Hi ,all

My favourite film to date is the "Pianist". I took one look at the performance where Spzilmann plays for the German officer at the end and i immediately thought they've done a "typical Hollywood job" with the performance so i bought a copy of the sheet music just to see what its like.Its 2 levels up from my grade 5-
its totaly different to what im use to,but i can read it,and play it and Ive sussed out that when you come to the string of semiquavers that are played 35 times faster -you just pivot your hand with the the 5 notes that you've broken down very very fast ( you have to break them all down,then put them back all together !) .

What does everyone else think
is it me or after a bit of practice is it quite simple to learn even though its in c sharp minor,is the movie all typical hype !!!

Also ive noticed there is a part in Chopin's Nocture in CSharp minor where the semiquavers are played 18 time faster than the note value.How can you judge the difference in speed between the 18 times faster,and 35 times faster ( if that makes sense !)

I am sorry, I've no idea what you're asking could you clarify?

Is it easy to play and how do you play the string of very fast semiquavers at the end ?

What piece are we talking about?

Ahh.

I think easy to play doesn't necessarily mean easy to play beautifully and with real expression. There's a big difference, which is why concert pianists (indeed soloists of all descriptions) still play "easy" pieces that people might learn even at grade 5 or below. Remember that in many countries the system of grading pieces is quite foreign. Chopin is Chopin, and however easy the notes are it's still possible to play it really badly!

As to how to play the fast strings of semis - can't help there sorry.

Nocturne in c sharp minor by chopin which was the theme music in " The Pianist"

Posthumous

Does he play that to the German officer though? I thought that was Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor (a very nice piece, but certainly not easy - definitely post grade 8).

With the string of 35 semis at the end: it's pretty much impossible to divide the beats up into 35, so just played it quite quickly, and feel that the notes are having an effect. Have a listen to a few different recordings of it, and see what performers do. It's an actual scale, so it repeats itself, I haven't looked at the score in ages but I think it's E major-ish.

I've done a recording on the recordings site if you'd like to listen.

I'm going to send YAP a better quality sound file than the one already on the site - could you switch it with the video please? It's a bit pants.

http://www.forumrecordings.co.uk

The 18 and 35 denote, pedantically, an 18-tuplet and a 35-tuplet. Much in the same way a 3 denotes a 3-tuplet, commonly referred to as a triplet. And I'm pretty sure Chopin's intention wasn't for them to be played in strict time - rather, that they be played quick enough, but also gracefully. Following the style of rubato of which Chopin was fond, the four left hand quavers should still be equally spaced in terms of a pulse, and the right hand goes on top of that with the 18 or 35 notes split into whatever sounds good: not necessarily an equal number of them assigned to each left-hand quaver. Find something that sounds musically satisfying, and go for it.

As for:



I agree with sarah-flute's conclusion:

'Chopin is Chopin, and however easy the notes are it's still possible to play it really badly!'.

I listened to Ashkenazy play it earlier, and it didn't sound like an 'easy piece' the way he played it. As a general rule, barring three blind mice, if you think a piece is easy, you've probably missed the point .

Oddball - sure, no probs .

. . . and come to that, what's so easy about 3 bilnd mice?






(spot the typo!)

Well, personally I'm so dumbfounded by the movie that I was totally blank-out at the piano-playing part. ;-x

I love that film!! Although the bit where the german soldier tips the disabled guy in his wheelchair off the balcony cos he wouldn't stand up was a bit horrible!

Sadly I fear the Nazis did far worse than that...it was a terrible time in human history. A great friend of mine now very elderly remembers her childhood in Germany during the war and describes it with immense sadness and horror for what took place, she still has her personal ID with the stamp of the Third Riech on it which is very chilling. Also I had a great friend in London whose father was celebrating his 90th birthday many years ago...I shook his hand and saw his number tattooed on his wrist... I later discovered he had survived the concentration camps in Poland. I am grateful that most of us here will never really know what war on that scale is like or the inhumanity that men can show one another.

As for the film "The Pianist" its a very powerful movie, very distressing but I suspect pretty close to what it was like...to think that man and his talent survived it is nothing short of miraculous.

agreed. if you look on the diploma syllabus, there are some grade 7 pieces thrown in and a ###### of a lot of grade 8. they're expecting more at that level than just difficulty and technique.