Piano Battle

Welcome everybody to our debate! Before we begin, there are few things I'd like to say. First, a big thank you to my amazing opponent Diqiucun_Cunmin not only for this debate but for being such a great person in general. During my short time here on this site, you have not only given me great advice on how to improve my debating skills but also helped me to improve my French ;) I would also like to thank our wonderful adjudicators for agreeing to give up their free time to listen and to judge our playing. My opponent and I spent some time carefully selecting and deciding our panel. Finally, I'd like to thank everybody else who is reading this and listening to our playing. Although it's not an open-voting debate, please feel free to let us know what you think in the comments! This 'battle' is not intended to be competitive in any way. It is definitely not a platform for us to "show-off". It's really only an opportunity for us to share our art with others and hopefully, if you are someone who was never really interested in classical music, you might change you mind :) With my introduction finished, I now present the debate structure, rules and general voting guidelines. (Due to time constraints, everything will be posted in one round. ) ___ Structure Round 1- Baroque Round 2- Classical Round 3- Romantic Round 4- Other Rules 1. In each round, a programme consisting of one or more pieces should be submitted with at least one of the pieces from the corresponding category of that round 2. Programme notes should be provided 3. Repeats should be ignored unless absolutely vital (eg. some Beethoven Sonatas) 4. Recordings should be at least 3 minutes and a maximum of 15 minutes General Voting Guidelines As most of our judges are musicians who already have some sort of experience/knowledge of how a competition and the judging process works, I am going to be brief. 1. Our playing should be judged on three main factors- craftsmanship, musicianship and artistry 2. Although technicality (virtuosity, playing the right notes etc) is important, musicianship and interpretation should always come first. However, with that being said, having a wrong note in every second bar would be quite unacceptable! 3. The choice of programme should also be considered when voting, i. e. did the pieces fit together/suit the performer, did you like the overall presentation etc. 4. Ask yourself, did the musician manage to bring a piece of music to life? 5. This debate uses the 7-point system. There are seven points, you decide how you're going to split it. For example, you could give one side three points and the other four points according to your RFD (it doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with things such as 'conduct' and 'sources') To sum it up, quality before quantity and musicality before technicality. ** I also apologise in advance for my audaciously noisy pedal, chair and poor sound quality! I realise that at times, it sounds like I recorded my playing with a potato, especially when the music gets loud. ** R1-Baroque D Scarlatti, Sonata k.141 l.422 Micheal O'Suilleabhain, Woodbrook . https://m.youtube.com... An interesting story of my Scarlatti. When I first heard this piece played by none other than Martha Argerich, I knew immediately that I had to learn it. In my next piano lesson, I told my teacher that I wanted to learn a Scarlatti Sonata. She replied by saying that she also discovered a Scarlatti Sonata which she wanted me to play. She asked me which one I liked and I said "k.141". Turns out, she had the exact same one in mind! For those who don't know, Scarlatti wrote 555 keyboard sonatas altogether and my teacher and I chose the same one. What are the chances? Anyways, Scarlatti (b. 1685) was an Italian court composer who was chosen to accompany his student, Princess Maria Barabara to Spain when she married. In Spain, he was very influenced by the Spanish culture- the music, flamenco dancing etc and we can really hear a strong Spanish sense throughout this piece. The repeated notes and the chords in the left hand remind me of castanets and a Spanish guitar strumming chords. 