Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor HD

Me playing a Chopin Nocturne! Please rate+subscribe!

Update: Thanks for the 1000 views guys! 10/10/10

INFO:

Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor was composed by Frédéric Chopin in the year 1830 for solo piano and dedicated to his older sister, Ludwika Chopin.

The composition is marked Lento con gran espressione and is written in common time. It begins with a mellow introduction and the main theme starts from bar 5 (0:38) while the left hand ceaselessly plays quavers in arpeggios throughout the duration of the piece, thus imparting a peaceful and continuous quality to the music.
The theme then shifts to a dreamy pianissimo in bar 21(1:44) in a contrasting section in E Major, which then develps into a small Mazurka like section in 3/4 time in bar 33 (2:28), and then finally returns to the original theme in bar 47 (3:01) and concludes in C-sharp major (4:18).

This piece was actually written by Chopin as a practice piece for his Second Concerto (which he ironically wrote first), which you will notice has the same themes as at 1:51 and 2:28 as in this video.

In terms of my playing, its not the best - I feel as if I could have used a bit less rubato (considering the left hand mainly - Chopin's wish was that the left hand usually stays metronomic while the right hand with the melody uses the rubato) and pedal. I also felt dissatisfied by my dynamics, which I feel are a bit dull compared to how I play now - I may put a new video of this on soon (along with some Rachmaninov and Beethoven!! :D) with these minor improvements :)

This has been recorded using a Samson Q1U Microphone on an 80 year old Challen Baby Grand Piano, and edited using Audacity (audio) and Sony Vegas (Video).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Chopin
• Nocturne
• C-sharpminor
• Piano
• Baby
• Grand
• Challen
• Samson

[syouca]

i like your playing. and voulume up.. haha

[ragtimesamtime]

@syouca I am aware of it haha, I hadn't had the microphone for very long and didn't know how to use it fully :S Thanks for watching :)

[forwardtenth]

You have improved your playing skills since the days of Rag Time. 5 Stars from me for this performance. As I am not a classical pianist ( my only attempt at Chopin drew the comment "poor Chopin")

I had to listen to a couple of the great pianists and then come back and watch again. Yours is a very good performance.

Regards David

[ragtimesamtime]

Thanks!! I'm please you're even comparing me to good pianists :) and your chopin isn't poor! it's great, don't listen to people who say things like that, they probably don't know what they're talking about :)

[Milad343243ify]

Bravo - You are absolutely superb, this standard I would compare with many professional versions. You are very talented so keep it up. I am learning this piece and my dream is to be able to play this as well as you do! Again thanks for posting

[lilivagyok1]

In my opinion you're really talented and just played wonderful. For me it was almost perfect and this piece means a lot for me as it helped a lot of times when i felt a bit down in the dumps so it always makes me cry. Congrat!!

[JazzInfection]

This video is awesome, I don't know why I haven't already seen it! And i'm loving the editing :L

[TommyDai1]

remember that the melody should sound a little higher than the harmony.

[takhirviolinest]

My dear friend, you have a good interpretation, no one can say you are young. Good luck.!

[granchio91]

original edition, an excelent intepretation! great video!!

check out my channel!! :)

[flugelmaniac]

my suggestion would be to raise the sound levels of this recording..........

[danielleosimpson]

Wonderful playing and so tastefully done, thank you!

Daniel Léo Simpson

San Francisco Bay area