Thanks a lot Denis!! I'm a professional pianist, specialized in "old" repertoire (so-called "pianoforte", or "old" pianos before 1860 in short), and you just gave me some keys that make me confident enough about the fact that I actually could play this piece well!
Please never lose your sense of humor with your vids man. Some pianists on RUclips forget that music should be fun! I’ve been watching you since I started 2 years ago, from simple pop covers to op 10 no 4. I can’t thank you enough for your videos. They’ve helped me improve so much!
You know, I'll never be able to play this piece (I'm simply too far behind, nor do I have the time to devote to the task of reaching this level of mastery) but I've loved this piece of music for almost 20 years and this was a real treat to watch a great pianist explain the difficulties of this masterwork (imho, the Holy Grail for all virtuosi) in such an engaging manner.
The technical and musical challenges in this piece are WAY beyond anything i could even begin to contemplate attempting! But your explanations and keyboard demonstrations are so lucid and insightful, I feel as if I gained a much greater understanding and appreciation for this piece.
As always, Denis, your presentations cast light on achieving higher levels of performance. Thanks for your generosity in doing this. You are a very gifted pianist and teacher.
Great video! I wanted to make a couple comments. I highly recommend that interested pianists get Nancy Bricard’s edition of the score (it’s available for free download online if you know where to look), which contains many insights to understanding and playing the piece. For example, she recommends playing the tremolo notes in m2 using some combination of thumb, index, and middle finger joined together, allowing the hand to play deep into the keys and allowing the wrist to rebound. Playing the tremolo notes as Denis suggests will result in a light, bright sound a la his Toccata or the Alborada del Gracioso - a different character and feel. Denis says you cannot use arm movements to play these tremolos - yes, don’t use your whole arm, but use your wrist and use the arm to support (i.e., rhythmically at quavers). These tremolos are meant to convey the racing heart and deep, sheer terror of the narrator, so it doesn’t fit here to play with just fingers. In my opinion, the m1 melody is not the creaking door; it is the melody of the narrator (a poet or artist haunted by Scarbo) who notices something stirring in his room at night. After the brief introduction of the narrator (m1 and m32, the latter which you didn’t link to the opening melody as a sort of expansion of the narrator’s theme) we don’t hear much from them until m314, where we experience the narrator’s pleading back-and-forth with Scarbo as in Bertrand’s expanded poem. It also fits with the repeat of the opening melody in m395 after Scarbo has attacked the narrator, and in my view bites them and brings them into his dreamworld (m418-477). And, finally, the narrator’s melody makes a triumphant return in m580 after Scarbo grows to his largest size and tries his best to attack. As for your section on so-called ‘atonal music’ in 10:32 - respectfully, there is not one measure of atonal music in this entire piece, and nothing is not far from tonal music at all. Ravel’s Scarbo is entirely centered on tonality, with his own genius additions to stretch tonality to its limit. Compositionally, a major idea behind Scarbo relies on a major second that is placed on the tritone (diminished fifth / augmented fourth) position - for example, taking a major or minor triad (e.g., g# minor in the opening), and adding a sharp-4 and sharp-5 (e.g., D-natural and E-natural). This unifies Ravel’s love for second intervals with the demonic elements of the tritone. This is reflected in the opening chords (in g# minor), the introduction of Scarbo material in m52 (in G major but with the F natural dominant to add even more complexity), as well as throughout the rest of the piece, especially in the climactic Scarbo attacks in m366 (C major) and m563 (our final home key of B major). The reason I say all this is because it is relevant to your 12:23 section on m468 and onward. Not covered in your video is the fact just before this moment, in Scarbo’s dreamworld, we are treated to a hypnotic swarming of major second notes - again, one of Ravel’s signatures for the demonic Scarbo. Then this reaches a climax in which we suddenly see a beautiful rush of a F# pentatonic chord in m468-472 that comprises major seconds on the black keys. It’s a wild moment that is really out of place for the piece! This same passage is then repeated using the same black keys, but instead of being rounded out by the golden pentatonic chord, they are replaced by the demonic tritone displaced major seconds that make up the Scarbo character. To me, this is the glorious part of the piece where Scarbo nearly succeeds in bringing the narrator to his dreamworld, but somehow fails (I like to think he tripped and fell… he’s supposed to be a somewhat silly character too). Although this passage might look like they are members of whole-tone scales, that was not Ravel’s intention. Instead they are major seconds separated by a tritone, which although they will produce the same notes, they have very different meanings, and this changes how you play the passage. Also, to think of this m472 practically as a pianist, you are simply playing each pair of black notes with with fingers 2 and 3 in succession down the piano, and each is accompanied by the tritone major second played both by your thumb. Need strong finger rotation to make this work. Lastly, I’ll note the Scarbo ‘scream’ theme (‘ta-da!), first introduced in m121, is very important to the character of the piece. The chords you played in 18:53 and onward need to enhance the ‘shout’ chords above the ‘ticka-ticka’ obstinato. The ostinato is important but not the main character - here it’s Scarbo jumping out to scream ‘got you!’ much like he will do later. Hope this makes sense. Again, great video, and really informative! It is such a wonderful piece that needs lots of discussion!
