|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 16:42:33 GMT
[Not sure where exactly to post this, hope this is the right place.]
So, since my childhood I've heard this piece, but not until today(!) did I finally find out what the title is (and apparently the "proper" title is Solfeggio, not the widely-known Solfeggietto), and who the composer was. I was surprised to discover that it was composed by CPE Bach, not, as I've wrongly thought, JS Bach.
Anyway. That wasn't the point of this post. What I wanted to discuss is, which interpretation do y'all consider is the "best" for this piece?
I browsed through several youtube videos of it, and most of the performances I found fell into two categories: (1) show-offs butchering the piece by playing it at breakneck speed, and sometimes so bad that they smush notes together that should be sounding separately; and (2) young pianists first learning the piece and either making a ton of mistakes or playing it impossibly slowly.
They all left me longing for a "proper" interpretation... based on my own (perhaps/probably biased) ear, I prefer something that's moderately fast but not too fast (anything shorter than 1:10, IMO, is way too fast), articulates the notes clearly, and also with proper dramatic emphases of the various sections (not just plunging through with basically the same emotionless playing, or lending emphasis where emphasis isn't due, from inexperience or whatever). So far, I haven't found any on youtube that's fully satisfactory; a few came close but contained mistakes.
So, what do you think is the best performance of this piece? What do you think is the "proper" interpretation of its various sections?
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on Jul 23, 2018 17:16:10 GMT
This is a pretty good one...
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 17:59:15 GMT
Thanks, but that's a little too fast for my tastes. Her dynamics and phrasing are pretty good, though. At that speed, the notes start to smush together, and become a little too indistinct, even though she did a good job with enunciating them, as much as is possible at that tempo.
|
|
|
Post by gx on Jul 23, 2018 18:21:31 GMT
Hey HS! You could probably play this yourself- and as You would like it to go. No, but, seriously, it is quite easy… It only sounds hard.. I feel certain you could do it w/o much trouble. Half of the piece is a repeated 2 bar pattern.. (transposed as well)
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 18:44:14 GMT
gx: You overestimate my abilities as a pianist. I'm actually a pretty lousy pianist, having picked up all sorts of bad habits from self-learning without proper formal instruction. I have a high tendency to over-pedal, my fingering skills are practically non-existent, and I can't stick to a tempo properly. Maybe one of these days I really should record my Fantasia Sonata that I've been meaning to record for, oh, 3+ years now? Then y'all will get to laugh at how bad my piano playing is. :-P If I can get enough free time at home with the little rambunctious 2yo running around, that is. The irony is that I can hear all of these mistakes, but habit has set in and I have a hard time correcting myself. Not that I've tried very hard, mind you, I really only use the piano as a compositional tool, not for performance.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on Jul 23, 2018 18:49:38 GMT
That's the trouble, if such it can be called, of pieces that have no definitive performed version. I don't hear anything wrong with the above rendition unless I want to get into my ultra-critical state where I find flaws in any performance. Maybe this one? Which you probably already have found Can't stand the recording/microphone/mixing/sample though. Without knowing anything more, it seems like a piece designed to showcase (or foster) virtuosity and technique, so blazing through it would be apposite if not pleasant? Or is that just a stupid assumption?
|
|
|
Post by gx on Jul 23, 2018 18:50:30 GMT
2 year piano student can do this.. and so can you If you take a look at the score, you'll see what i mean.
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 18:57:26 GMT
I did look at the score... it will probably take me several days of practice (my dad tried to teach me piano when I was a kid and he gave up before getting halfway through grade 1). And probably a week of focused practice to get to where I could deliver a satisfactory performance (I have very high standards... perhaps that's the problem :-P). Unfortunately, that's not the kind of time I have right now... never imagined a 2yo could take up so much time!!
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 18:59:29 GMT
Dave Dexter: That's not a bad performance, though yeah, the recording quality / mixing sux. I found it not emotional enough though. Maybe I'm just being unreasonably critical...
|
|
|
Post by gx on Jul 23, 2018 19:14:06 GMT
" never imagined a 2yo could take up so much time!!" Now that you know, it is imperative that you follow proper protocol, and never, never 'let on' to couples who are 'expecting'… (especially, men… ooops, duck..) .. The very continuation of the species depends on you keeping this secret!
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 19:34:46 GMT
lol... It was no secret to me going into it... I knew that little kids "take up lots of time". The disconnect was in what I used to understand as "lots of time", vs. what it actually meant in experience. My concept of "lots of time", compared to what I know now, was, shall I say, laughable? It's sorta like how I grew up in the tropics, and my concept of "cold" was 25°C (or 80°F for you 'merrycans), and then one fine day I landed in Canuckland in January in the middle of a blizzard. My definition of "cold" had to be rewritten several times over the course of the ensuing weeks. Similarly, my concept of "take up lots of time" has been redefined several times, perhaps several dozen times, ever since this little bundle of joy and utter, hair-tearingly frustrating naughtiness, came along. It's like working on a new piece and getting to the major climax, and then suddenly you realize that in order for the thing to actually work, you have to essentially rewrite it from scratch. Several times over. (OK, that was a weak attempt at getting back on topic. But I had to do it. )
|
|
|
Post by Bob Porter on Jul 23, 2018 20:16:51 GMT
Here's a few thoughts. C.P.E. Bach is considered a classical composer, but remember he died 30 years into the official start of the classical period. And he was the son of probably the most baroque composer on the planet. I have to ask just how classical he was. A peek at several copies of the score shows that there is no tempo marking ( probably wasn't on the original either ), prestissimo, or allegro vivacissimo. Folks seem to thing that this thing should be played as fast as possible, although I know of no concrete reason for it. We know little about how any of this music was played, or even what instrument it was written for. The look of it reminds me of the Toccata from the Toccata and Fugue. The piano of his day (if it was written for piano) was still not quite the bombastic instrument of today. And there probably wasn't much in the way of emotion in original performances. OTOH, seems like some performers are more interested in showing off, than making music.
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Jul 23, 2018 21:54:00 GMT
[...] We know little about how any of this music was played, or even what instrument it was written for. True. Though I wasn't really looking to discuss the historical fine points on recreating original performances, which probably isn't even possible in this case if indeed we have so little information about it. I was looking more along the lines of, given this score and the present-day piano, how would you interpret it? And therein lies the rub. The frenetic high-speed performances are probably more in the realm of showing off than actually making music. So we come back to my original question, perhaps slightly rephrased: Suppose you were confronted with this piece of music and given a piano to play it on. How would you play it? What tempo would you choose, and why? Which notes would you emphasize, and why? How would you phrase it? How would you shape the dynamics? Which passages would you put more emotion into, and why? These considerations, at least to me, are far more interesting than trying to second-guess how original performances were made, how to play it as fast as you can while keeping it marginally still recognizable, or how to use it as a pedagogical tool for teaching piano technique to students.
|
|
|
Post by Bob Porter on Jul 24, 2018 0:32:48 GMT
Well, you know me. Not being much of a piano fan, I'd give it to an orchestra, slow it down a bit, and emote the hell out of it.
|
|
|
Post by driscollmusick on Jul 24, 2018 0:33:23 GMT
" never imagined a 2yo could take up so much time!!" Now that you know, it is imperative that you follow proper protocol, and never, never 'let on' to couples who are 'expecting'… (especially, men… ooops, duck..) .. The very continuation of the species depends on you keeping this secret! Note to self.
|
|