Chopin Sostenuto (excerpt), Take 2 ;)
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Take two :-)
Studying one of the most beautiful passages in the repertoire of Frédéric Chopin (Scherzo 2 opus 31)
Next to the piano you can see a print of a copy of the original handwritten manuscript of this well known and much played Second Scherzo.
Also in the right corner you can see the favorite Gingerbread of which Chopin wrote about in a letter to one of his Polish friends in the summer of 1825, when visiting the Polish city Toruń. (Thank you Dion !! 👍🏻🍪☺️)
This Scherzo means a lot to me due to the marvelous recording of Rafael Orozco (1946-1996), the late Spanish pianist from Cordoba.
His recordings (Philips, 1975) of the four Scherzi (also uploaded long ago, with score, here on my channel) are one of the most amazing recordings of the Chopin Scherzi that I have ever heard. I dare to even say that Orozco's recordings of these pieces were one of the very reasons why I once choose to study piano, here at the Tilburg Conservatory, when I still was an adolescent young man. And besides all that, it was also the favorite piece of my late dear Grandmother: I studied many parts of it, while I was staying over in my grandpartents home.
Orozco's amazing piano playing, of which these four Scherzi are a wonderful representation, had a huge impact on me, musically and pianistic; he was the first classical pianist who made me cry.
Betoverend mooi!
That is how a soul sings,breaks free!Bravooooo!!!
Thank you Tamara! And yes, that's a really beautiful description of how you can hear that passage 👍🏻🎹
It's one of that many absolutely remarkable & beautiful moments in Chopin's repertoire. If you have spare time once, listen to the complete recording of it (10 minutes). The one I mention in the description (Rafael Orozco, Scherzo II) is one of my very faves, but there are of course many masters who recorded it.
Kind regards! Simon 🎹
Thank you. You played that beautifully, it sounded profesional in every way. I too love that section. See, all those years of practice did pay off.
Thank you!
Yes, it's indeed a wonderful section, see description also; I absolutely love this piece.
And yes, practice pays off, totally true, that's how it works, but to play a one minute fragment is a totally other matter than the whole ten minutes of this complicated piece 🥹😅. But, well, also even this one minute excerpt was already a challenge ;-) especially on a rather simple piano in a very dry small room.
kind regards from The Netherlands again! Simon 🎹
@@simonvanthoff Your sense of musicality was evident right from the start and the natural ebb and flow of your timing gave your performance a feeling of genine polish. At one time or another Chopin played all his music on small upright pianos. He also composed on small uprights. Many years ago I read that Chopin actually said that he preferred small upright pianos. It's an idea that's not always easy for people to understand but I think that the smaller pianos suited Chopin's sense of intimacy especially when he was playing for himself or a small number of friends. Have you played the entire Scherzo at tempo without taking a break? Of course, the Scherzo is a genuine tour de force.
@@mabdub thank you ! And yes, it's true, Chopin also always accompanied his pupils on his small upright piano. Although, on the other hand, as far as I understood, he had a grand piano in his study-room on the first floor of the Sand-Chateau in Nohant.
And yes, I also recognize that, that sometimes the action and the sound and the intimacy of an upright piano, especially with beautiful ones, of course, is prefered above the many times more robust sounding grand piano. That's also one of the reasons my Pleyel grand piano is always closed, as you can see on my uploads...and also the reason why I always check in a store how a grand piano (when I find that specific one interesting) sounds with closed lid, because like my Pleyel, it really enriches the sound when it soars and sings and hovers and zzzzings inside the wooden case and construction. Some grand pianos are totally not able to do that, and get stiff and muffled and dry, when totally closed. My Pleyel the opposite! So, yes, this "closing the lid of a grand" is, in fact, many times almost a taboo when talking with pianists haha: that in some particular cases a closed grand piano can really be also SO beautiful! My Pleyel (a Schimmel, Braunschweig, from 1973) is a typical example of that.
And yes, I have played in the yesterdays the whole Scherzo many times in (small) concerts, and also long long ago on my end-exam.
When playing live, you can "afford" so to speak mistakes here and there. But now, here, on CZcams, it's so, so, so hard to leave too many mistakes (ugly or not so ugly) "just there". I find that harder and harder to do, to accept, the older I get. Because your ears get more critical ! That's why I removed this night my last upload from yesterday evening: I just was not able to enjoy it, be happy with it, not even with a choice of about five (more or less) "acceptable" takes, yesterday.
So, well, I studied this small excerpt again, this morning, and tried to record it again, this afternoon. So, yes I have to really take my time and space on a (free) day like this to make a recording, with such a complicated and well known concert piece. Éven with 'just' an excerpt :-)
That's why it's so hard to play these concert pieces, in your living room, with just my 'simple' iPad camera; no editing at all ÍN the pieces, like they do almost standardly in almost every studio-recording. It makes you feel humble, sober, and realistic. :-) And also very aware of the difficulty of these masterworks, to play them good, I mean... Not 'just' to play them, no no, to play them góód :-) that is really, really, really hard.
Thanks again for your very nice comment ! 👍🏻
Kindest regards,
Simon 🎹
Nice nice nice 😁
Thank you, again! As you could see, I removed the one from yesterday; I just was not happy 🥹😏🥺 so I studied again this morning, on this excerpt of just one minute...and now, with these two takes from this afternoon, I am way more pleased...always some things to wish for, of course!, but I can now listen to the result more satisfied than the one from yesterday 🫣👍🏻
Kind regards, Simon 🎹
@@simonvanthoff that’s the thing about pianists - never content with the result, I know this very well 🫣😅
@@pianothingsmusic yes, it's very hard to be happy with your own playing, I know 🥺, and it's (very) hard to make a take of which you more or less càn be happy with :-). And at the same time that's also good, because that attitude is what makes the HUGE difference between having the goal to not sound 'dilettant & sloppy', and at least try to be sounding professionally ;-)
But yes, you're right, with every piece that's always again the challenge for every pianist 🥹🎹☺️
Kind regards, greetings again from The Netherlands, Simon 🎹👍🏻
@@simonvanthoff absolutely agreed 👍🏻
Ah take 2 ook mooi en wat vloeiender. Zelf toch een lichte voorkeur voor take 1 😉
Take 2 is idd in de tweede helft het pedaal wat beter, met mooie en frisse afwisseling van legato en flarden non-legato, maar het heeft ook wat mini misslagjes links, en de eerste helft ervan is wat minder rollend ritmisch. Dus beide "takes" hebben iets. Los nog van de microfoon, die kennelijk om welke reden ook vreemd doet zoals je hoort (begin). En zo ist altijd wat haha!
("Take" 1 is trouwens eigenlijk "take" 2 en andersom, maar oké... ;)
Groet Simon 🎹
@@simonvanthoff Dus een kwestie van hetzelfde shirt aanhouden en het bovenlijf zo min mogelijk bewegen. Dat valt prima aan elkaar te monteren. Wanneer je 2 camera's gebruikt vanuit verschillende hoeken en telkens wisselt is er geen mens die dat ziet 😜
@@dlpalinc nee, ik heb (itt studiorecordings) nog nooit hier geknipt en geplakt. Weet niet eens hoe dat moet :) Wat dat betreft is CZcams super eerlijk he.
Groet! Simon 🎹