Topic: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

I tried to perform the first movement of the moonlight sonata. I am sure there are mistakes and it isn't perfect. I would just like some feedback from the members of the community on playing style, technique and most importantly, Pianoteq settings. Thanks.

Cheers,
Girish

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata Op.27 No.2 Movement 1: http://youtu.be/lDvscYM605g

Last edited by rgirish28 (06-07-2014 09:24)

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

Would have been awesome if you played the main melody on that Juno, hehe!

Hard work and guts!

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

Very nice. I'm just an amateur myself, so I'm probably not a perfect source for feedback. But the Moonlight sonata is supposed to have a very fluid, 'dreamy' feel to it. At the moment it still feels kind of mechanical, but that is going to change over time anyway.

Apart from that: try to really feel that triplet rhythm, and I would be careful with very strong ritardandos; the whole piece has to 'flow' (which is actually easier said than done, I know). Of the triplets the first notes are emphasised, the second and third ones not; at the moment I don't really hear or feel the meter, if you know what I mean. The Moonlight sonata takes kindly to quite a bit of reverb (but this makes it more difficult to play) and also rather 'sweet' sounding instruments, like some classical grands; I think e.g. the Streicher from Kremsegg 2 would be a good fit.

Last edited by kalessin (06-07-2014 12:20)
Pianoteq 6 Standard (Steinway D&B, Grotrian, Petrof, Steingraeber, Bechstein, Blüthner, K2, YC5, U4, Kremsegg 1&2, Karsten, Electric, Hohner)

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

@EvilDragon: Haha, I reserve that for my synth stuff

@kalessin: Thanks for the feedback. I tried to make it as fluid as I could, but as you said, it's pretty hard. Possibly, I slowed down the piece quite a bit because I liked it slow, so it might have made it a little more mechanical. I'll see how I can improve it. I'm self-taught, so dynamics are still a problem for me

Also, I also noticed the triplets not being even. I'll improve that as well and will try it on the other grands and reupload the version. Thanks a lot for the feedback, it was very helpful and very nice to hear from fellow pianists

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

I think it might be too slow, too, although I do like it played slowly - just not quite that slowly?

FWIW, here's me playing it on the very first disk streaming sampled piano - the Nemesys (now Tascam) Gigapiano: https://soundcloud.com/sullivang/moonli...-beethoven
I was struggling to play in the PP layer and some notes just didn't sound at all. 

Greg.

Last edited by skip (06-07-2014 13:09)

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

Haha @skip, I think your reocrding was too fast for me. But it definitely sounds good. Maybe somewhere in the middle.  The more I hear the piece now, the less I am satisfied by the slow nature of it I think I will have to do another recording sometime

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

Yes it sounds too fast to me too - I agree - somewhere in the middle.

Greg.

Re: Beethoven - moonlight sonata op 27 no 2, movement 1

What pianoteq settings you use?

Combine velocity curves: http://output.jsbin.com/cukeme/9