I am a Dutch amateur pianist with a passion for discovering music. I love to explore the byways of the classical repertoire as much as to study and record the standard repertoire. My recordings can (if you ask) be freely used for non-commercial purposes such as short films and documentaries. Drop me a message so I can provide you the original sound file(s).
Prior to 2021 my piano was a partly renovated Gabriel Gaveau baby grand of around 1920, and recordings were made using a Tascam DR-2D portable recorder with its built-in microphones. As from january 2021 I have entered the digital era, playing a Kawai CA59 piano, replaced in december 2021 by a Kawai Novus NV10S hybrid piano.
Thank you ! I am much more inspired by this hybrid piano than I was by my Gaveau grand before that. Strange, eh ? Indeed you don't hear the Op.42 Skazki as "often" as the other ones.
Merci beaucoup ! You are right, it's not a very baroque-like interpretation. But I think Bach transcriptions by the likes of Busoni, Bauer, Godowsky et. al. are not meant to be played in strict baroque style. After all these were romantic piano virtuosos ! The beauty of Bach's music is that it is never diminished by different approaches as long as they are in good taste,
What a fantastic piece, it has very interesting harmonic paths and is structurally very well designed. It was cool to watch the score and your performance is simply excellent. Kawai's sound is so good here! Many greetings.
Thanks André ! It's certainly an interesting piece although I agree with those who write that it feels a bit unfinished. Some of the transitions are a wee bit clumsy and the ending is kind of underwhelming. Still, Lili's huge talent shines through. I must one day get to work on her Theme and Variations, they are really good.
Wow, Chris, an absolutely powerful and breathtaking performance that had my attention from start to finish. I loved this! I played this Ballada a few years ago and decided to relearn it now! It's a difficult piece, and I always have the feeling that I can't master it completely, but it's always worth it. BRAVO!!!
Thanks for listening ! Yes it's a difficult piece, not overall but there seem to be more tricky technical passages than usual. I'll perform this on saturday with some other Chopin pieces, and I too get the feeling it does not allow me to completely master it. Hopefully there won't be too many accidents. The audience (if there is one...) probably won't hear them anyway.
It took your beautiful performance to get my attention that this even existed. I do have that Eric Parkin CD and despite his flawless delivery, this tune didn't register as any more or less outstanding than the other numbers on that disc. I revisted that particular track but it is yours to which I have returned numerous times since making this discovery. The ever so slight hesitation in your performance allows for those beautiful chords to fully register. Billy's carefully chosen notes are what makes this transcription pop. You sealed the deal when I discovered your equally outstanding rendition of another favourite, 'Praying Mantis'. Hoping you will record the tune which got me started on my journey of homage to Billy's fabulous repertoire. I am sure you would do 'Song of the Fir Tree' equal justice. Cheers!
Hi Jeffrey, thanks for your feedback ! Good to meet another Mayerl lover. I have enormous respect for Parkin, nobody plays Mayerl like he did. Having said that he can be a bit matter-of-factly at times, glidinf over things a little too glibly. I guess that is the danger of being extremely proficient in a certain area. Having to be a bit more careful can apparently be a good thing. Glad to hear my recordings stand up to those of the pros. Song of the Fir Tree is one of my favorites too, and I have actually recorded it ! See the Mayerl playlist on my channel.
Hi again Chris. Thank you for your reply. This prompted a deeper search of your profile which gave me access to not only 'Song of the Fir Tree' but other favourites including 'Autumn Crocus', 'Shallow Waters' and 'Sweet William'. In 1949 Billy did a tour of Australia and recorded eight sides for the 'Pacific' label in Sydney. 'Song of the Fir Tree' turned up in a collection of 78rpm records I bought over 50 years ago. By some miracle that record has survived many moves and still gets played. Have you explored the wonderful music of Reginald King? A contemporary of Billy Mayerl. Hope to see his music brought to life by your magic hands sometime soon. Keep up the good work. You are appreciated. Cheers again - Jeffrey.
