Topic: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

PETROF 284 Mistral
This instrument pack is another one of my favorites. I think this instrument suits this kind of music really well. What do you think?

The other day, for the first time since I resumed playing the piano five years ago, I had an opportunity to perform in front of an audience. It was something like a charity concert at a church, and it had been twenty or thirty years since I last played the piano in public.

Since the audience was not made up entirely of people with a special background in music, I mainly chose popular pieces. Although this is not the type of music I usually prefer to play, my wife requested it, and I thought it might be relatively well received by the audience, so I chose it as the opening piece on the day of the performance.

On the day, I played on a Yamaha CLP-825 as a digital piano, but I used Pianoteq 9 for all the sound sources, and I changed the instrument for each piece.

Because I was nervous, I made some mistakes in the actual performance and didn’t think I could upload that version to YouTube. However, I remembered that I had played this piece during the rehearsal earlier that morning, and the MIDI data from that rehearsal was still available, so this is what I uploaded based on that data.

I wasn’t planning to record it in particular, but I think the fact that Pianoteq captures and preserves performances like that is another one of its advantages.

https://youtu.be/uvhyhiDu594

YAMAHA CLP-825
Pianoteq 9.0.2
Petrof 284 Mistral Classical Recording

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Bravo!

You should add this to the video competition if you haven't already

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Triton wrote:

PETROF 284 Mistral
This instrument pack is another one of my favorites. I think this instrument suits this kind of music really well. What do you think?

The other day, for the first time since I resumed playing the piano five years ago, I had an opportunity to perform in front of an audience. It was something like a charity concert at a church, and it had been twenty or thirty years since I last played the piano in public.

Since the audience was not made up entirely of people with a special background in music, I mainly chose popular pieces. Although this is not the type of music I usually prefer to play, my wife requested it, and I thought it might be relatively well received by the audience, so I chose it as the opening piece on the day of the performance.

On the day, I played on a Yamaha CLP-825 as a digital piano, but I used Pianoteq 9 for all the sound sources, and I changed the instrument for each piece.

Because I was nervous, I made some mistakes in the actual performance and didn’t think I could upload that version to YouTube. However, I remembered that I had played this piece during the rehearsal earlier that morning, and the MIDI data from that rehearsal was still available, so this is what I uploaded based on that data.

I wasn’t planning to record it in particular, but I think the fact that Pianoteq captures and preserves performances like that is another one of its advantages.

https://youtu.be/uvhyhiDu594

YAMAHA CLP-825
Pianoteq 9.0.2
Petrof 284 Mistral Classical Recording

Wonderful music, so well played. I like those cresc. - dim. and looking att the velocity curve nice to see going at the end how you achieve ppp at the end.
And it fits well with a large Grand piano, Petrof Mistral is the largest Ptq with 2.80 length, good choice

Thank you Triton for sharing your music.
Btw I think you can’t upload it in contest because it is already published on YT in November. (Have to be not published before)

Best wishes,

Stig

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Oh, sorry, what a shame! I posted it in the wrong place. My apologies! How can I fit it...

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Hi, daniel_r328,
Thank you for your warm comment! I really really appreciate it!

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Hi Stig,

Thank you for your comment! I’m happy to hear your thoughts on my choice of piano.

Pianoteqenthusiast wrote:

Btw I think you can’t upload it in contest because it is already published on YT in November. (Have to be not published before)

Really? I was actually thinking about uploading a different video instead of this one, but that one was from November as well. I will reread the explanation and think about it... Thank you.

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Triton wrote:

Hi Stig,

Thank you for your comment! I’m happy to hear your thoughts on my choice of piano.

Pianoteqenthusiast wrote:

Btw I think you can’t upload it in contest because it is already published on YT in November. (Have to be not published before)

Really? I was actually thinking about uploading a different video instead of this one, but that one was from November as well. I will reread the explanation and think about it... Thank you.

Yes, your video is from November 21, 2025, while the 2025 contest started on November 24.

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Absolutely gorgeous rendition of this wonderful Rachmaninov piece!

Last edited by Stephen_Doonan (10-12-2025 20:42)
--
Linux, Mac OS, Pianoteq Pro, Organteq

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

I find this to be a nice rendition of the piece, and the Petrof has a fitting sound for it. I would still like to try it in my Kawai. Are you comfortable with sharing the midi file for your performance? Thank you.

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Sounds beautiful!  Reminds me a little of how Roger Williams played it without the orchestration.

Very nicely done.

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Lemuel wrote:
Triton wrote:

Hi Stig,

Thank you for your comment! I’m happy to hear your thoughts on my choice of piano.

Pianoteqenthusiast wrote:

Btw I think you can’t upload it in contest because it is already published on YT in November. (Have to be not published before)

Really? I was actually thinking about uploading a different video instead of this one, but that one was from November as well. I will reread the explanation and think about it... Thank you.

Yes, your video is from November 21, 2025, while the 2025 contest started on November 24.

But you can re-record yourself, perhaps in video if you are not shy, and still participate.

Where do I find a list of all posts I upvoted? :(

Re: Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Thema of Paganini 18th variation

Everyone, thank you very much for your warm comments, even though I mistakenly posted this in the wrong forum. Clearly, I should have posted it in “Recording featuring Pianoteq and Organteq” which was my intention, but I made a mistake.

Hi Lemuel, thank you for clarifying that.

Hi Stephen, thank you so much for your very warm comment. It was truly encouraging.

Hi secretfirefox, thank you for taking an interest in my performance. I hadn’t thought about the idea of sharing my MIDI data. By the way, have you tried https://eldoraudio.com ? I use it to convert performances by masters from the SP recording era and listen to them with modern grand piano sounds—of course, using Pianoteq.

Hi walkman2011, thank you very much. It’s an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Roger Williams.

Hi dv, thank you for your kindness. I have many other pieces I’d like to play, so I probably won’t record the same piece again. I’ve decided to submit a different video for the contest.

Once again, thank you all very much. I truly appreciate it.