Sergei M. Liapunov - Etude 1

12 etudes d'execution transcendante, op 11. no 1 (Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, 1859-1924): Berceuse, Wiegenlied, Lullaby

Despite some unfortunate mistakes and my score falling from the piano somewhere in the middle of the piece, I'm presenting my version of a rarely heard "Etude d'execution transcendante" by Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, a student of Mili Balakirev, who just like his teacher was into collecting Russian folk tunes.

This piece is without doubt the most difficult piece I have tried to learn until now. The third page in particular (for me) is a mountain the size of the Mount Everest ;-)

Before you complain: yes the cadenzas are played an order of magnitude too slow. The truth is that I'm likely to mess them up at higher speeds. I'm not sure how Louis Kentner could ever achieve the dazzling speed he plays them at. Other recordings I'm aware of are Roberto Cominati and Konstantin Scherbakov. Good pianists make this piece sound easy - which is what caused me to think that perhaps I could play it too. Little did I know ... ;-)

Some technical data:
The piano is a yamaha gt2 digital grand piano. The sound was recorded onto a boss br 600 multitrack recorder. No effects or postprocessing was applied to the recorded sound. The video was made using an old and bad logitech quickcam webcam. Video and sound were mixed together using kdenlive 0.7.3 on debian linux.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• berceuse
• wiegenlied
• wiegelied
• lullaby
• rare
• russian
• romantic
• piano
• music
• etude
• d'execution
• transcendante
• liapunov
• yamaha
• gt
• boss
• br
• 600
• blooper

[gsarci2011]

next to clair de lune, this is also making me cry, omg!

can you please upload a better video of this one?

what a very nice performance, bro! congratulations!

[StefaanHimpe]

@gsarci2011

Thanks for your kind comments :) I'm afraid I no longer have the piece in my fingers, so unless I go back to practicing it intensively for some weeks, I cannot make a better recording. On the other hand, I do have some plans to upload a version of Debussy's "Clair de lune" (or were you referring to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" ?).

[gsarci2011]

wow, even the background is perfect to play that piece!

[gsarci2011]

@StefaanHimpe thanks, bro!

[kaidaniev]

Bravo !... I admire how you keep on playing with a sheet on your knee ! Anyway it sounds very good and it is't so easy to play...