Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Ludovico Einaudi

Three years, Relic, but I had 7 years of accordion as a child.

I'm looking forward to hearing your recording.

Don't say I didn't warn you, here's my first take of Einaudi's I Due Fiumi; there's a measure in there that's different from the score (I'll give a gold star to the first one who can tell me where it is :p ).


http://www.box.net/shared/0q9ztn4sx4


I fooled around with it off and on for about a month since Mark first introduced us to it and Monica did her blitzkrieg and it sort of fell into my lap when I wasn't looking; wished I could learn all my pieces this way. Let me know what you think (hey Mark, I beat you to it ).

My only complaint is my damn ankle, started pedaling seriously and it stiffens up again (why couldn't nature have given us titanium bone instead of this friable calcium, chalk for bone, go figure!) Well it's worth it just to get this recording in. Hope you like.

Bravo Sid, you out did your self this time. And it maybe a very long time till I come close to what you just accomplished. You really got the little nuances of the piece down well. Loved the long runs on the top part of page two.

Is you little modification the double g octave on the top of page 3? It sounds like you only hit one g instead of the octave?

Again, masterful job for a one legged piano player... Hope the leg feels better.

Mark

PS: Any pedaling advice on this piece?

Sorry double post

I just love this piece. Beautiful playing, sid, very relaxed and smooth. Was it measure 56 that you played differently?

Thanks Mark! I'm gratified you liked it. Nah I wouldn't short change the double octaves, ok enough teasing, I just added a short lh run of the g chord at 1:40 (measure 56...basically copying over measure 60...thought it flowed better that way). Sorry, Mark, but Monica gets the gold star

Regarding pedaling, I try to pedal every chord change (although there's a couple of points (e.g., at 37sec (measure 21) where if you haven't practiced the pedaling the transition can seem a little abrupt; if you're lazy you can get away with not releasing the pedal at these points for that extra measure, it won't sound too bad; but if you practice it you can get the transition to go pretty smoothly); I hold the pedal down for the big two measure G chord arpeggios. Also, when you have to move your left hand a distance to transition to these big two measure G chord arpeggios, you might want to hold off releasing the pedal until you've started on the new chord run otherwise you lose the sustain too early (what do they call this legato?). Also, on measures 53&54 and 57&58 you might want to hold the pedal for both measures otherwise those two chords (F and Am) sounds a little thin)

If you have headphones, you can actually listen to mine and Monica's version and hear the "swoosh" of the pedals (Monica's are more obvious since I have my pedal effects turned down but it's still there if you listen carefully, pretty neat).


Thanks, Monica! Haha, you've got it in one .

I'm really glad you liked it. I don't have this recording by Einaudi so I guess I pretty much followed yours for reference, really fun piece to learn.

I asked her today, and she said its in C but changes to G in some spots and some other stuff that was over my head...lol

Thanks, Mark... that "changing to G in some spots" is no doubt why it ends in the G chord.

[resolves to hit the music theory books...]

I've been working on I Giorni now that I have I due fiumi recorded. It's got some big chords toward the end I can't reach, but I just re-arranged them and it doesn't sound too bad.

With my piano freshly tuned, I put in some heavy hours with the Zoom this weekend, and I think I am finally ready to put Le Onde to rest. I have struggled with this piece more than any other Einaudi piece, and I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I think I will put it away for now:

"Le Onde"

You'll hear a few bobbles at about the 1:40 mark, and I edited out the part halfway through when I spread out the last 4 pages of the sheet music. This is also the only recording where I edited out a major mistake, as it occurred on the very last gosh-darn line and I was NOT going to try to do it all over again.

I'm always amazed you guys can play such long pieces (to me at least) so well.

Very minor hesitations Monica, great feel, great sound. Thanks!

That's pretty, Monica, where it's good it's very good...but I'm sure your perfectionist alter ego knows perfectly well...yes, you're going have to go back

Have you tried just memorizing it? Love your piano, btw, can I have it?

Er, no, sid, but if I ever upgrade to a BB I'll let you have first shot at it.

Yeah, I know, I'll probably have another go at Le Onde. Maybe this weekend, as the piano is still freshly tuned and the kids are going to be away so I'll have the house to myself and the Zoom.

You know, I can and do memorize just about everything I play, but I have some kind of mental block with this piece and don't have it memorized. I think it's because he repeats things with subtle variations and it's hard to remember what variation goes where. But I've never actually sat down and consciously TRIED to memorize something; I either memorize it along the way (90% of the time) or don't. Maybe I should make a concerted effort to memorize here.

Just curious Monica, how long does your piano stay in tune?

Mark

PS: I will bid against Sid for you M&H

Ludovico Einaudi talking about "Le Onde"

If it were a history the longest beach would be acclimatized on lungomare of one. One beach without beginning and aim. The history of a man perhaps who walks along this river and never does not meet nobody. Its look stops every a lot to observe some object or fragment carried from the sea, the prints of a granchio, a gull hermit. The landscape is always the sand, the sky, some cloud, the sea. They change only the waves, always equal and always various, the more small, the more great, the more short, longer." Ludovico Einaudi

Luigi

It's actually very stable now that I have the Dampp-Chaser. My tech said that the A was right at 440 and that there were entire sections of the keyboard that were on pitch and he didn't even adjust. It was mostly the upper section that had gotten a little flat, and the one bass string that had broken and I had to replace and is still settling in.

But I am fussy, and I swear it sounds best the first week or two after a tuning, so if I'm recording for posterity I prefer to get as much Zoom time during that interval as possible.

I'm also the kind of person who tunes her piano at least 3 times a year. My tech doesn't charge enough, imo, so it's not a big expenditure. As OperaTenor says in his signature line, "Happiness is a freshly tuned piano."

Luigi, thank you for posting that interview excerpt from Einaudi. Yes, the piece certainly conveys that sense of sameness and waves rolling in and out, doesn't it?

Another I Due Fiumi on You Tube. It's played rather fast, and I was wondering if this is the speed that it was intended to be played. If so, I like the slower version better...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGtRTg0Jt8U&mode=related&search=

Mark

You're correct; he's playing it too fast. Einaudi's version is 4:21, and the YouTube clip is 3:46, with several seconds dead space at the beginning. Slower is better.

I really wanted to post my own YouTube clip of this piece, but I got distortion when I recorded it, and even if I wanted to upload it with the distortion, I couldn't figure out how to get it off the camera and into the computer. I will need to wait until I can get some smart teenager to help me out.

On an unrelated topic, I have a question for any of you who have played "I giorni," which is the Einaudi piece I am currently working on. What fingering do you use for measures 186 and 187 (2nd and 3rd from the end). Okay, 186 is easy enough: I'm playing 2&5 for the F and and higher D chord, alternating with my thumb on the lower D. But measure 187, when you're playing E and the higher D together, and alternating with the lower D, do you still use 2 and 5 (which is a huge stretch for me), or do you make your thumb pull double duty and and have it alternate between the lower D and E?

(hope that made sense....)

Monica,

The fingering I had used for measure 187 was 1/5 and then the thumb played the "D", so I do the latter of what you described.

thanks! I've been doing the former, but not all together successfully... I sometimes end up squishing down the C, too, in making that stretch.

I was worried I couldn't jump my thumb back and forth fast enough to have it play both the low notes, but I'll give it a try.

Inizio-Ludovico Einaudi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtF-y3NfaOU&mode=related&search=