Thank you for sharing this extraordinary music with us. I would have guessed it was composed later than 1911 with those spicy dissonances, though the influence of Debussy can still be heard. I think your interpretation and performance does Lili's creative genius full justice: bravo, Chris! (I'm hoping that in the coming weeks, my friend Andre in Brazil will perform my latest composition for piano since I remember you saying you thought I was neglecting to write pieces for this instrument!)
Thanks Graham ! So it seems you took my gentle reproach to heart 😁I am looking forward to hear André's performance of your new piece. Meanwhile I would like the score of course, I'm sure I'll want to record it too.
Plenty of whole tone scales there. I knew Pierre Boulez around 1970 he has studied with Nadia, but I didn’t get a chance to ask him about working with her.
Thank you David ! My old Gaveau could sound quite nice sometimes - at least on those few precious days it was not out of tune. Nonetheless I am so glad I traded it for a hybrid instrument (Kawai Novus NV10S). A little less characterful perhaps, but so much better in all respects. I find my old recordings a bit constricted now.
Hi Chris. Wow, I have been searching for many years the name and recording of this composition by Mr Ronald Stevenson, whom I met at Shanghai Music conservatory in 1987 or 1988. I was a post graduate foreign student studying Chinese music there. I don't know how I got hold of a copy of this score (not in entirety. Think just 1 and 2). Mr Stevenson had posted this written score prior to his visit there and he was hoping that perhaps one conservatory piano major student would learnt and performed for him. I can't remember how I got hold of a copy of this and due to it's oriental name. I was called to learn it. At the time I had no idea who Mr Stevenson was. When he arrived at the music conservatory, he had found out that none of the local Chinese piano students had learnt this composition. He was very disappointed. I don't remember now how he found out that I had learnt it and he offered me a one to one private master-class! It was a moment in time I will never forget. I assumed I may have taken a photo with him then but it was likely the photo was one of many blurred filmed photos i took. Mr Stevenson was a very kind, very friendly man. I am so honoured I not only got to meet him but got to have a private piano master-class with him.
Hi Violet, thanks for your comment. That is quite some story ! There are few 20th century composer I admire more than Stevenson, he was a most extraordinary person and I would have loved to have met him. You are very lucky indeed, and have memories to cherish forever. I am puzzled to read that you had a 37-year break from music. How is that even possible ? Get back to it soon as you can ! In case you'd like to revisit this suite, the score is available from the Ronald Stevenson Society. I found the last piece enormously difficult (but of course I would not take the easier ossia). My recording is only the second on YT I think, after the version of the excellent Stevenson specialist Christopher Guild.
@@ChrisBreemerThank you for uploading these. Gratitude to you. So wonderful to hear you play and brought those amazing memories back to me. The 4th piece is a very popular Chinese folk song called Mo li hua 茉莉花 (jasmine flower.
@@BlossomVpiano Ouch, piano related trauma... that sounds painful 😢 Great that you found your way back eventually. Awareness, relaxation and healing meditation are not my cup of tea, but I can sort of understand how that worked for you. From now on, just do whatever feels good ! No more trauma, hopefully 😊
I think your commentary on these two piano pieces by Puccini is very apt, Chris - and both performances are fabulous, played with your usual flair and verve: bravo! I particularly enjoyed the 'Piccolo Tango' and its opening, which sounds almost too modern for the first decade of the 20th century (I looked at the 'Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini' website and it states that the 'Piccolo Tango' (SC80) was also likely composed in 1907 or 1910).
Thanks Graham ! I was pleasantly surprised by these pieces too when I got to know them yesterday. Also thanks for checking up on the little tango. Interesting that the Centro puts the composition date at 1907 or 1910, but also says it's a piece of dubious authenticity ! I got my information from here www.schott-music.com/en/piccolo-tango-noc251031.html where they also speculate it could have been written in 1907 or 1910. I guess we may never know for sure... but it's a great little piece and I think Puccini could very well be the author.
Thanks Ed ! It's a winner piece indeed - Luther's beautiful choral, Bach's heavenly organ setting, and Busoni's expertly pianistic transcription. What more could we want ?
