Rachmaninoff - Elegie, Op.3 No.1 - (Bösendorfer 280VC Concert Grand) скачать в хорошем качестве

Rachmaninoff - Elegie, Op.3 No.1 - (Bösendorfer 280VC Concert Grand)

I had the opportunity to play in a special instrument for this recording. The owners of the Klavierhaus Helmich, in Verden, Germany, were super kind to let me use the space of their store for my recording. I asked them for a recommendation for a practice room with a nice piano that I could rent, because mine is a bit out of tune now, and they offered me to use their store instead. I didn’t know the piano that I would be playing, but I knew it would be a nice one since they have such a nice selection of high-quality instruments there. But when I arrived, I was surprised that they prepared the very best piano for me. They had it recently tuned for a concert, so it was in perfect condition. I was very excited and honored to play such an amazing piano. I want to express my gratitude to the Helmich family. Thank you very much! Also, I would like to recommend their store in case someone watching this video wants to buy a piano in Northern Germany. I am pretty sure they have the best selection in the region. The Elegie is the first piece in Rachmaninoff’s Morceaux Fantasy collection, the one that has the famous C sharp minor prelude. It was one of the first serious pieces that Rachmaninoff composed when still quite a young age. The fact that he composed this as a teenager highlights the geniality of his music. This is a “funeral” piece, so it is quite dark, sad, sorrowful, intense, but also, beautiful. I loved this piece from the very first time I heard it and it has been on my to-play list for some time. The problem is, Rachmaninoff is extremely hard. I knew it was hard before attempting it, but I honestly had no idea just how difficult it would be. I’ve been working on this since November. It is a scary piece to play and practicing it was somehow draining. It is so heavy, and intense, that playing it has a weird psychological effect. I never felt anything like it in any other piece I studied. There are various aspects of Rachmaninoff’s style that were challenging for me. The way that he spreads out the arpeggios into super-wide configurations was particularly confusing and it makes it hard to do a cohesive phrase with these spaced-out notes. The heavy textures, unusual rhythms, huge frequent left-hand jumps, and fast chords and double notes are also part of the difficulty of this piece. The “piu animato” section, with the continuous fast double notes in the right hand that are supposed to be played pianissimo while the left hand has the melody, is quite brutal. I practiced that part so much, but I got very used to playing it in the much heavier action of my home piano. When I played it in the perfect and effortlessly action of this concert grand, it didn’t work at all. Also, since the sound of this piano is so clear, you can hear every single note no matter how messy a passage is. I couldn’t hide the imperfections in my playing, especially in that section. I did a single good take where that passage was not so bad, which was my last take. Then I thought: mission accomplished and packed my gear and went home. Later, when listening to the audio, I realized I made a mistake in that last take. It was recorded as a mono track because I forgot to set the new track to stereo when I created it in the recording software. So, that take was ruined. Then, I had to work with the other takes, that were not so good. But I think it was ok. The truth is my playing skills and the amateur recording setup I had there can not reflect just how great that piano is. To be honest, I felt a lot of pressure to do a good performance. Even though I had several hours to record, this concert grand is such a different instrument than the one I am used to practicing with. The sound is so “free of defects” and transparent. In my home piano, the sound gets mixed together in a bit of a blur when you play complex textures. That helps mask mistakes and imperfections in my playing. When I played in the Bösendorfer I felt I was naked. My technique was completely exposed. But at the same time, there was a whole new pallet of colors that I could use. Also, the depth of the tone is just unreal. It sounds so good, and it is a shame that I don’t have experience microphoning this kind of instrument. Also, my microphones are rather cheap and unable to really capture the beauty and complexity of the sound of this instrument. I don’t have any recording skills, so because of the spaced-apart setup of the mics, I might end up having some phasing issues in the stereo audio. No idea how to fix that, so the recording was not optimal. In any case, I had a wonderful time. It was an amazing experience, and I am grateful that I got to do this recording. As always, I am happy to hear your thoughts and impressions about my performance in the comments, and feel free to ask me any questions. Thank you!