped. I am looking forward to more of your playing!
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Ursina Boehm that is understandable! I’m looking forward to hear the whole thing whenever it is ready. Good luck with the moving process!
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Natalie Peh thank you very much for your kind words. I’m always doubting whether I play well enough for this piece. Your comment is therefore very encouraging to me. Best regards
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I squeezed in a playthru/recording yesterday after hiking & before dinner
Confession that the Grand Polonaise hasn't been somewhat missing on my repertoire practice list this week, and in the couple of run-thrus I did do, I conveniently skipped the Tutti intro 
... But it was helpful to give it a rest and see what I retained from last week's practice sessions.Here's the video: https://youtu.be/Ramr3PBZ6EI
Endurance is clearly an issue for this one, and I empathize with what everyone else is saying about hands tightening up after a certain point in their pieces.
I think I tend to pick up the pace for the recap (because I'm more warmed up and settled in by this point), but then that pace is not sustainable for all the RH passagework in the coda - both physically and also how fast my brain can work mentally to remember the LH harmony. This is also usually where things break down when I'm performing this piece for others, since my perception of time changes due to nerves and I play faster than in practice settings.
I'm definitely not ready to perform this piece anytime soon, but I definitely feel like I know it better than before the challenge began - especially the middle portion that doesn't repeat, and also value to motivation to practice "getting myself out of trouble" - make mistakes and practice getting out of them.
