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Beethoven op.111 Sonata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U4HCa3nDQU

Rachmaninoff B Minor Prelude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZvvd9Afr8c

Prokofiev Satanic Apparition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mteMts2O6t4

any thoughts?

thanks

Absolutely beautiful, sensitive playing. You have a marvelous technique. I particularly enjoyed your interpretation of the Rachmaninoff Prelude.

Thanks for sharing. Gaby Tu

thanks =)

You've attained a high degree of mastery in the Beethoven opus 111. It's very impressive. I have a couple of suggestions, but keep in mind this is from one who can't actually play the sonata.

The rhythm in the first 4 bars could be smoothed out a bit. Beat 3 of bars 2 and 4 sound rather late (naturally there must be some delay for the arpeggios, but a listener should still hear the quarter note pulse.) So if you could give less time to the 2nd beats of bars 3 and 4, and instead add a tiny bit more time to beat 4 of bar 1, that would allow the music to breathe more naturally. As it is, the trill in bar 1 sounds a bit cramped, and I think a slight delay in getting across the bar line could be permitted.

In bar 19 (first one after the double-bar) I'd like to hear the rests given their full value. You need to establish the tempo here, and if it's not exact the listener won't get his bearings.

Bar 35 has "a tempo" (after "poco ritenente" in the preceding bar) on the 3rd beat, at least in my edition. It sounds like you reach the original tempo on beat 2. I think it is more dramatic to have abrupt a tempo on beat 3.

These are minor quibbles about a performance that is excellent overall. Thanks for sharing it.

op 111: very polished, nice flow, and the lyrical parts come out fine. You clearly have the necessary technique. Yet somehow I was a bit disappointed.

Now, this is a personal opinion, and you should take it for what it is, but the disappointment is that someone of your abilities could not make a more distinct interpretation or convey (to me at least) what your feelings are in this piece. Usually, in op 111 I hear rage, rebellion, frustration, terror, elation, in a combination that makes me sweat. In your performance I heard none of that. It sort of takes the main point away . Have you decided exactly what you want to say with the piece?

I'm not going to go into interpretive issues. I have not played these pieces, and you're clearly very accomplished.

One thing I will mention is posture. I mention it because my own son has some issues with posture. The very beginning of the Prokofiev piece gives a clear example of what to worry about. You often hunch up your shoulders for emphasis and to add emotional depth. Alas, lifting your shoulders and jutting your head forward and down doesn't do anything positive to the playing, and the lifted shoulders adds unhelpful tension. In the long run, these posture issues may leave you more prone to injury as well.

At a recent master class at Virginia Commnwealth University, professor Dmitri Shteinberg worked with my son on exactly those issues. The arguments I just gave are actually his, not mine.

The opus 4 no 4 is the only one I've played and I just have a few comments. You can take these or leave them, your voicing is awesome and you pull off the "creepiness" very well.

First, there's two figures (and I'm sure you're very familiar with them) my score doesn't have measure #s, but the figuure with the triplet followed by the quintuplet, and the figure starting 4 measures later. They're clean, but they may be taxing you because you are omitting the accents on the c-c octave the first time and the repeated chord the 2nd time. Those need hard accents and they should sound like the inevetible conclusion of the ascending figures.

Second, I think you can be a little more flexible with your tempo. One spot in particular where I think you should add a noticeable pause is after the glissandos toward the end of the piece. You build up a ton of sound, which is the point of the figure. When I played it, I paused a second after the 2nd glissando to allow the sound to dissipate before moving on to ending section which starts considerably softer.

My final suggestion, purely optional, is to experiment with the tempo a little bit. Personally, I play it a hair slower. It allows me to create a wider dynamic range. Your fffs sound a little weak to me. It could be the recording equipment but it could also be the tempo limiting your attack.

Overall though, that's a finely thought out and executed interpretation. It's such a fun piece to play and hear.