George Enescu: Piano Sonata No.3, 2nd Movement

Recorded on Friday, September 13th, 2024. Subscribe and turn on notifications for more! Another hidden gem of a work by George Enescu, this time a stylistically-solitary movement in his neoclassical “Piano Sonata No.3“ with a captivating opening and the remainder a winding, meditative, drifting, doina character. Doina is a Romanian improvisational, free-rhythm, and highly ornamented style tune, typically following a fixed descending pattern with rubato-like note stretching. Ya know, regardless of how exceptionally technically proficient I am at all the other repertoire I play and record, it’s always music like this that is the most intriguing and captivating to me. Pretty much no superfluous notes, nothing to show off, the most acute detail in every note (even if there are still a ton of notes), emotional depth and contrast, and a probe into the mind of a brilliant composer, in all its complexity and matureness. I assure you that I needed to precisely plan out the timing and expression of almost every note in this performance; that is, every sec difference counts, every small nuance in dynamic counts (see pinned comment for details), every choice of tone accounted for. That’s what made this slow movement actually significant more tedious and challenging than “Enescu’s Piano Sonata No.1, 1st Movement“ I posted last week. On top of all that, there’s also local phrasing, page-level phrasing, and the overall progression of my interpretation through the movement. It not only must sound pleasant (that’s the bare minimum requirement), but it must progress through a diverse set of logically connected emotions, determine the intensity/degree that the emotion should be projected, and overall show restraint and maturity. (In this case, also avoid stalling too much and becoming boring.) Then, when all the nuances align perfectly (and the stars align jk), I am satisfied with what I’ve created. I also found it an interesting quandary as to how to differentiate patetico, grazioso, lontano, nostalgico, pensieroso, cantando, languido, espressivo, misterioso, esitando, calando, allargando, and sostenuto in sound. How would you describe the sonic differences? So, on a slightly relevant side note, for reference I was only acquainted with this particular piece last Sunday, and it is entirely my own invented theories and methodologies that solved this music and helped me prepare this so quickly. I want to bring your attention to @tonebasePiano ’s business collaboration with top artists to provide music lessons to a broad audience: . Know that I have decided to do the same and have plans (possibly a year away), likely with a business partner of significant status in the music industry (a number of people have already shown legitimate interest), yet I still lightly recommend as an option what ToneBase is offering. That’s because, you’ll at least be exposed to the standards of top artists and understand the underlying trials and tribulations that college students generally go through when learning music at a high level. Because, otherwise, if you were to receive any instruction from me, you’d probably be confused or lacking sufficient control/experience to execute what I ask, because it builds/elucidates upon the teachings of top artists. In other words, what I’m saying is you need to deeply understand the suffering and join the masses who suffer alongside you before you can appreciate the cure. However, those who are adept will acquire the inside knowledge and completely out-compete their peers, enjoy what they’re doing much more, and waste less time practising. As well, unlike a lot of tutorials like ToneBase, with me you’ll get the chance to properly learn a piece like the one in this recording. So, look forward to a revolution in piano methodology in the future for the betterment of everyone and the classical music industry, as it is directly reflected in this video. Also, lol, for some reason, the score is so detailed and dense that my pdf viewer was crashing. Jk, that’s probably not the reason but was the reason I had to print it out. [DISCLAIMER] If you’re unfamiliar with this style of music, I suggest that you go through the description of this previous video for the necessary background: All piano works I’ve recorded: At time of recording, Eric is a full-time software engineer working in Big Tech and AI, graduated from the University of Waterloo, Computer Science major. @musicforever60_official on IG: #piano #music #romantic #enescu