Piano Music, Pianists, Composers etc


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igpenguin

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admin note: This was split from http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3583
let's have the music discussions here. :)


Originally posted by Scriabinesque
Was that from Dec 2000? I remember he was here then but I could not catch him in action. That must be the miserable 9 footer brown steinway in studio 1.....haha

Yah, it was around that period. I did hear him in concert though not educated enough to appreciate lah ;p But liked him better than some of the other pianists who came to Singapore. Liked Carlo Grante, esp. his D. Scarlatti sonatas and Chopin's ballades. But really, just my uninformed opinion.

This photo was after a press conference. Asked him about Hanon and Czerny. They can be played melodically, he says. Some pianist is even recording Czerny (never knew that).

You like Scriabin lots?

The color: Just day light coming from window... mixed with florescent light. That might be the reason...
 

Originally posted by igpenguin


Yah, it was around that period. I did hear him in concert though not educated enough to appreciate lah ;p But liked him better than some of the other pianists who came to Singapore. Liked Carlo Grante, esp. his D. Scarlatti sonatas and Chopin's ballades. But really, just my uninformed opinion.

This photo was after a press conference. Asked him about Hanon and Czerny. They can be played melodically, he says. Some pianist is even recording Czerny (never knew that).

You like Scriabin lots?

The color: Just day light coming from window... mixed with florescent light. That might be the reason...

Wah liao, I hated Hanon, Czerny, Kohler and the lot who wrote those 'boring' finger exercise studies! ;p I'd like to hear how melodic they can get. heh.

Regards
CK
 

Originally posted by ckiang


Wah liao, I hated Hanon, Czerny, Kohler and the lot who wrote those 'boring' finger exercise studies! ;p I'd like to hear how melodic they can get. heh.

Regards
CK

er... as melodic as an examiner would like to hear the scales? like we don't actually play the scale "flat" but with subtle touch variations adhering to a "form" that will make the scale sound... melodic!

two piano teachers I know prescribes Brahm's exercises for finger independence. the exercises are acrobatic in their own ways...
 

Well Hough's a really fantastic person too, I've got a friend who still manages to keep in contact with him. He actually bought dinner for my bunch of friends (about 20 of them, I was still about to finish BMT in a few days then, couldn't join them.) after his recital. His Rachmaninovs and Liszts are pretty fantastic.

As for me, Scriabin's one of those I love, along with all the other russian composers, prokofiev, shostakovich, rachmaninov, medtner, bortkiewicz.....etc. Too many to name.

Scriabin's work is much a fantastic journey, should you compare music as a photograph's visual equivalent. I find it highly sensual, colourful and visual.
 

Originally posted by igpenguin


er... as melodic as an examiner would like to hear the scales? like we don't actually play the scale "flat" but with subtle touch variations adhering to a "form" that will make the scale sound... melodic!

two piano teachers I know prescribes Brahm's exercises for finger independence. the exercises are acrobatic in their own ways...

Yes, we are not supposed to do it "flat". Still, like most other people, I hated scales and arpeggios. ;p

Haven't really played Brahms before though.

Regards
CK
 

Nothing substantial to add on to this thread, 'cept quite amazing that Hough bought dinner for your friends, a group of 20 people?! But not surprised though...

When Hough was talking about Czerny, Hanon et al the feeling is personable. No gaps, just purely intellectual exchange (or rather, a one-way street...)

After hearing Carlo Grante (also the first "real" piano recital I ever went to) I managed to find out his email address, and sent him an email. Rather pleasant replies to my questions (banal stuff like how was the piano? hall? ans: could be better, I gather). Hearing the recital was the nudging factor that made me get back to playing piano again.

Just some musicians who are great!

Brahms... after stopping lessons for more than ten years and playing rarely in between, I find the exercises not just providing finger strain but also mental strain... the description may not be too apt, but I literally feel ticklish sensations in my braincells as I try to play the exercises.
 

mmm.....Carlo Grante......Not exactly a fan of his.

At last year's IPF I heard Arnaldo Cohen, this brazilian pianist who's really fantastic with Liszt's sonata, also Angela Hewitt doing Goldberg.

Also heard news of this year's IPF will be having Fredrich Chiu and Cecile Licad as two of its recitalists.
 

frederic chiu? expecting some provofiev then ;p

who else do you like?

only managed to hear the goldberg played 'live' once, by victor khor. glenn gould's tempo in his first goldberg CD would have helped cure my attention deficit ;p thus far haven't sat in audience outside of singapore.
 

Which one by Victor Khor? he played Goldberg twice at LT13 didn't he? I remember in 2000 he played somewhere in the first half of the year. Was my piano ensemble's tutor for sometime.

There's a few pianists out there dead or alive that I like. Horowitz, Bolet, Zimerman, Richter, Arthur Rubinstein, Fou T'Song, Howard Shelley, Ivan Moravec, Pletnev, Earl Wild, Sofronitsky (Scriabin's son-in-law), Leslie Howard, Hough....plenty. Like each one for performing different composers.
 

Victor Khor played the Goldberg at the Alliance Francaise in 2000 I think. I remember his low, almost crouching posture, and after an hour or so, wiped his brow with a white hankerchief, to eliminate sweat - and to signal to his student to change the tape in the videocam which was recording the performance.

