Priabonia
Group: Members
Posts: 264
Joined: July 2011 |
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Posted: Nov. 22 2012, 13:49 |
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Hi Gus
Shame no one has commented on this so far…my excuse for the delay is that I wanted to give it a proper listen.
Firstly congratulations on a fine performance of a demanding piece…your right hand must have hurt from all those arpeggios! I hope this wasn't a one off, as it would be a shame to have put in all that effort in rehearsal for just one performance.
To offer some constructive criticism:
- it may be that there's nothing you can do about this as you are limited by the type of musicians you have around you, but you really could have done with another instrument to give a bit more "light and shade"…one of the beauties of Incantations is just that, and in your version the end result suffered a little. The obvious answer is some electric guitar, but finding anyone who could play all the relevant parts anywhere would be tough, let alone in your neck of the woods! There's a lot of repetition in Incantations (didn't Mike say if something is good it's worth repeating?) but on the album it's (e.g.) flute then vibes then guitar or whatever…if it's all piano it tends to get a bit monochrome).
- on the subject of light and shade, I think you overdid it with the piano parts, particularly in "Side 1" where there was a lot of left hand going on as well as the right hand arpeggios (full marks for playing ability though!…by contrast the beginning of "Side 2" was so much better, where you were right hand only, and let the other instruments "breathe" (nice use of the bass btw, picking up some of the tunes and arpeggios).
- end of Side 2 (Hiawatha), I would have left out the (seemingly) improv bit - it sounded all a bit Michael Nyman/Piano?
- generally on the piano, I assume you were all amped? In which case I would suggest playing some of the piano more, er, piano, rather than all forte! (try this test…dip into the video at any point and there is a tendency for it to sound the same, whereas the album most certainly doesn't)
As I said, all of this is intended as constructive criticism…I'm really looking forward to your next concert (Ommadawn maybe?!
N
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