One of the most magical moments of Chopin (for Dion! ☺️🎹)
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- New try ;-)
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.
This is amazing 🎶🎶🎶🎹❤️
Thank you! It's a beautiful magical moment indeed...it always surprises me when I hear it, the beauty of it, the natural organic flow..
Kind regards, Simon 🎹
Mooi gedaan Simon! Magdalena (mijn Poolse vriendin) kent het stuk goed en kreeg direct kippenvel. Wat mij betreft de beste graadmeter 😉 We gaan de opname van Orozco goed beluisteren. Groet, Dion & Magdalena
Wat leuk Dion!
En ja, een van mijn grote favos van Chopin. En een van die magische momenten in zijn oeuvre.
Orozco: lang verhaal, vertel ik wie weet nog eens in de les, hoe dat zo gekomen is.
Ieder van ons maakt dat waarschijnlijk in de loop van zijn leven wel eens mee hè, dat een muzikant (of pianist dus in dit specifieke geval) je zo enòrm raakt. Dat vergeet je vervolgens nooit meer, en dan blijf je trouw aan zo iemand, zogezegd, gewoon omdat die ervaring van ontroering, wanneer je dat voor het eerst meemaakt (in dit geval bij mij dus: door een klassieke pianist), zo enorm veel indruk maakt.
Je ziet, je prachtige koektrommel is denk ik zeer mooi geëerd op deze wijze :-) 👍🏻🎹☺️
De partituur staat overigens exact opengeslagen op de gehele passage die ik hier nu speel :)
Groet, Simon 🎹
@@simonvanthoff Herkenbaar. Sokolov is de laatste die dat gelukt is, met deze opname om precies te zijn: m.czcams.com/video/jP5JO8TLFkU/video.html&pp=ygUOU29rb2xvdiAyMSA5NjA%3D
Zal bijzonder worden om hem begin volgende maand live te zien spelen in Amsterdam. Hij gaat in elk geval 7 Mazurka’s van Chopin voordragen.
@@dlpalinc ah de mooie langzame Schubert :-)
Ja, je gaat hem live zien? Mooi 🎹👍🏻👌🏻
Heel bijzondere pianist, in vele opzichten.
Very wonderful and magical!! It sounds so expressive and professionally done that even though my eyes are seeing the upright my ears are hearing a grand.
Thank you for your very nice comment! The piano you hear is a Hoffmann, from the Langlau factory. A very nice, very smooth, delicate, egale, soft sounding upright piano from the late seventies. It has a pearl-like discant, and a very deep round bass, despite its small size. The action is super light, so it takes lots of control to not 'slip away' over the keys, so to speak.
Kind regards, greetings from the Netherlands, Simon 🎹👍🏻
@@simonvanthoff I had no idea it had such light action from watching. From having played unweighted keyboards, I understand how light action does make it very difficult to prevent "slippage". May you have many many more years (and uploads) with this Hoffmann and your expressive technique. Also I appreciate the handwritten music on display as well.
@@shortlessonshardquestions8105 Thank you 🎹 and yes, it's a superlight action on this piano, so, indeed it is very slippery, especially in these fast, superdifficult leggiero passages.
That's why my first upload of a day earlier I had to delete again, because I just could not listen to that take without some cringing moments here and there; in many ways it just was a not-that-good take, but still it was quite hard for me to delete it already that same night because it took so much time to record a more or less "mistake-less" take that afternoon haha 🙈🫣🥺💁🏼♂️, even being only one-minute long.
But, well, I indeed deleted it, and tried it again next day, studied hard that afternoon on that slippery part, by lightening up my arm weight (I mean: be very aware of it, and have active fingers and the right pedals (also a very tricky part of this section!) and then after the practice I uploaded these two different takes that were to my satisfaction (more or less..)
As you had probably noticed I got so sweaty of the work in progress haha, that I switched shirts after some time, that's why in that other take I have another shirt 😅.