Playing All of Gaspard de la nuit is my goal/dream on piano. I'm only 14 right and I practice around 7-8 hours a day (Hardest is what I've learned of Chopin's First ballade), So I think I have time and videos like these help me a lot even if im not skilled enough to play it.
Thank you! Although recently I had a chance to compare my own piano with a new steinway and I was furious about how much easier it is to play this piece on a better piano 😂
I will try, but my piano is not good enough to produce a great recording because double action is faulty. I am reluctant to rent a studio for just a YT recording however. I guess I will try and see if it’s too bad or not.
You can and should assist the tremolo with your arm, by vibrating your arm from the tricep, resting lightly on the keybeds, allowing the key to slightly come up with each vibration, using two or three fingers on one key, no switching.
Very good and helpful video. I would know how can you play repeated notes with the same finger so fast??? I din't know how to reach it. I play the beginning rep. with 3-2 as a very very light trill, almost no articulation, and it works. But I would love learn how to play it with one finger. Thanks for your marvelous work.
It’s not necessary, changing fingers is still better there. But in general, you can play repeated notes with the same finger if you’d stay glued to the key, feel the action intimately and operate around double repetition zone, meaning not diving to the bottom of the key, but not letting the key of going up completely either - somewhere in the middle
i'm learning this thing rn and i find that the key to fast repeated notes is to press the key down with just the right weight. too little, it doesn't go down enough. too much, it resets too slowly
@@DenZhdanovPianist Such a great piece has room for many different points of view. Ravel's output wasn't vast, but he sure made up for it with quality control, 😉. He doesn't really have a piece that wasn't meticulously crafted or that is uninspiring.
![[UNBANNED] A SCANDALOUS Theory about Horowitz's peculiar Piano Playing Technique](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/C6iVT1qyj_8/mqdefault.jpg)
![[UNBANNED] A SCANDALOUS Theory about Horowitz's peculiar Piano Playing Technique](/img/tr.png)
His description of the opening as a dooropening squeak really helped me. Imagination.
Thanks a lot Denis!!
I'm a professional pianist, specialized in "old" repertoire (so-called "pianoforte", or "old" pianos before 1860 in short), and you just gave me some keys that make me confident enough about the fact that I actually could play this piece well!
Happy to help! Thanks for commenting!
Please never lose your sense of humor with your vids man. Some pianists on RUclips forget that music should be fun! I’ve been watching you since I started 2 years ago, from simple pop covers to op 10 no 4. I can’t thank you enough for your videos. They’ve helped me improve so much!
I appreciate that!
Спасибо, Денис! Отличный разбор! Очень полезная информация😊
Whoever makes the new thumbnails needs a raise 😂
If I were paid for everything I do myself, I’d be a millionaire😂 thanks!
You know, I'll never be able to play this piece (I'm simply too far behind, nor do I have the time to devote to the task of reaching this level of mastery) but I've loved this piece of music for almost 20 years and this was a real treat to watch a great pianist explain the difficulties of this masterwork (imho, the Holy Grail for all virtuosi) in such an engaging manner.
Thank you for your kind feedback!
The technical and musical challenges in this piece are WAY beyond anything i could even begin to contemplate attempting! But your explanations and keyboard demonstrations are so lucid and insightful, I feel as if I gained a much greater understanding and appreciation for this piece.
Thank you for your feedback! I wish you a smooth progress and being able to approach such pieces one day!
This is another amazing tutorial!! Thank you very much, Mr Zhdanov!!
My pleasure!
As always, Denis, your presentations cast light on achieving higher levels of performance. Thanks for your generosity in doing this. You are a very gifted pianist and teacher.
Thank you, Rodrigo!
Great video! I wanted to make a couple comments.
I highly recommend that interested pianists get Nancy Bricard’s edition of the score (it’s available for free download online if you know where to look), which contains many insights to understanding and playing the piece. For example, she recommends playing the tremolo notes in m2 using some combination of thumb, index, and middle finger joined together, allowing the hand to play deep into the keys and allowing the wrist to rebound. Playing the tremolo notes as Denis suggests will result in a light, bright sound a la his Toccata or the Alborada del Gracioso - a different character and feel. Denis says you cannot use arm movements to play these tremolos - yes, don’t use your whole arm, but use your wrist and use the arm to support (i.e., rhythmically at quavers). These tremolos are meant to convey the racing heart and deep, sheer terror of the narrator, so it doesn’t fit here to play with just fingers.
In my opinion, the m1 melody is not the creaking door; it is the melody of the narrator (a poet or artist haunted by Scarbo) who notices something stirring in his room at night. After the brief introduction of the narrator (m1 and m32, the latter which you didn’t link to the opening melody as a sort of expansion of the narrator’s theme) we don’t hear much from them until m314, where we experience the narrator’s pleading back-and-forth with Scarbo as in Bertrand’s expanded poem. It also fits with the repeat of the opening melody in m395 after Scarbo has attacked the narrator, and in my view bites them and brings them into his dreamworld (m418-477). And, finally, the narrator’s melody makes a triumphant return in m580 after Scarbo grows to his largest size and tries his best to attack.
