Well, I've gone and done it. I've allowed Piano*Son to post on his own at PW. I sense a box whose lid has just been raised a bit. He calls himself Book_Worm. It's appropriate. When he's not playing the piano or playing computer games he usually has a book open.

He has posted a video of the Brahms Rhapsody in G minor for comments. He has an upcoming competition and he's chosen to use this piece. We've actually found forum comments quite helpful in the past.

Here's his thread:

Brahms Rhapsody thread

Cheers,

David

He did a grand job!

That is a fun piece to play. Lots of power to let loose. And he plays it cleanly (no cracks on those octaves). I wish I had learned it at his age. Site read it a few times a year ago but with the old spinet, not fun. Maybe this will inspire me to attack it now on the MH.

I just love the smile he gives us at the end. And he should be proud. ;-)

LL

Ooh, he did a great job! My comments are fairly minor. The tempo seems to waver a bit in parts, and I think he could use a bit more differentiation dynamically. Louds with Brahms can be big, dramatic LOUD CHORDS. But the challenge is to play wthem with a big full sound, but not stridently. As an example, I thought the last two chords (the ending) were a bit metallic as opposed to full. On the other hand, that could also be the quality of my computer speakers.

During the "mysterious" sections in the middle, there needs to be more of a melody line.

I think he does a great job! As LL says, his left hand octaves are tremendously great... very clean and crisp--they give a wonderful foundation for the piece.

It's not just your computer speakers. A camcorder isn't the best recording device for quality sound. How's that for understatement.

Points well taken. I'm trying to get him to provide more dynamic differentiation. He's new to the high romantic. And this piece is still in progress. Progress had better be fast, however, since the competition is next Friday evening.

1 week?

No problem...

He has the notes down well. Now he just needs permission within himself, or exposure to, giving it all you've got emotionally.

Will the piece be finished? Heck, I still go back to pieces that I learned in the past and give it a different 'take' now. Notes be darned...it is emotion and control of that, which helps us express the music.

I am sure that he will do well and wish him the best for this competition.

LL

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
...I'm trying to get him to provide more dynamic differentiation...

That seems to me to be all it needs. I really like his opening tempo much better than the one a responder posted in another video with a young woman playing. While her dynamics seemed well conceived, her performance became a bit muddied through the middle, bordering on tepid, where book_worm's did not. Her opening tempo was lackluster. His was good. Listening to both twice, I thought that if he could incorporate some of her dynamic differentiation that put some focus on the melodic line of the upper voice, while retaining his tempo and more confident approach, he'd have just what he'd want. (His comment about Rubinstein had me listening for that influence in the second view, and I could definitely hear that.) I refrained from commenting earlier because I wondered that perhaps his dynamic differentiation *was* there and just didn't pick up well in the recording because of mic placement or such.

I've never been a fan of Brahm's stuff, but I decided I really like the structure of that piece. Listening to those performances gave me a fresh appreciation for that piece. So an important objective of performing such things is already achieved. That's a fine place to start.

Ah, a piece a played to death (for my Jr. year jury, IIRC).

That was wonderful, PD. What a talented guy. He has very, very solid technique.

I too was listening on my laptop, tinny speakers, so it's hard to really be discerning. But, my one critique is that when the melody was in the bass (in the middle sections) it was overpowered by the right hand arpeggios. Again, that could be my sub-adequate speakers or it could have been your mike placement. I would watch that while he plays live the next time and if it seems so while you listen, he should work on bringing out those melody lines as well.

I also agree that the tempo variation between the A and the B section was a little offputting.

And of course, expression. But for a 13 year old, he's done amazingly well. I'm sure he'll shine at the competition.

Well, he played it today with much more of the high romantic dynamic shading and subtle changes in tempo. Fewer mistakes, too! I was pleased.

And you're also right about mic placement having an effect on what you heard on the YouTube version. I recorded from the adjacent room (same spot as his pathetique recording, which also suffered from dynamic compression), and that tends to flatten out the sound a bit.

Anthony watched the young woman's performance, but I had trouble getting him to look past her tempo choices. I too shared his preferences here. I'm sure his teacher would hang him by his thumbs if he departed from the score so completely.

Cheers,

David

P.S. Kathy: I have no idea why, but in our little town we have a stable of remarkable 13 year old pianists. The local competitions are fierce. Last year in this competition Anthony finished second, behind a young lady who went on though the next three rounds of this competition all the way to the state level, where she finished third. A young gentleman who didn't place last year in the top two had already performed on From the Top. I heard today that yet another amazing young one has emerged from the ether!

This is *really* impressive!!!