Thank you for this! Currently I'm working on listening to all of Schubert's piano sonatas. I find them very difficult to understand (probably because I have been listening to them as if they were Beethoven sonatas), but I know that there is great depth waiting for me to explore. Unrelated, but it would be nice if you recorded a few of Dussek's piano sonatas. In particular, I love the Farewell and L'invocation sonatas. Some people say his music looks forward to Schubert, but I don't know Schubert well enough to say...
Thanks for your comment Stephan ! I honestly don't know what it means to "understand" a piece of music - although I know it well enough when I don't ! If I connect to a piece emotionally, AND can make sense of it intellectually, I don't look for any form of understanding. Intuition and gut feeling seem to do for me. I have always found Schubert easy to grasp and love, although his "heavenly lengths" can take their toll sometimes, and the technical demands can be quite cruel at times. It's an interesting point though. What kind of understanding are you looking for and why is that difficult with Schubert sonatas, apparently more so than those of Beethoven ? Dussek is a composer I greatly respect, I think he was a very good and influential composer. I have always liked what I heard of him, but I currently have no plans to play or record any of Dussek's music. Thanks for the tip though ! Perhaps I will get the urge one fine day. I don't know Dussek's music well enough to speculate about whether he could have influenced Schubert. I guess it's possible but I think Schubert was way too frantically busy with composing to have heard and assimilated much other music other than composers in his vicinity.
@@ChrisBreemer I think we are using "understand" and "grasp" in the same sense. I connect with Beethoven's sonatas more because I grew up hearing them and was taught to revere them. Schubert, on the other hand, was never much mentioned... Now that I am diving into his sonatas though, I don't find them to be too long. If anything, I don't want them to stop! As far as Dussek goes, just listen to his Return to Paris sonata a few more times and I think you'll have an urge to play his music! His solemn Mass is also quite good, but of course that's not for piano.
My pleasure, and thanks for your feedback ! Much appreciated. With the current settings, my Kawai reproduces the sampled sound of the Shigeru Kawai Grand Piano, generally regarded as one of he best concert grands. I wish though that it would also be possible to set it to Bosendorfer or Steinway. Just to get some variety.
An exquisite performance: bravo, Chris! In Busoni's preoccupation with the music of Bach, you can see a merging of genius with grandiosity of style, where complex and challenging 'transpositions’ (using Busoni’s own substantive) became a remarkable way to show a pianistic style that was both modern and also emancipated from the Romantic tradition. Although Busoni respected Bach’s text with admirable fidelity, he intervened heavily on the texture of the music and concentrated upon reproducing the sonorities of the organ with a formidable re-disposition of the musical matter throughout the keyboard. The result was always stunning, with lines that almost seemed carved into the finest Carrara marble where highlighted contrasts served to heighten the dramatic impact of the music. I have read that Busoni was often called “the last Renaissance man”, though I was amused to learn that, thanks to his work as editor and transcriber, his name became inextricably linked to that of Bach to the extent that his widow, Gerda, was often introduced as “Mrs. Bach-Busoni”!
Thanks Stevee ! Any likeness with Horowitz must purely coincidental, I am not a particular fan of his playing and certainly did not take his performance as a reference (instead purely following my own intuition).
Thank you for this. It is ravishing. I love to play transcriptions of Puccini's arias for the challenge of achieving a singing tone in the vocal melody. I find that having the human voice already in my head forces me to make the keys really sing the notes and have them stand apart from the accompaniment. Thanks too for providing a link to the sheet music for this , which I just downloaded. It used to be hard to come by free editions of Puccini's scores. Once I had to buy the entire score of "Turandot" with piano reduction just to get the aria "In questa reggia," and I still have not found a way to play both the vocal and orchestral parts in a number of passages. Fortunately, with this one it looks like a fairly simple task to include the vocal line in the right hand in the few places where the accompaniment does not follow it exactly. You did it, and it sounds wonderful.
