I'm a new piano teacher (first year out of university, working) and thank you so so much for your videos. I learn so much even from a pedagogy perspective.
A delicious look at the 24 Preludes of Fredrick Chopin with complexities which one could only be adorned with a story. They are delightful short poems which envy the music of us all.
I'm a big Chopin fan. I have been listening to his music for 40 years at least. Of course, like you, I have favourite pieces, but they do change every once in a while. Lately, one of them has been Prelude op. 28, no. 12. Such a nice little rounded piece of music, complete in itself. I didn't always like that piece, but I've learned to appreciate it with time. My favourite interpretation is by Maurizio Pollini. Such crispness and discipline in its playing. I love the way he puts an exclamation mark at the end of the first portion. And the ending is quite dramatic in some ways. Those two little notes at the end that turn into three and then into four, they sound almost as if they occupy the same space before the forceful ending. That's Chopin magic. Now I'll go and listen to your analysis video of Debussy's Clair de Lune. Another of my favourite pieces. What do you think of Passepied though?
I agree. I think everybody should try to listen to the entire suite and not stop at just Clair de Lune. I love your videos by the way. You certainly bring a fresh and friendly approach to what can be very intimidating, and classical music can be that.
Very nice glimpses into each Prélude. They are all very full of character and Chopin is among my favourite composers. Small thing, at 1:48, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier actually goes chromatically, meaning C major, C minor, then C# major, C# minor etc.... Not a big deal though
N 17 is my favourite.. I LOVE Chopin ,, and Cortot ( he's the teacher of my teacher's teacher,, and the student of Chopin's student lol ) ... and I love your videos
I love your channel. I love how you're able to teach students a lot through a short amount time. I feel selfish asking, but could you make a video on Rachmaninoff. I would love to hear you go through his music.
I can't promise that Rachmaninoff is on the menu this year. Which, now that I've written that, sounds kind of gross. :) But I LOVE him and we'll cover him in depth for sure! First we've gotta tackle Liszt and Debussy!
I would love to see some more videos that are Debussy centric. Your videos are always so amazing and I get so much from them. My piano teacher, who comes from Canada and has been heavily involved with the RCM, is even on board. But in particular I'd love to see a video detailing the many musical things packed into Debussy's "Bergamasque Suite". I'd definitely watch that with much interest.
Tell your teacher I said hi! :) We're planning on delving into Debussy later this year (no specific timeline yet), I'll definitely keep Suite Bergamasque in mind! That was my gateway to Debussy and I love it dearly!
Very useful. Your videos are really informative and insightful. I've been studying Chopin for awhile and watching this video sheds alot of light on the depth of his musicality and creative freedom that he conveyed in his pieces. He was a genius.
Great analysis of Chopin's works! I appreciate how you put two interpretations to see the multiple perspectives regarding his preludes. Keep making these vids:)
Chopin Preludes Op. 28 No. 1-12: Introduction - 1:24 #1 in C major: Analysis - 5:16, Sample - 7:22 #2 in a minor: A-7:44, S-9:12 #3 in G major: A-9:31, S-10:28 #4 in e minor: A-10:54, S-12:07 #5 in D major: A-12:26, S-13:40 #6 in b minor: A-13:56, S-14:56 #7 in A major: A-15:16, S-16:55 #8 in f# minor: A-17:10, S-ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sGqaeUeTzj0.html #9 in E major: A-18:43, S-19:53 #10 in c# minor: A-20:17, S-21:49 #11 in B major: A-22:16, S-23:17 #12 in g# minor: A-23:40, S-25:08
Have you ever listened to Robert Vandalls set of 24 preludes? I love them because his style is a mix of Impressionism and contemporary classical. Especially no 4 very accessible to intermediate players.
Hey I discovered the channel today and been watching for the last two hours non-stop! Really great videos keep them going and your personality makes them even better. The presentation is really nice and I believe this channel will easily grow into something bigger. BUT, I am a bit sad about this video, I think you could go more in depth for some of the preludes but trying to make it a complete set ruined it. The video feels rushed and I am sure there are tons of lovely details that you could have pointed out if you didn't try to do all at one video. For example No. 4 has a substantial emotional explosion in the later part of the piece that is too beautiful to dismiss but you don't mention it. I hope if you do more Chopin videos you go as deep as possible, as he is really something else.
