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Thank you for listening, and I'd appreciate if you comment and criticise. Thank you.

Hi, CanCakmur! As usual, a scary good terrific job -- and getting better and better musically as well as technically. I particularly liked your decision to emphasize the lyrical element in this piece -- you shaped and voiced the melodic sections beautifully throughout, and made it the centerpiece of the "storyline", keeping the dark, virtuosic fulminations under tight control. I've never been much of a Liszt fan, but you make as good a case for this piece as I've ever heard. At 15 or 16 years old or so, you sure have a bright future ahead of you, IMO. Thanks for sharing!

You have the rare ability to move the listener with your playing.

You have enormous skills at a very young age! And your Liszt may "sing" also in the loud and dramatic parts, it's always a pity when pianists "suffocate" the lyrical elements of Liszt's musical language -- you let them "breathe", how precious!

Incredible!

A virtuoso performance, indeed. Simply amazing and thank you for your music!

Since you asked, I thought the accented notes at the allegro deciso (the first beats of measures 72, 74, 76, and 78) were a little too staccato. However, I will never in this life play this piece, anywhere near as well. That was fantastic! Thank you for posting it.

Good choice for taking the ossia at the end and the extra arpeggiation was tasteful and well placed.

Incredibly good performance of a dark piece that I'd not heard before (I'm not too familiar with Liszt).
You have a very bright future ahead of you!

Love it! You have a real affinity for Liszt - keep playing his stuff!

Thank you very much for all your encouraging words. This is a great honor for me.
I totally agree with Damon in his critics, it is really too much staccato and must be corrected.
Thank you very much again
Can

Beautiful!

Absolutely perfect.

Bumping a worthier post.

Greetings, your technique seemingly is flawless and the range of tone very wide. You should be very proud of this recording - and I am hopeful that this is so!

If you were my age then this might be as good as it can get.

At your age - and I am not trying in any way to burst your bubble - this can be a foundation from which to push further and to dig deeper.

I don't doubt it will happen, yet to get your gears turning here is a recording that was an eye opener to me when I was a youth. This is not to compare recordings - and any observant comparison would show that your playing technically is more secure than the playing below, which shows how good you are, and also how declined this pianist had become by the time he was in a recording studio.

I have a feeling that if you listen you will like it. There is only one way to find out.

(and anyone who really knows me can predict what recording this shall be!)

[video:youtube]g5XXiIxC73E[/video]

Fantastic performance Can! It's wonderful to watch how quickly you bring these big, virtuosic pieces up to performance level. I wish I could do the same!

I'm just starting to work on this piece, and have been thinking a lot about what I want to make of it. Of course, if I can get it to your level, I'll be very happy with myself. But that being said, I have three musical suggestions that are more on the interpretative, personal opinion side of things:

1) I agree about the staccato chords previously mentioned being too sharply staccato.

2) I think the agitato section that first introduces the broken octaves is a little too "matter of fact" the way you start it. It does say "in Tempo", but nonetheless, I think there should be some indication to the listeners that you recognize the gradual building of drama, rather than just jumping right in to it.

3) I think the way you play melody in the "Allegro moderato, cantabile" section is wonderful, but I'd like it to be even more free of the accompaniment, like a diva who doesn't let herself be constrained by anything.

Fantastic playing! Please keep posting your wonderful performances

To Michael Sayers

First of all thank you for your comments, which are invaluable for me. I know very well how far this is from perfect and that i have just begun to explore the possibilities of the instrument, both musically and technically (if a such distinction can be made...). Today, few months after i made this recording, i listened to it again. Apart from any wrongly conceived phrases, there is one thing that disturbed me most: That is the coherence of the sound I produced from the piano. I think for the circumstances i made this recording (unfamiliar piano, short recording time, the fact that i was not completely ready etc.) the quality of the sound is more or less ok. It is somewhat singing, not too harsh or too mellow and so. But, the coherence of the sound is a different story. For example, around 1:05 sound of the left hand octaves fluctuates in a way that the deepness of the sound changes. This naturally breaks the phrase; the phrase that should have lead to the c sharp (base of the f sharp major chord, first beat, measure 22). There are things like this here and there. Concerning this problem, Annie Fischer's legendary Schumann Carnaval recording was an eye opener for me. So i may say, she was a bit quicker than Ervin Nyiregyhazi's recording Now, I am trying make my phrasing more natural, the sound more coherently singing. It is something that likes of Cortot, Fischer, and that i recently heard, Nyiregyhazi so naturally had. We mere mortals only struggle to reach what they had reached seemingly effortlessly.

Above anything i would like to thank wholeheartedly to you for introducing this wonderful Liszt Ballade recording of which i had no idea it existed.

To MarkH

It is wonderful to hear such compliments. I am sure you will come up with the most satisfying ideas on this piece. There are so many different colors to explore!

These staccato chords were unfortunately too staccato. On the acoustics of the studio it did sound ok, but recorded sound is something different...

I think this agitato section makes sense in accordance with the dominant chord before. Perhaps the dominant should sound darker so that the deep base of the f sharp minor chord is more impressive. I believe what i had missed was the really interesting harmonic progression. To me it moves from b minor to f sharp minor, and the theme begins with the VI of that key. What do you think, as the progression before is very open to interpretations?

For the ending, i always pictured this piece very similar to the Dante symphony, if i tried to transcribe it for an orchestra. In that sense, that passage would be a solo (or two) cellos, which Liszt was very fond of, accompanied by violas and violins. A canto there is also very interesting and surely i will try and see what fits me better.

Thank you very much for the feedback once more...