วีดีโอ

Looking forward to it. As always amazing Edna.😊

Sounds great!!!

Intriguing! Very much music coming from the piano rather than being imposed on it. Looking forward to hearing more.

This was very informative. Thank you.

Some pieces by Bach will remain of great value for all time , like Air ! But some pieces are really just arrangement gimmicks that tire you out rather than delight you , as it is with this here. I compose very valuable melodies with appealing arrangements , almost like a Tchaikovsky ... and I am looking for an orchestra or an investor for my music ! Here are three videos I made for this purpose : th-cam.com/video/_DVnP-mNOul/w-d-xo.html / Classic for ballet-dance . Second : th-cam.com/video/gs9DCYQCgK8/w-d-xo.html Classic for figure-skating Third : th-cam.com/video/z__Y2ixpUG0/w-d-xo.html A speech from me with the Title : Serbian melody genius needs an investor ! ( I can reassure you , I don't like self-praise either , but in this selfish world , not even really good things are praised anywhere. So ... unfortunately I have to do it myself. )

Perfect timing. This is my next Prélude after Do Majeure. I started playing just the left hand, this gives me ideas and inspiration for the rest. Merci beaucoup.

The Similarity the left Hand with Siloti Prelude

This is so well played. Thanks for sharing

Dear Edna, I’m your audience in La Maison de la radio in Paris. I sat in the mid of the second row. Your performance really touched me so that I couldn’t help but give you the applaud with my hand raised high. Thank you for giving me a sublime evening with Bach and your own work! I admire your talent and your courage to share your spirit with us! Thank you. By the way, you speak very very good French! You’re really admirable!

How interesting to connect with the Brahms! So few pianists know his wonderful final works for organ. It seems to me that the only difference is that the Bach prelude is a cradle song, while the Brahms is a rapt gaze at the wonderful infant. And your voicing of the fugue episode also links with a chorale, I think - Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein", BWV 734 a. Not the Busoni land-speed record version, but the original! Thank you for these videos, which always cast new light on music we thought we knew.

Piękna interpretacja pięknego utworu. Sam go gram

Hello Edna, Both the prelude and fugue are some of the most profound music in the WTC. I very much enjoyed the way you use the Sarabande rhythm in the prelude to determine tempo. It’s a very smart way to shape the piece. I know this isn’t the forum for detailed thoughts, but I believe Bach’s use of leading-tone function-in the broadest sense-the vii chord, the 6/3 chord in various contexts, often for a full bar before resolving, can play a role in tempo too. I’d be curious to know what your thoughts are about this. Thanks for these videos!

I have recently discovered this composer and become fascinated by her. Thank you for making these videos! What a great teaching tool these exercises can be.

👏

Interesting that Leon Fleisher advised lengthening the long note in a phrase, I remember Heifetz having said almost the opposite: play the note and get off it so as not to rush what follows. Of course when you do it it sounds beautiful, and whatever Leon Fleisher played, it was always beautiful. My teacher was from Norway, and he saw Gieseking play there in the ‘30s. He related that before Gieseking sat down at the keyboard to play he faced the audience and raised his arm in a full Nazi salute. One can’t help feeling differently about a person after hearing that, especially when one is a teenager, but one still listened to him playing all kinds of repertoire, especially,for me Debussy.

Thank you, Edna! I enjoyed the experience of playing this prelude slowly and listening out, as you say, for the implied harmonies. It seems that that the right hand "builds" the harmony implied by the left hand, so the important notes are the ones that add a new note to the implied chord. Notes that do not add any information about the harmony are "tucked in" by Bach so that they fall in rhythmically weak positions.

Isn't it a paradox with both the piano and the instruments of Bach's time - harpsichord and clavichord - the notes fade rapidly and the art of the player is making people believe they can hear sounds that no longer exist physically. And the challenge you pose is how to harness this magic to make listeners experience the resolution of dissonances even when the actual dissonant note is no longer audible, This is a fascinating question! Thank you for the insights you bring to this music.

Can we buy your CD anywhere in Europe? Shipping from the UK to Ireland is almost as expensive as the CD, and I will be charted VAT before the post office will deliver it!

With all my respect, i really believe you're wrong. The smallest division you can make in this begining is "C B C G Aflat", then " C B C D G" then the big one " C B C D F G Aflat G F Eflat". Cutting more than that, leading to "C B C" is a non-sense for me. " C B C" is not a musical element, it's nothing. In contemporary music maybe... I apolagise, but that's the way it is.