All new subtitles by Walter B: Prelude #4 "At dusk a tear falls in the lake: at dawn ripples remain" and Prelude #6 "After the break up a heart rent in two: a lonely drive on the way to nowhere". Also, until now I've wondered if different dynamics could be indicated for each hand within the same measure. Yup, it can. When I saw the sheet music in this video for Prelude #6 I noticed the first measure shows this prominently (I hope I interpreted this correctly). Lastly, I found Robert Schumann's use of "... individual eagle pinions," to describe Chopin's Preludes as incorrect but interesting. These works of Chopin were considered by him to not be full-fledged "eagle wings" - spread out in complete span - but merely the beginnings of them.
The second piece on the piano was Chopin's 4th prelude! Of course, there was a lot of "wrong" but I was very happy m'y tranche brought that piece tout me. I love it. And I think that after a few months aside, perfecting (this not really the right word from a begginner perspective, but I don't have a better one in mind) my technique, I think I've got à decent interpretation.
please do a video on movies/documentaries about composers.I can't find any except the ones everybody knows like 'Chopin desire for love' or 'immortal beloved'
I just finished working on the 4th prelude and it was unexpectedly difficult to bring out a well rounded emotional depth but it was a fun piece non the less even if it was not the most technically challenging.
That's the exact same WTC book I have. I love your channel. I've been wanting to make my own classical music discussion-centric channel for a while now. I made a couple videos but I need to wait until I have a better camera and microphone. D: In the meantime I'll just keep watching your videos :D
I'm planning to start Chopin with his doable preludes (4th and 7th, if they are doable) since i consider them as relatively easy and I've been practicing his 7th prelude(from the Opus 28 set). A bit frustrating but doable.
Just so you know an RCM level 10 is not a Henle level 7. Most of Chopin's works that are on the Grade 10 list for RCM are around a Henle level 6 or 6/7. Preludes 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24 are ARCT (performing any 4)
The two-note slurs in 12 (G# minor) are actually over-editorialised. No reliable urtext edition (Henle, PLN, Paderewski) has these slurs. This is one of those cases where IMSLP scores are very far from correct.
i have watched quite a lot of your videos (cause they are awesome) but I'm always wondering why in your example samples, it always seems (in my opinion of course, maybe i'm wrong) that it's lacking of sustain pedal.. Maybe it's your preference or is there any reason ? Thanks by the way a lot for your awesome and very interesting work
I try to keep things legit on this channel by not using any copyrighted content, which can sometimes mean a more limited pool of audio to choose from. Any lack of sustain is purely coincidental, and not a preference on my part! :)
Dude, I understand how you feel. A while ago I was watching some videos of students taking piano exams at the higher levels (ie. levels 5-8) and it really intimidated me. Then I thought: "One way or another, even if it takes me 50 years, I WILL get there!" You must chomp on that music like a rabid dog and never let go until you learn it. Don't doubt yourself - you can do it.
Thank you for this video. But how come the first prelude feels more difficult than the 12th. The 12th prelude is a bit longer but practice-wise it's pretty straightforward compared to the 1st prelude. Why am I struggling with the first one? P.S late to the party.
When I was 13 I played those preludes +1 and someone in the audience started crying. No one ever complained about my inability to convey emotion via piano.
Schumann never really understood the real greatness of Chopin style. It seems to me that he was an ordinary man, trapped in his time. No wonder Chopin is regarded today as one of the greatest composers ever.
Slow minor-key pieces? The ballades and scherzos say hi. Also, an Op. 28 example: No. 7 (A major) is rather slow and No. 8 (F-sharp minor) is fast and agitated.
Most of no7 doesn't seem that difficult and the piece is considered to be fairly easy (relative to the rest) but the one part that I don't quite understand is that giant F# chord you mentioned. Can you speak to that? The idea of a child playing the chord is ridiculous, I can't play the 5 notes that are written in the right hand and I don't really see how one could without pretty large hands. Do people just leave out some of those notes? I've just been dropping the A# in the right hand and moving it into my left hand instead which is actually doable for me physically but still a couple very difficult chords to play.