As you also maybe may have noticed before, on my channel, I have four different pianos here in my small appartement: the Pleyel grand, this W.A. Hoffmann upright piano, a Kemble upright piano, and a simple sweet looking saloon-ish sounding Gerh. Steinberg cottage piano: every time I try to make an upload of a certain piece again, I try to choose the piano that in my view fits the most for that certain type of music. So that's why I play different songs or classical pieces on different pianos here :-)
Still, it's hard to find a fitting or nice or good or original or surprising piece or song to record to your satisfaction, and do that on the right and fitting piano.
By fár not any piece I can play, of course, and I also like to choose pieces that are really fitting my technique, or, with pop or jazzy tunes (like Oscar Peterson, or The Beatles for example), to give them some signature of my own (arrangement-wise I mean).
And besides that many times I try to also create visually the right or fitting ambiance (like here with that original score, the Polish gingerbread box, and the painting), it's also not something you can easily or quickly do. Besides having the time, the right light, and of course be in the right mood on that specific free day haha!
So, well, as you probably also know because you also play piano yourself, it is of course not that easy to upload that often, with a high upload-frequency, so unfortunately sometimes it's weeks of silence here haha, but still I try to do a little cosy home-recording now and then. Mostly inspired by what pupils study, by the way, or what I have to play for myself in a small-scaled live performance. That's why I also upload many popsongs, because I play sometimes with my cover band :-)🎹💪🏻 and because I love, love popmusic so very much 👍🏻.
Thanks again for your very kind comments !
Simon 🎹👍🏻
@@simonvanthoff Getting 1 minute of perfection is HARD, especially when you are the one defining what perfection is. The more time you spend with something, the more important the details become. It’s kind of like zooming into a fractal of details…it never ends.
Your students (and cover band mates) are lucky to learn from both your ability and from your patient temperment and endurance.
Both takes are excelent! In, “Chopin Sostenuto (exerpt), Take 2 ;)”, I notice how at 00:30 your simultaneous lightening of touch, shorter note duration, and temporary removal of sustain pedal for a few select notes contrasts the rest of the flowing music that surrounds that moment very well. Thank you for both uploads as well as all of your other expressive performances.
Your dedication to giving the music through such highly crafted performances adds to the meaning of your life and creates great meaning in all of the life that can observe you. Take great care and may you continue🎶🙌🎶
@@shortlessonshardquestions8105 thank you for your very nice respons!
And yes, 'perfection' is so so so hard, to not say impossible.
In this very case it was mainly the "not getting slippery"-part of it, and also: not sounding stiff and harsh, and also put very simply: play no wrong notes! My gosh, in fact not manageable. But still, with lots of trying that afternoon (incl changing of my sweaty shirt haha! 🙈) I could make a more or less acceptable performance. In that sense these home CZcams iPad recordings are very honest: no editing possible, what you see is what you get.
And thanks for noticing that specific pedal moment! Yes, that is also one of the very very important parts of piano playing that you try to master: micro movements of the pedal so that these tiny things can be highlighted. Because a too high lift then the result is too "dry" (especially in a dry living room) and a too low lift its way too "wet". But in this take the lifting of the pedal was júst right :-))
Thanks again for your kind words, kind regards, Simon 🎹
Zo mooi!! Dit is precies mijn favoriete stukje uit deze Scherzo!
Dank je Mees! Ja, van mij ook, al heb ik er vele, in dit tien minuten durende stuk. Zie ook beschrijving ;-)
Veel groetjes, Simon 🎹
Mooi Simon! Moeder van Mees
Dankjewel! Wat leuk, jullie comments kwamen net na elkaar ☺️🎹
Schitterend stuk, een v mijn (talloze) favorieten.
Zie ook de beschrijving 👍🏻
Groetjes, Simon 🎹
Oh wow wat heerlijk weer 🙂👍🏻
Dankjewel Sjoerd! Met ook dank aan CZcams haha ! ;-)
☺️🎹😅☀️