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What do you think of this rendition?

TinyUrl link to an mp3 file on Google drive, 6 megs and change.

https://tinyurl.com/ybuz9pbj

Enjoyed it who was the pianist?

Amazing, is it yours? I didn't spot any mistakes and I really like interpretation. Were improvised parts yours as well?
What piano is this and how was it recorded? Really like the sound.

I think it's a midi render, although a smart one.

Not a midi render. Human playing an acoustic piano.

If you know of a midi piano that sounds that good point me toward it - lol.

Exactly, sound is great, but which "human" is playing?

If it's not a technical trick, I would say that the pianist mockes at Chopin's piece in order to show off his virtuosity. I really hate this kind of performances.

The variants in the middle section were interesting but not particularly Chopinesque IMO. (I hope someone doesn't now say that are some newly discovered variants by Chopin haha.) OTOH some criticize the middle section as being a little repetitious so the idea of slight variants may be good.

Why does it matter what everybody else thinks, and why haven't you answered their questions?

I must admit, it sounds like a mechanical/electronic production to me although, to be extremely pedantic and nit-picking, sometimes the volumes between bass and treble seemed a little incorrect enough to be human.

Anybody who can play that well should be confident of their ability, while anybody who pretends to should not.

As for the piano tone, personally I wasn't that impressed, but that may be the "production". ;-)

You never asked anyone their opinion about something? There must be tens of thousands of posts on PW asking for opinions about a performance.

So many presuppositions in one short post.

Besides that I have other things to do than babysit a post during the day, I have my reasons for not immediately saying anything.


Electronic and mechanical devices and human involvement aren't mutually exclusive. A piano is mechanical, recording in the current era is electronic.

It's a human playing an acoustic piano as already stated.


I have every reason to think the performer is confident in their ability. The performer isn't me. I wish I could play like that.


Ah - at least you do finally get around to giving a nod to the original query.

I could have made it longer by wasting time, but see no point.



Thank you for explaining, I look forward to your saying who, where what etc. BTW, I was not aware that I was asking you, even obliquely, to "baby-sit" anything.



I apologise unreservedly for inconveniencing you.

Gimme $50 and it'll be forgiven/forgotten.

This is not an ideal performance, for me. The descending passage that first appears in measure eight is never cleanly executed each time it recurs, and there seem to be missed notes elsewhere in this section. A little less "Presto" with the "agitato" might help; there is some unnecessary rushing for my taste, the "Presto" notwithstanding. Perhaps a little less pedal might help, too.

The pianist cuts measures 71-83, perhaps to avoid the repetition that many complain about. The first fioritura at measure 60 is quite similar to what is found in the Klindworth edition for measure 72; I don't particularly care for the embellishments at measure 65; let's keep this melody simple.

I think the balance between right and left hands in the "Moderato cantibile" section is beautifully done.

I don't like the doubling of the bass C-sharp at measure 119; it comes with a bit of a whallop, nor do I like the extended arpeggio in the penultimate measure that goes an octave above what is written!

On the other hand(s), if I had this facility with some control, I would be a happy man with this piece.

Regards,

I'm intrigued as to who this is, and why you're holding back from telling us...

At any rate, it's a great performance and I enjoyed listening. Since you asked for thoughts, I found it a bit over-pedalled, which made some of the agitato section a bit muddy. I also thought the middle section was too fast. I liked some of the additions, but would have preferred it without the cut i.e. playing it as written, and then introducing variants on the repeats. But this is nitpicking!

Nope. It's a midi render.

Not a midi piano, but a virtual piano, like Pianoteq or Arturia, rendered with the help of a DAW. But there are dozens of them, some are very good.

Lol...

The problem with any artificial piano (or artificial anything) is that none of them produce sound the way a real piano does and you don't hear it the way you hear a live piano. Same fundamental difference between listening to a recorded piano vs live - you're listening to what the mics hear the way mics hear it and rebroadcast via some kind of amp/speaker. No matter how sophisticated the recording or synthesizer and playback it's not the same.

Have you ever heard a recording of any instrument or ensemble where you thought it was indistinguishable from a live performance?

Has there ever been a blindfold test in a live setting with experienced ears where they couldn't distinguish between the real thing and an artificial piano? I'd be very surprised to hear that this had ever happened.

Horribly mechanical. It's obviously been rendered in a number of ways. What ever floats yer boat