If you want to hear a really weird interpretation of the WTC, Book I, check out Tzimon Barto's new recording...it's.........something. There are some interesting ideas, new textures, and colors, but it is just so idiosyncratic that one becomes constantly aware of the interpreter doing something to the music. Valery Afanassiev is another maverick, of the rephrasing and slower tempo variety, but he has such an immense intellect and imagination that it is always fascinating and evocative. My personal favorite is, probably, Sviatoslav Richter's interpretation. He also has a strong personality, but it is, as Gould said, a conduit through which we feel a great connection to the music.

Can one hold the upper note with the fifth finger a little longer, sort of like a finger pedal? Also, are you saying that we shouldn't use wrist rotation? Just finger technique?

Hi Edna, it's Daniel here. Thank you for these insightful videos.

My little finger agrees wholeheartedly with you and wants to go down and practice now. I had to explain to it that it is midnight and ask it to wait until morning.

Thank you for this video. Will you come to Ingolstadt again?

Thanks Edna. Insightful presentation.

Merci, Edna! Greetings from New York!

I cannot thank you enough for this insight. Sure - I was taught to practice slowly with a metronome (I reckon everyone is) but this is different. Playing a piece at a slower tempo as if that were the appropriate speed opens up so many possibilities in the music. It's like walking along a road that you normally travelled down on the bus. I have spent a whole morning discovering the hidden wonders of music I thought I knew.

This same problem exists in conducting polyphony, except that here each voice has its own character naturally, and the articuation of these words gives the thematic material a distinctive shape. It is this that allows the listener to hear the imitation between the voices, I think, without any need for singers to exaggerate their part. In Bach, I do think that the characteristic shape of the thematic material can be enough, often, to draw the ear towards it. For instance in the C major fugue there are scale figures separated by a little jumping figure. A little detach on the jumps allows the theme to wink out from the texture without forcing itself on our attention. Sorry. This comment turned out to be rather long!

My old piano teacher used to say that there was no piece that was so simple that you could not learn something from studying it, and this is certainly the case. I am really looking forward to this series, and to listening to the recording!

Well done 👍

☺️ P R O M O S M

I think that your second way is how Schubert wrote it. And anyone who thinks they know better than Schubert has a long way to go before nightfall! Everything in the score is there for a reason.

This is beautiful video 🎶🎹

Even as a child I listened to some of these characters with a divided mind: Backhaus, Kempf, Gieseking, who used to give a nice crisp Nazi salute before playing a recital. No, Elly Ney I won’t listen to. Backhaus remains a guilty pleasure for me, but to me he he a protean interpreter, and seems to shape shift according to the needs of the moment.

Bach was no Romantic musician; he was an analytic composer - and that´s why he should be played WITHOUT PEDAL, as a harpsichordist does. Glenn Gould used to play Bach correctly, also Friedrich Gulda. Fischer sounds inappropriate for the Great Master Bach. But thank you Prof. Stern for talking about.

revolution needs temper 🙂

Good tips thanks！

It is always a pleasure to hear Edna Stern - many thanks

lovely, thank you!

superb!

Merci de votre implication pour ces deux immenses pianistes. Et merci, plus encore, pour ce disque merveilleux que vous avez consacré à Hélène de Montgeroult.

Edna, found this album on Spotify earlier this year. It's been such a joy to listen to it over and over again. These recordings have such a special touch on the heart. Thank you !

תוספת יפה וחשובה להקלטות המועטות מדי של פאני. יחד עם זאת - התמונה היא לא שלה אלא של ססיל ז'נרנו (Cécile Jeanrenaud ), אשתו של פליקס ...

I have only just become aware of this project - many thanks for sharing this - Best Wishes

Brilliant, thanks Edna.

Pourquoi is the bookshelf shaking?

Bokeh, refers to the quality of the blur, too. If it isn't smooth, the blurred background can be distracting. Some backgrounds looked better blurred than others. Alternatively, or in addition, one can also isolate the subject by having tonal or color contrast between the subject and the background. Similar effects can be achieved in piano playing, no?

I don't find violence in Richter's interpretation, but a feeling of emotional turmoil and desperation. It is aided by Richter's miraculous sense of rhythmic pulse. Listen to how he plays the section of the prelude at 0:45, it always breaks my heart. In Fischer's interpretation, the motivic urgency is not as pronounced. This is just my interpretation of their interpretations...of course. Your interpretation of 851 on your recording of selections from Bach Preludes and Fugues & Chorals is marvelous and unique; very interesting transition to the section I mentioned above. Also, your Schumann recording is truly memorable. I've finally found an interpretation of Etude XI from the Symphonic Etudes that matches the one by Pogorelich in spiritual weight, but that is completely unique and personal. Thank you for your commitment to your craft and to music! I'm grateful. Sending love from NYC!

Merci beaucoup Edna pour tous ces conseils !! J'espère que nous pourrons avoir la suite des leçons !! 😊 c'est très utile !!

Lovely as usual