As for your section on so-called ‘atonal music’ in 10:32 - respectfully, there is not one measure of atonal music in this entire piece, and nothing is not far from tonal music at all. Ravel’s Scarbo is entirely centered on tonality, with his own genius additions to stretch tonality to its limit. Compositionally, a major idea behind Scarbo relies on a major second that is placed on the tritone (diminished fifth / augmented fourth) position - for example, taking a major or minor triad (e.g., g# minor in the opening), and adding a sharp-4 and sharp-5 (e.g., D-natural and E-natural). This unifies Ravel’s love for second intervals with the demonic elements of the tritone. This is reflected in the opening chords (in g# minor), the introduction of Scarbo material in m52 (in G major but with the F natural dominant to add even more complexity), as well as throughout the rest of the piece, especially in the climactic Scarbo attacks in m366 (C major) and m563 (our final home key of B major).
The reason I say all this is because it is relevant to your 12:23 section on m468 and onward. Not covered in your video is the fact just before this moment, in Scarbo’s dreamworld, we are treated to a hypnotic swarming of major second notes - again, one of Ravel’s signatures for the demonic Scarbo. Then this reaches a climax in which we suddenly see a beautiful rush of a F# pentatonic chord in m468-472 that comprises major seconds on the black keys. It’s a wild moment that is really out of place for the piece! This same passage is then repeated using the same black keys, but instead of being rounded out by the golden pentatonic chord, they are replaced by the demonic tritone displaced major seconds that make up the Scarbo character. To me, this is the glorious part of the piece where Scarbo nearly succeeds in bringing the narrator to his dreamworld, but somehow fails (I like to think he tripped and fell… he’s supposed to be a somewhat silly character too). Although this passage might look like they are members of whole-tone scales, that was not Ravel’s intention. Instead they are major seconds separated by a tritone, which although they will produce the same notes, they have very different meanings, and this changes how you play the passage. Also, to think of this m472 practically as a pianist, you are simply playing each pair of black notes with with fingers 2 and 3 in succession down the piano, and each is accompanied by the tritone major second played both by your thumb. Need strong finger rotation to make this work.
Lastly, I’ll note the Scarbo ‘scream’ theme (‘ta-da!), first introduced in m121, is very important to the character of the piece. The chords you played in 18:53 and onward need to enhance the ‘shout’ chords above the ‘ticka-ticka’ obstinato. The ostinato is important but not the main character - here it’s Scarbo jumping out to scream ‘got you!’ much like he will do later. Hope this makes sense.
Again, great video, and really informative! It is such a wonderful piece that needs lots of discussion!
Thank you, a valuable addition!
Playing All of Gaspard de la nuit is my goal/dream on piano. I'm only 14 right and I practice around 7-8 hours a day (Hardest is what I've learned of Chopin's First ballade), So I think I have time and videos like these help me a lot even if im not skilled enough to play it.
Keep going
As always your brilliance makes this piece less scary than I have ever though. You are the best and most switched on teacher on RUclips in my opinion!
Thank you! Although recently I had a chance to compare my own piano with a new steinway and I was furious about how much easier it is to play this piece on a better piano 😂
Amazing presentation, thank you
Thank you too!
I'm eager to see a full recording of this piece played by you Denis ! Is this planned ? Luc
I will try, but my piano is not good enough to produce a great recording because double action is faulty. I am reluctant to rent a studio for just a YT recording however. I guess I will try and see if it’s too bad or not.
You can and should assist the tremolo with your arm, by vibrating your arm from the tricep, resting lightly on the keybeds, allowing the key to slightly come up with each vibration, using two or three fingers on one key, no switching.
Works on good pianos, doesn’t on mine 😒
Wow!Using arm or even triceps is such a helpful Idea!
@@MrInterestingthings Thankyou.
Even though Ravel is not my favourite composer, I loved watching your brilliant finger work .
Great video. Professional players will profit a lot. For amateurs, such as me, it is another world ))).
thanks Roland!!!
Very good and helpful video. I would know how can you play repeated notes with the same finger so fast??? I din't know how to reach it. I play the beginning rep. with 3-2 as a very very light trill, almost no articulation, and it works. But I would love learn how to play it with one finger. Thanks for your marvelous work.
It’s not necessary, changing fingers is still better there. But in general, you can play repeated notes with the same finger if you’d stay glued to the key, feel the action intimately and operate around double repetition zone, meaning not diving to the bottom of the key, but not letting the key of going up completely either - somewhere in the middle
i'm learning this thing rn and i find that the key to fast repeated notes is to press the key down with just the right weight. too little, it doesn't go down enough. too much, it resets too slowly
👍👍👍
Brilliant expose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wouldn't say sound effects, but rather sound illustrations.
Please do a second cam or above view
It’s there
I love how Pogorelich plays the opening repeated notes super dry and articulated.
Yes he’s great there; I just happened to have a different idea.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Such a great piece has room for many different points of view. Ravel's output wasn't vast, but he sure made up for it with quality control, 😉. He doesn't really have a piece that wasn't meticulously crafted or that is uninspiring.
best version ever
1:30
6:39
9:01
19:14