Professional performance of my piece "Joy"

Here's another live performance from Neil Crossland's recent piano recital.

He deserves props for tackling my hideously difficult first movement! 😵‍💫

He even plays it faster than the metronome mark!!

You can hear he's struggling near the end; but his interpretation is really interesting.

It sounds nothing like the midi version; but thanks to Neil I've seen the piece in an entirely new light!

This is the programme note I wrote for the recital:

"This composition has a metronomic rhythm, like a train travelling along a track at constant speed.

The rising chord progression in the first movement creates a feeling of optimism, as the melodic fragments above fizz with excitement.

The second movement is a simple study of rhythmic variation. 

Each movement comes to an abrupt end, as the train shudders to a halt."

Updated scores also attached.

Very nice!  It sounds like the 2nd movement ends in the middle on a kind of half cadence.  It doesn't sound very conclusive to my ears and it years for a continuance.  Other than that these are great!  Well done once again!  I think these recent submissions are your best pieces!

Thanks Peter.

To me the ending makes sense; but you're not the first composer to criticise it.

Think I may write a third movement at some point in the far flung future!

Probably should add a tenuto and/or fermata to the last note of the first movement, as I think it would sound better if held. Cuts off too abruptly for my liking in this performance.

Probably ought to get rid of most of the clef changes in the first movement left hand part too, as they seem unnecessary.

Think it would make more sense if notated entirely in treble clef; apart from the last 3 bars.

Hey @Alex Weidmann,

I thouroughly enjoy these two movements and I feel like I'm listening Schumann's Album for the Young.  l love how you use the changing of register to create the carefree and funny atmosphere, with the charming texture of a child's march. I actually love the non-ending of the movement 2 since it provides humour there.

It seems that the recording is a major second lower than the score!

The pianist really does a great job of conveying the joy of the movements, props to him (and your wallet!)

Thx for sharing!

Henry

3 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

It seems that the recording is a major second lower than the score!

Well spotted Henry!
On investigation, I discovered this happened when I converted the wav file to mp3 with the highest quality sample rate and bitrate.

This produced a higher quality mp3; but also changed the pitch!

Anyhow I'm very glad you liked the piece.
It is a beast to play. I made the midi rendition first, and didn't realise how hard it was, until I produced the score, and tried playing it myself!

13 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Well spotted Henry!
On investigation, I discovered this happened when I converted the wav file to mp3 with the highest quality sample rate and bitrate.

This produced a higher quality mp3; but also changed the pitch!

Yeah because when I was listening alongside the score, I was confused to find those notes different from the recording! I thought I looked into the wrong bars but actually not haha!

Yes this one is real hard, particularly you have to play those chords with lightness and humor which increases its difficulty! However the pianist did a real fascinating job on this!

Henry