Yeah I don't have the hand span to do that. If my thumb is touching the A#, there's no way I'm reaching the high C#. The reason I made that comment is because I think those ratings are bullshit. I'm like 5'11", probably have a slightly larger hand span than normal for someone my height. With that in mind, unless you have disproportionately large hands you probably need to be about 6'2" to have the hand span to play that (I can do a 9th or maybe the semi tone above - octave plus minor third - and a couple of my friends that are a few inches taller than me probably could barely reach it). So I'm guessing the people purporting these ratings can't actually even play the piece by my definition of 'playing it' which means including all the written notes. There certainly aren't small children playing it, it's not physically possible. The ratings imply that children who are physically incapable of playing it should be able to play it... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When I was a child I omitted the low F# so I could play the A# with the left hand, it was actually one of the first pieces I ever played. Or maybe I omitted the A#, I honestly can't remember. I guess that'd be a good compromise if you don't want to roll the chord, but why wouldn't you? So my advice is just do a quick arpeggio, that ought to do it.
Well I want it to sound like when Martha Argerich plays it so I'm not gonna play an arpeggio which would undermine that. I mean I just think that would sound bad. That is purely subjective, but I like how the song culminates on that chord and she lets it resolve and decay longer than any other chord on the same beat. So again, I wouldn't say someone is 'playing it' unless they have that effect, particularly because it is the most important moment of the piece. That being said, I'm not trying to discourage children from learning it or something but to purport the difficulty rating as such is just wrong. They should at a minimum be providing the music to the simplified version their referencing. Rather than saying "you've learned it!" when you really haven't. That just causes people to develop bad habits. And I've been there "ah it's close enough" then a few years later you realize everything you did sounded like shit and none of it was close enough for anyone with a good ear to feel that way.
Also just to be clear, I didn't ask that purely to be pretentious about it. I was also curious if people had input about what configuration of notes is a good substitute because I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of very very good pianists who play the piece very well are faced with the same problem. It's pretty hard to be sure whether or not all 9 notes are ringing when listening to the piece in real time which is the only thing I can do to determine what is happening.
there are tons of poetic interpretations of the preludes on youtube: Fou Ts'ong, Martha Argerich etc ... the worst that can be done is to mislead listeners with the incorrect sonar impressions ... this pianist is just an advanced student still mechanically struggling with the very basic elements ...
The music you put in the backgrounds are great, but its distracting when the piece is well known, like the grande valse for example. Just saying, some less known repertoire would be better as a background. I end up listening to the pieces. I won't listen to a word you say if you do this on a Rachmaninoff video XDXD
prelude 28 4 goes through all 24 keys in and of itself through circle of fifths or fourths i believe ? have to ask everyone what they think is the best chopin etude to start with looking for the easiest if there is such a thing ?
Nicolas Betzios thanks , I have started on 10 1 at least one arpeggio a week atm is the plan... is 10 3 really hard technically I shouldnt have much trouble expressively at least thanks again ill take another look at 6 and 9
Wow, 10 n 1 is one of the most difficult etudes, Chopin said: "Unfortunately, instead of teaching, it frequently un-teaches everything.", so be careful with that. I suggest to take a look to Cortot exercices for this etude, here's the link (pg. 4-5) : www.waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Composers%20A-D/Cortot,%20Alfred/Chopin-Cortot_Etudes_Op.10(Engl).pdf Furthermore, Paul Barton's tutorial of this piece can really help. Have fun. :P "For me, the most difficult one of all is the C Major, the first one, Op. 10, No. 1." - Vladimir Horowitz ...
Nicolas Betzios so when you said 1 and 2 were the most accessible you didnt mean they were easier :) i did see paul bartons tutorials he also mentioned friedmans practice techniques for it. IM hoping i can use it as exercise to close and relax hand and have much slower but steady tempo and maybe balance it out with a left hand piece revolutionary maybe .. its strange that my teacher even suggested an etude tbh as i havnt even started on arpegios and only reached minor scales in my studies so far. I think as a more involved project rather than exercise i will leearn the etude 10 3 i think its easier to break down and works better at slower speed and i like the tempo changes also paul bartons tutorial makes it feel very reasonable easier than it looks technically. as beginner im thinking so long as i dont hurt myself its got to be better than endless scales and czerny isnt something others would appreciate as much in the long run. thanks for your thoughts i dont have much to unlearn atm :)
I was talking about the opus 25! Check those out too, 1 and 2 of opus 25 are definetely easier. ;) Chopin composed 27 etudes. Op. 10 n. 3 was one of my first ones as well, the middle part is quite tricky, good luck. :)
Liszt often used E major for his more religious works, I wonder if there is a coincidence that Cartot also makes reference to the E maj prelude here as "prophetic voices"