Yes the Louder = Faster thing has to go. In fact the pasages lose their power when he starts rushing them like that. This is not a virtuoso piece to show off chops and if he tries to do that in the louder passages it really takes away from the wonderful things he has accomplished, and the musicianship he has which is what is going to *really* impress the jury. Maybe he can think of the louder, climactic passages, as a heavy man recalling a painful memory. Where the energy is not forward and faster but rather dowweighed with gravity and interiorized.

I didn't think his tempo changes were that radical. Though the recapitulation seemed a lot more "together" emotionally, dynamically and rhythmically than the exposition. He might want to be hearing the recapitulation in his head just before he starts so he can start "in the mood".

My only other thought, and this is for the long term, is that he needs to pay more attention to the harmonic progressions that outline the music. I find his phrasing sometimes goes against what the harmonies are doing. Not sure how much harmony he has studied but it would be a useful tool for figuring out phrasing and overall direction of the music.

But he is going to *wow* those judges!!! You must be beside yourself with pride!

Yep, I'm really pleased with how this piece came together over the past month, and it is continuing to improve. And the feedback he's getting has indeed helped. He's taking the opening exposition a bit more deliberately now. It sounds less hurried. And we continue to work on nuances in the dynamics. I'm afraid attacking the phrasing would be a more involved process. We'd have to tear things down a bit before rebuilding on a firmer foundation.

It's amazing what 45 minutes to an hour of concentrated work per day on one piece can achieve. Even though he happily spends the time on the Brahms, more than that per day on this one piece and I think he'd begin to go nuts. He's also working on three other pieces for different performances and competitions in March. In addition he has starting working on a new beast that he really likes. It's MacDowell's Polonaise from the Virtuoso Studies, Op. 46 no. 12, and it is rhythmically very interesting.

BTW, when you and other professional pianists work on new pieces how much time do you usually allocate to each per day? Is there some time or range of time where most pianists just begin to experience rapidly decreasing benefits from spending more time on one particular piece?

Thanks again for the clear advice. It really helps.

P.S. He has never studied theory formally. I've just taught him as we've gone along. One thing he might do is sign up for theory at William & Mary next fall. I don't think he'd have any trouble taking it with the college kids. I'm told pianists really have a leg up in freshman tonal theory and the professor he worked with a bit last spring on composition says she thinks he would fit in just fine.

Wow! Is this the same son I saw last year in VA? If so, it appears to me he's grown!

I like his performance, it has drama and it caught me right away. I'm not familiar with this piece so I don't have much to say about it.

I also listened to the other performance that someone else linked to. I did not like it as much. For Brahms, I felt it was too studied and careful and as a result she lost my interest here and there. The one thing about her performance that I did prefer was the staccato passages, they were quick, sharp and clean.

Good luck to Book_Worm next week.

Congratulations to both of you, regardless the outcome.

Bernard,

Yes, Anthony was at Cathy Harl's last piano party. She invited him to give a friendly PW concert at her place this month, but I had to decline for him (because otherwise he surely would have said yes ...he says yes to everything). He has so much stuff going on in-school and out-of-school that at least one of us would have gone nuts adding even more things to do.

February and March seem to be "competition season" around here. I wonder if that's true everywhere. He has at least five competitions/auditions/recitals over the next month in piano. Then he has (and had, since some are done) two band concerts and two French Horn auditions. Then there's ..... aieeeeeeee! You see my point. He needs at least a weekend or two with absolutely nothing to do.

Congrats. That shows a lot of good work. Very solid left hand. I like the way he takes a little time on the rh and lh skips (6th measure, for example). I hear a lot of people jerk too fast toward the skips on this piece which sacrifices good sound.

Ok, since you asked:
- One thing to watch going forward might be his shoulders seem a little high, which may be a sign of tension - hard to tell with just this one video, but though I would mention it.
- Regarding the faster/louder thing: I find with Brahms that if you think of some of the louder parts as more "expansive," it helps keep you from rushing.
- In the middle section there is some counterpoint between the lh and rh octaves that is lost. This is where the lh crosses over. I think he's not holding the rh octaves long enough.
- Sometimes the inner voice triplets are a little loud (measure 21 or so?), but that could be the recording.

Overall it's a very good performance, and he should be happy with it.

Oh yeah, I forgot one thing. It definitely needs….



…MORE COWBELL!!

quote:

Originally posted by EHpianist:
Maybe he can think of the louder, climactic passages, as a heavy man recalling a painful memory. Where the energy is not forward and faster but rather dowweighed with gravity and interiorized.

This is good. I'm stealing it immediately.

Phlebas,

Good pick-up on the RH octaves not being held long enough! In fact, BruceD over at PW noticed the same thing. He'll correct that, but perhaps not by Friday. I don't want to mess him up with too many changes! The shoulder hunching is an ongoing issue that he's working on. It used to be worse! I think it's less of a fundamental source of tension and more of an affectation that has to be eliminated. I blame Lang Lang.