This goes to show that expressivity in music is achieved through meticulous planning and reasoning rather than spontaneous facial expressions and bodily jerks.
Love the annotations. I’ve always loved that old style sound but never knew the details of how to do it. Hope you can do more annotated scores like this. I’ve been trying to get that flavor with Chopin’s Ballade #1 by studying Rubinstein’s interpretation, but I can see from your annotations here that I’m missing a lot of the subtleties.
Thanks, this is actually quite old now so my view of how some of these details work has evolved a bit. You might be interested in this video: th-cam.com/video/wCxCifxKpuY/w-d-xo.html
Thanks. I watched the video. I haven’t finished the whole article but it explains a lot. I could hear some of this in my study of old recordings but I thought these might be byproducts of old recording equipment or piano rolls. This helps a lot in understanding what I hear. By the way, when I tried to add a bit of asynchrony in my playing my teacher criticized me for not synchronizing the left and right hands. However another musician told me I should be able to play a piece both ways, and that goes for other similar issues (like swing vs. straight eighths). I feel it’s good advice.
Great analysis of this style/interpretation. Wouldn’t pass muster in any competition, but is a crowd-pleasing style of playing, and that’s what’s important!
Very beautiful performance. You have managed to take ideas from the early recordings and, most importantly, make them part of your own performance... It seems, however, that the instrument itself is tied up in the performing style ie the 'dislocation' and arpeggiation is in part demanded by the quick decay of old pianos, in order for the notes to sing. Modern instruments have so little 'attack' that it seems unnecessary to 'split' LH/RH. 20th century tastes of course have swung this way and that too...
You have a point about questioning the need to do this on modern pianos, yet historically the effect obviously persisted well into the era of the modern piano as early recordings testify. In fact, another way of looking at this is that if you separate notes out in the texture it means you don't have to give them such a strong dynamic accent (e.g. blasting out the melody with an almost hard tone). It's also another way of making the counterpoint (bass/treble) more transparent other than a dynamic 'war' between the two layers. Cortot in particular displays a genius for grading the intensity of the bass notes by the degree of displacement used. Thanks for your comments. Also you might want to check out my recent playlist incorporating others doing these techniques: th-cam.com/video/yzOXY0Rt-CM/w-d-xo.html
@@charlestebbs Yes, spreading notes and chords is a wonderful thing to do on ANY piano! Not just in Chopin. Any old composer, as it were. I do it on the organ too... Thanks for your recent playlist, will have a listen...
This goes to show that expressivity in music is achieved through meticulous planning and reasoning rather than spontaneous facial expressions and bodily jerks.
I can't tell you how much I enjoy these videos with the annotations, etc...
Very interesting video! Definitely teaches a lesson or two in musicality and interpretation. And very fine playing!
Love the annotations. I’ve always loved that old style sound but never knew the details of how to do it. Hope you can do more annotated scores like this. I’ve been trying to get that flavor with Chopin’s Ballade #1 by studying Rubinstein’s interpretation, but I can see from your annotations here that I’m missing a lot of the subtleties.
Thanks, this is actually quite old now so my view of how some of these details work has evolved a bit. You might be interested in this video: th-cam.com/video/wCxCifxKpuY/w-d-xo.html
Also this article I wrote on my website: www.charlestebbs.co.uk/chopin-asynchrony-arpeggiation/
Thanks. I watched the video. I haven’t finished the whole article but it explains a lot. I could hear some of this in my study of old recordings but I thought these might be byproducts of old recording equipment or piano rolls. This helps a lot in understanding what I hear. By the way, when I tried to add a bit of asynchrony in my playing my teacher criticized me for not synchronizing the left and right hands. However another musician told me I should be able to play a piece both ways, and that goes for other similar issues (like swing vs. straight eighths). I feel it’s good advice.
Great analysis of this style/interpretation. Wouldn’t pass muster in any competition, but is a crowd-pleasing style of playing, and that’s what’s important!
Very interesting analysis ad very useful to us, piano teachers…
Sehr schön gespielt 🙌
Very beautiful performance. You have managed to take ideas from the early recordings and, most importantly, make them part of your own performance... It seems, however, that the instrument itself is tied up in the performing style ie the 'dislocation' and arpeggiation is in part demanded by the quick decay of old pianos, in order for the notes to sing. Modern instruments have so little 'attack' that it seems unnecessary to 'split' LH/RH. 20th century tastes of course have swung this way and that too...
You have a point about questioning the need to do this on modern pianos, yet historically the effect obviously persisted well into the era of the modern piano as early recordings testify. In fact, another way of looking at this is that if you separate notes out in the texture it means you don't have to give them such a strong dynamic accent (e.g. blasting out the melody with an almost hard tone). It's also another way of making the counterpoint (bass/treble) more transparent other than a dynamic 'war' between the two layers. Cortot in particular displays a genius for grading the intensity of the bass notes by the degree of displacement used. Thanks for your comments. Also you might want to check out my recent playlist incorporating others doing these techniques: th-cam.com/video/yzOXY0Rt-CM/w-d-xo.html
@@charlestebbs Yes, spreading notes and chords is a wonderful thing to do on ANY piano! Not just in Chopin. Any old composer, as it were. I do it on the organ too... Thanks for your recent playlist, will have a listen...
Very good.
Eye opening stuff
😍
💗💓♥️Chopin 💗💓♥️💗 Tebbs ♥️
fabulous, thnx.
I think the best version of this piece is Dinu Lipatti's.
It's certainly a very special one, like all of his playing.
Wow incredibly I enjoyed it This is the Truth!