'Woodbrook' was a piece composed by Irish composer O'Suilleabhain for the documentary on David Thompson, author of 'Woodbrook'. The book is about Thompson's memories at Woodbrook, the place where he found a second family and first fell in love. The piece itself is a beautiful work, accurately conveying the peaceful sceneries of Ireland. The main tune which is heard several times is like that of traditional Irish music. ** R2- Classical Mozart, Sonata k.332 1st movt Tan Dun, 'Herdboy's Song' from Eight Memories in Watercolour . https://m.youtube.com... It would have been terribly ironic for me not to include Mozart in this round! My chosen Sonata movement has a very simple opening followed by an answering phrase (0:22) in a higher register. Then suddenly, the piece turns very dark and dramatic (0:34), almost like the ending of his opera 'Don Giovanni'. After that, the mood changes again to a lighter almost, dreamy passage before some unusual syncopation (1:27). The interesting thing about Mozart is that in even in a short piece, we can hear such a variety of different moods, from excitement to loneliness to triumph at the very end. See if you can listen out for them. I learnt Tan Dun's piece especially for this battle because I knew I had to include something Chinese! Tan Dun came from one of the poorest parts of China. His story is absolutely amazing and I could spend ages describing it. He auditioned for the Beijing Conservatory with a violin with only one string left (because he couldn't afford to buy new strings). He can play numerous instruments, especially Chinese traditional ones. This piece is one of the first he ever wrote. Tan Dun said "I was immersed in studying Western classical music but I was also homesick. Therefore, I wrote my first piano work as a diary of longing". I hope you enjoy this piece. ** R3- Romantic Paganini-Liszt, La Campanella Follow the music, if you can :) . http://imslp.nl... . https://m.youtube.com... Known as one of the most difficult pieces ever written for piano (in terms of virtuosity), I present to you the legendary La Campanella (literally 'the little bell'). This piece was written by Liszt, the Michael Jackson of his time. It is based on the tune from violinist Paganini's third movement of his b minor violin concerto. Many people think that you need big hands to play this piece (because of the crazy leaps and octaves) but that is definitely not true considering as I'm living proof (I can barely reach a ninth). This piece is an absolute joy to perform (but a pain to practise! ) and I would definitely recommend this to any pianist. The melody is one that will stick in your head for a long time. Admittedly, not my best performance of this piece (I may have slipped once or twice), but I was having so much fun when recording it, I thought it would be a shame to re-do it without the same freshness :) Also, I'm not sure if anyone noticed but yes I did change a different piano to record this piece. The reason is, believe it or not, on my piano, the D-sharp string snapped while I was practicing this piece a few weeks ago. It was replaced of course but we all know that new strings go out of tune so easily (for any instrument). Plus, seeing as half this piece is made up of that high D-sharp, I wasn't going to commit a musical crime and let everyone endure that awfulness :/ ** R4- Other Debussy, Reflets dans l'Eau Shostakovich, Prelude op.34 no.5 . https://m.youtube.com... . https://m.youtube.com... You may be familiar with Debussy's Clair de Lune and now, I introduce another equally beautiful piece by this amazing French composer. 'Reflects dans l'Eau' (literally Relections in the Water) begins with these amazing chords in the right hand accompanying a subtle three note melody in the left hand. To me, this feels almost like sunrise. In 0:37, we are introduced to a new harmony with little raindrops in the right hand. 0:52 is what Tiberghien considers as the "most beautiful harmony of the piece". Then we hear ripples in 1:15 followed by a cadenza like passage expanding on the rippling idea until only the right hand plays on its own. The music breaks into three staves where the left hand plays a melody made up of whole tones. This (1:39) reminds me of a graceful swan gliding across the lake. The right hand shays the same until we have our first 'forte' (loud) in the piece based on a sad four chord/note melody which is repeated a few times (1:56). The opening theme is heard again except this time, the chords in the right hand are broken rather than in blocks. After, we hear a dark syncopated melody (2:44) played low in the left hand as if suggesting a mysterious cave. The music slowly grows towards the climax. 3:05 is like the glissando of a harp. At 3:13 we reach the climax of the piece which is like cascades and waterfalls. Gradually, it calms down until the end where the three octave spreads (4:49) are like the reflection of the moonlight shimmering on the lake. The very last notes fade into nothingness until we can all breathe again. Shostakovich wrote 24 preludes in this work (op.34), managing to write almost one prelude a day. The one I'm playing is bright and full of character, beginning on a scale of D major, followed by chromaticism and then the rest is completely atonal. Why did I choose this prelude you may ask? Well, let's just say that I wanted to 'end on a high note' :D! No more needs to be said. ** Thank you for reading and listening!