Thank you David ! I'm glad you liked it, especially as you seem to be a real Puccini fan. I think my rendition could have done with a bit more freedom, but I always seem to be rather inhibited despite all the good intentions. Yes, this arrangement falls comfortably under the fingers, the singing line is mostly included in the RH chords. I did add some notes in various places, and took the liberty to change one or two notes that sounded wrong to me (I'm not above correcting the composer if I think it sounds better 😉). I was just looking at the vocal Turandot score by Alfano, and "In questa reggia" looks ill-suited to the piano without a voice or extra hand. I would not really know how to make it work, even without all these tremolos emulating surging strings.
WOW - stunning! A glorious performance of this Chopin masterpiece that captures all the emotion and passion in the music: bravo, Chris! As you remark, the piece is dedicated to one of his friends at the time, Baron Nathaniel Stockhausen, ambassador of the Kingdom of Hanover - and both the Baron and his wife took piano lessons from Chopin. That must have been quite something for the Baron and his wife, especially as you mention he confessed to Schumann that this piece dedicated to the Baron was his 'dearest work'!
Thank you Graham ! I really did my best for this Ballade, and practiced hard on these runs toward the end. Scales and other such technical stuff are always my Achilles heel. I didn't know that about Stockhausen and spouse being pupils of Chopin. Seems like I could not be bothered to do some proper research :)
A beautiful performance, Chris: bravo! I first fell in love with this aria when I heard it used in the soundtrack to the 1985 film, 'A Room with a View' - sung by the great Kiri Te Kanawa. The melodies and harmonies of Puccini never disappoint . . . and nor does your piano playing!
Thanks Graham ! Ah, Kiri te Kanawa... I have always loved her voice and I'm particularly fond of her two LP's of the Canteloube Chants d'Auvergne. I'm not much of an opera lover as yet, although I have much enjoyed Peter Grimes, The Bartered Bride, Rusalka, Khovanchina, and Repighi's Belfagor. I really need to work on that. Puccini first, I guess 😍
Thanks for that ! I suppose the road to more subscribers would be to record more mainstream repertoire. A lot of stuff I do is little appreciated by the general public.
Thank you for this wonderful collection, beautifully performer on a lovely instrument. I play chorale preludes on a regular basis at my church, especially of Pachelbel and Walther. The German School is so rich, we must remember that Bach's music stood on some very broad shoulders. Well done.
Thank you ! I am very fond of Pachelbel and (especially) Walther too. Yes, the German liturgical organ tradition is incredibly rich. There are many that I have ever really explored, such as Buxtehude, Böhm, Bruhns, Krebs, to name some. Bach was truly standing on the shoulders of giants. Do you know the chorale preludes of Otto Dienel ? Written some 150 years later, but firmly in the same tradition. Worth checking out should you be looking for some new material to play in services.
Greetings from Australia. Thanks for your video. It was nicely played. Have you thought about doing a video on your Kawai digital piano that you're playing on?
Thanks ! No I have not thought about that. I think there are enough videos praising this instrument, and I would not want to put people off by bitching about the about the crappy controls, menus and limited functionality. Anyway, for me it's always about the music, not the instrument.
Thank you ! For me, the Ballades are the essence and epitome of Chopin. I have admired them for at least half a century, getting to know them from an old Telefunken LP by Jan Ekier. I remember being being completely bowled over, thinking "if only I could play this...".
@@ChrisBreemer I agree that the ballades are the epitome of Chopin, along with (I would add) the Fantasy in F Minor. Irina Mejoueva, a pianist I greatly admire, recently released an album of Chopin's ballades and impromptus. I can't recommend it enough.
Thank you ! I have decided to stop posting individual KdF items and wait until I have the complete recording. This one I will leave because of the nice comments.
Wow - what a superb performance, Chris. I am in awe of the way you made each lead voice of the subject be prominent as the fugue developed. Incredible artistry for certain: bravo!
Thank you Graham ! I don't know about superb, but I think I got the voicing right this time. My recordings are not going to rub shoulders with those of the great pianists, but in any case this is one I need not be ashamed of. Of course this one is relatively easy, compared to the challenges ahead 😳