You are with the NUS piano ensemble? When would they be performing next?

I don't have as wide a listening range yet, but I like different pianists for the way they play different composers too. Lipatti for Chopin's Waltzes, Rubinstein's "no holds barred" Chopin stuff, Gould's unorthodox Bach... got hooked to Richter after hearing C major Prelude (ok, weird way to get hooked) and then his live CD of mostly atonic works.
 

Oh that one. He played Goldberg twice that year then. He's an interesting pianist, but very badly disciplined in some ways. Rather typical of an artist.

I'm still with the piano ensemble, but my time with them is almost up despite not having anyone take over my work with them. I did concert publicity and print design for them. In 2000 and this year. in 2001 I was on course and could not take time off to do anything. So that year I did their newsletter. Also did recording for them, concerts and studio sessions.

Next concert should be in September. We just had our annual "Touch" this year held at VCH.

You mean the Scriabin sonata on that Richter CD? It's one of my favourite versions of the 5th Sonata.
 

er, not knowing how many live CDs richter recorded, i can't say whether its the same piece in the same version you mentioned. it's from the double CD-set he recorded at Wein in '97 or thereabouts I think.

studio sessions? is the ensemble based inside the CFA building?

any need for not so idoitic photogs? ;p
 

Yes, the ensemble is based in the CFA building.

Some of us hold private recording sessions in the dance theatre in the through the night to the next morning once in a while.

How do I record a live concert or a studio session? I never liked to place my microphones any closer than two metres from the piano. Sound captured is different. No close miking for me. So far the places with better acoustics properties that I recorded in would be VCH and the dance theatre. The ambient reflexes are just nice. I had done a live recording at the UCC theatre before, but the acoustics of the place just can't make it. The reflexes are rather dead. I recorded mostly on MDs, but at the recent VCH concert I used a portable DAT deck sponsored by CFA. The sound captured was the best of all recordings I had done. The noise ceiling is rather high and its dynamic range is hence wider.
 

Originally posted by Scriabinesque
Yes, the ensemble is based in the CFA building.

Some of us hold private recording sessions in the dance theatre in the through the night to the next morning once in a while.

How do I record a live concert or a studio session? I never liked to place my microphones any closer than two metres from the piano. Sound captured is different. No close miking for me. So far the places with better acoustics properties that I recorded in would be VCH and the dance theatre. The ambient reflexes are just nice. I had done a live recording at the UCC theatre before, but the acoustics of the place just can't make it. The reflexes are rather dead. I recorded mostly on MDs, but at the recent VCH concert I used a portable DAT deck sponsored by CFA. The sound captured was the best of all recordings I had done. The noise ceiling is rather high and its dynamic range is hence wider.

For orchestras, do you believe in multi-miking or minimalist miking using X-Y or ORTF methods? I don't really do recordings (never had the opp to) but tend to prefer non multi-miked and multi-tracked recordings which are later mixed in the studios and instruments 'panned' to the 'correct' position. They lacked depth and width.

How do you mike the piano?

Regards
CK
 

I never really approve to multitrack recordings. I like to capture the real sound image. I use between two to four microphones. Only multichannel over left and right tracks. left mics pan left. right mics pan right. almost no eq other than a slight cut in high frequency to round off the sound a bit. (the microphones i get are not flat response.)

I mic a solo piano with three microphones. One to preserve the central image, two to catch the ambience response of the instrument. The central one is brought down a little in order not to allow the mono qualities to overwhelm the left and right channels. Microphones are no less than two metres from the piano and no less than five feet above ground level for the centre mic and no less than seven feet above ground level for the left and right mics. The mic stands are about 1.2 metres apart between each. I mic double pianos differently. depending on situations. For recording purposes I would rearrange the pianos for optimum sound projection. For live performances, it's similar to the solo set up.
 

Originally posted by Scriabinesque
I never really approve to multitrack recordings. I like to capture the real sound image. I use between two to four microphones. Only multichannel over left and right tracks. left mics pan left. right mics pan right. almost no eq other than a slight cut in high frequency to round off the sound a bit. (the microphones i get are not flat response.)

I mic a solo piano with three microphones. One to preserve the central image, two to catch the ambience response of the instrument. The central one is brought down a little in order not to allow the mono qualities to overwhelm the left and right channels. Microphones are no less than two metres from the piano and no less than five feet above ground level for the centre mic and no less than seven feet above ground level for the left and right mics. The mic stands are about 1.2 metres apart between each. I mic double pianos differently. depending on situations. For recording purposes I would rearrange the pianos for optimum sound projection. For live performances, it's similar to the solo set up.

Thanks. That's very informative. Hope to have a chance to try it out myself. :)

Regards
CK
 

you got connection to get equipment??? must let me know where and who......sigh. haven't had chance to get good recording equipment eversince i got my design diploma.
 

Originally posted by Scriabinesque
you got connection to get equipment??? must let me know where and who......sigh. haven't had chance to get good recording equipment eversince i got my design diploma.

I have access to some basic equipment like mixers, Schoepps and Rode microphones, DAT deck, that's about all. But nothing to record. :(

Regards
CK
 

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