Piano Concerto no.2 in G Major - part 2 of 4

[Raymond62]

Part 1 already presented (Allegro vivace).
Here is part2 - Andantino

Again, it starts rather soft, but don't be fooled with this.... I am not responsible for any hearing problems afterwards (haha). After the weekend I will do part 3 and 4.

Same orchestra, same piano (Garritan's), same solo flute (GPO), same reverb, same composer.
You will notice (I hope) some panning problem with the piano - some high notes suddenly play at the left. I tried to pan this in Sonar getting those notes in the middle, but without sufficient success. A bug in the Steinway Pro!!!!! samples.

Raymond

[rbowser-]

Part 1 already presented (Allegro vivace).
Here is part2 - Andantino

Again, it starts rather soft, but don't be fooled with this.... I am not responsible for any hearing problems afterwards (haha). After the weekend I will do part 3 and 4.

Same orchestra, same piano (Garritan's), same solo flute (GPO), same reverb, same composer.
You will notice (I hope) some panning problem with the piano - some high notes suddenly play at the left. I tried to pan this in Sonar getting those notes in the middle, but without sufficient success. A bug in the Steinway Pro!!!!! samples.

Raymond

Tremendously exciting music, Raymond. I think it is great, and a mature, intelligent work. Isn't this the favorite of your musical children? But then, we tend to always prefer our most recent work.

I had a look at the wave form in an audio editor, out of curiosity. Now that really is a Huge dynamic range. And when you're in the FORTE! passages, you're using all of available headroom--excellent.

--You made me check on my Steinway Pro. The sample set I keep at-the-ready is "under the lid," which isn't the perspective you're using. But with headphones on, I gave it a critical listen, running through the entire keyboard. A similar problem you're talking about is in this sample set. When playing the highest octave, going down, the samples start going too far to the left. Going on to the next octave, the stereo is at it should be. Interesting, I've never noticed that before.

Here's something though - The stereo spread is wide on Under the lid and Player, logically enough. But those stereo images are much too wide for what one would hear on stage. If you're concerned about emulating a live performance, and I think you are, you could tame the width of the stereo on the piano, and these odd little problems of notes jumping around would be minimized until they're not heard. And you'd get the sound of a piano on stage, which is really monophonic. From the house, the piano's sound is coming from one location.

In Sonar, which you use, there is a great plug-in called "Channel Tools." Open that in the FX bin of the piano's audio track which is connected to Aria. Click the drop down menu in Channel Tools and choose "Reduce Width." Instantly, the piano will be shrunk to the size it would be on stage. Looking at CT's controls, you can see what was done to achieve that effect - then you can tweak the Left and Right controls even more, listening to what the results are.

Thank you for posting the magnificent music.

Randy

[Raymond62]

Randy, thank you for the advice using Channel Tools. Didn't think of that. Will try this in the final setting when all parts are ready. I am happy that you love this music.

It is hard to write, getting used to a bit atonal situations and keeping track of the necessary elements in a composition. The latter is a bit exaggerated, since with modern music that old fashioned form intro, theme, exposition, development, variation and finalizing with repeats of previous themes/motivs, doesn't have to be so strict. Analyzing the music of Prokofiev and Shostakovitch made me mad. It took quite a while finding out the "roots" of their works (and repeated listening). A pity that their scores aren't freely available. I only have our public library with very few works of these guys and some are in piano scores or study scores (those small books, unreadable). Buying those score is too costly for me.

For the forte passages, why not using all available space. A CD has a dynamic range of 90 dB, so why not taking it all. A secret: in both pieces where certain peaks, which I edited with an audio editor in order to have a bit more amplification. Not more than two or three per part, so with a little "artificial" hand-made compression on only those peaks I could get it a bit more "juicy".

A question: sometimes you see the word "ossia" and an alternated score next to it. Who makes them? The publisher or the composer?

Raymond

[rbowser-]

Randy, thank you for the advice using Channel Tools...sometimes you see the word "ossia" and an alternated score next to it. Who makes them? The publisher or the composer?

Raymond

Good, Channel Tools will tame the piano the way you want for your final version.

Ossia - theoretically those are from the composer. Alternate versions, simpler ones sometimes, and things the composer couldn't stand leaving on the "cutting room floor."--- That's basically what Wiki just now told me anyway!

Randy

[trentpmcd]

Hi Raymond. I really liked this a lot. It reminded me of something. Not sure but I think it is one of Bartók's concertos I have in mind, particularly the louder parts. Anyway, sounds great. When you post the next part can you put links to the previous ones? I think it is interesting to listen to different parts or movements in relation to the whole.

[Raymond62]

When all 4 parts are ready I will certainly link to all. Right now I am having troubles with Sonar....... but I first must finish this compostion before "solving" those issues. Part 3 ! Difficult stuff.

Raymond

[jandjnelson]

Very nice. I particularly liked the rapidly moving, very high piano in the opening and closing sections. It serves well as both a pitched instrument and as a percussion instrument. I'm eager to hear the rest of it. When you finish the entire work post a link that lets us listen to all of it.

Norman