Post your classical playing here!

[Olli-Pekka]

Hello! I´ve got a couple of new sound clips on my site (from my second concerto CD, just released by Jase-label). Concertos by Sebastian Fagerlund and Kalevi Aho, both leading Finnish composers. In the Aho piece my sound is finally coming from distance because I´m supposed to be walking away from the stage while playing. I hope You enjoy. www.kolumbus.fi/pekka.tuomisalo (sound clips)
Olli-Pekka

[Chris S]

Olli-Pekka,

I really enjoyed listening to your clips. I especially liked the Aho Chamber Symphony.

Really great playing.

Chris S

[Merlin]

Merlin: I really like your description of Humber! That's where I'm going in the fall. Who would you suggest I study with while there? And yes, I absolutely love all of these clips. I'm mostly a jazz player, but I have a sweet spot for classical sax.

Rubel

I don't know that you get a choice of who you study with in first year at Humber. That's probably up to the head of the woodwind dept., Mark Promane.

[Olli-Pekka]

Hi all! In case You liked the Fagerlund and Aho concerto clips, you might want to check also the rest of the CD´s program. I put a few minutes from Pehr-Henrik Nordgren´s and Perttu Haapanen´s concertos and a little bonus - Tango for sax and piano by Yrjö Gunaropulos (composed 1936). (Haapanen´s Concerto is all written out exactly the way you hear it, no improvising even if it may sound like free jazz in some places... a real heavy metal concerto).
Olli-Pekka

[Olli-Pekka]

Oops... I forgot to write the address; www.kolumbus.fi/pekka.tuomisalo
(and go to sound clips).
Olli-Pekka

[Rick]

I’ve posted the solo for Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and would like to hear what you think about it. I'm working it up for concert with the San Francisco Youth Symphony and I want to give a good performance. The conductors new and if he likes my playing, I stand a good chance of being their "on-call" saxophonist. I've omitted counting the rests for this recording.
Ricardo

[awholley]

Everything I click on says I have to be logged in, and I don't see the link anyway?????

[Rick]

You shouldn't have to log onto anything to hear my clip. All you have to do is go to the link that I copied and pasted in my previous post, and it should open up a new window bringing you to my profile. Under the "about me" section is a Quick Time Player with the clip of my playing. All you have to do is click play. If you still can't hear it I can email it. I would really like an honest opinion on it.

[awholley]

Ok, I found it. Hiding right under my nose! I was looking for a link, and it appears on the page as a quicktime player bar for me, which I wrongly assumed was a graphic.

Anyway. Beautiful tone and very sensitive playing!

I'm not sure I'd change anything at all. You might want to experiment with vibrato speed some -maybe accelerating/decelerating the speed as an expressive device, rather than just keeping it what seems like one constant rate. OTOH, if you are being trained in the strict "French" tradition, the previous statement is probably blasphemy.... <grin>


Alan

[KSQ]

Rick --

Practice with a metronome. It's obvious that you're purposefully stretching certain phrases, but some of the long notes were a bit imprecise. An important thing to remember is that this is not so much a solo as it is a featured line that intertwines with others (e.g. 1st oboe and 1st clarinet). Make sure that you're very aware of the sixteenth-note pulse throughout; having the entrances of the various featured woodwinds line up correctly depends on this. As one example, the C-sharp that begins your last phrase is followed by a clarinet entrance one sixteenth note later. You absolutely cannot be late with your entrance there, or else the lines will not combine the way they're supposed to. (The last time I played this with an orchestra, the principal clarinetist told me that that spot made him very nervous!)

I would also advise looking at the full score so that you can see how these parts relate to each other. (And once you get to the rehearsals, make sure you listen carefully to those other parts.)

That said, I'm sure it'll be great. You have a beautiful sound and play musically; the orchestra will be lucky to have you. (I'm sure you'll get lots of "I never knew a saxophone could sound like that!" reactions.)

[Rick]

Awsome. Thanks for the reply guys. I'll keep all that stuff in mind. In response to KSQ's suggestion, I always try to find the score along with as many recordings as I can from the library so I know exactly what you’re talking about. I think it's important to know what’s going on before and while one is playing. In this case, I need to feel the duplet pattern more.

Edit: By the way, I plan to take the clip off soon.

[bbubnash]

Hi, I have a recital coming up soon and I was wondering if I could get some thoughts/constructive criticism on (most of) a run of the Albright Sonata from a rehearsal I had. (Note: The very beginning of mvt 3 isn't recorded yet, the recitative isn't recorded yet, and the 4th movement is in two pieces because we didn't quite make it through in one try, and the very end also hasn't been recorded yet, but other than that it's completely there ). It was our first rehearsal, so neither of us are getting quite all the notes yet, but I really like the idea of this thread and wanted to try and bring it back to life and maybe get some comments in the process.

Thanks in advance!
Brian

Movement 1
Movement 2
Movement 3
Movement 4 part 1
Movement 4 part 2

[Angel]

As it turns out, there is now a sound sample of my playing on composer Todd Goodman's website. It's a bit rough, as I only had a month to learn the concerto, and the orchestra seemed a little underrehearsed. We got away with it though, and in front of almost the entire Pittsburgh new music scene. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.wrongnotemedia.com/Goodman-Orchestral.html

Angel

[Merlin]

I only got a hear a bit - any chance you can get me a copy of it on CD?

The whole score is available for perusal on the site too...I was thinking, "hey, this doesn't look to bad..." at least up to about bar 41, anyways.

Thanks Angel!

[Clarinophonist]

Hey, I guess this would be my first recording for SOTW, hope you enjoy it.

Playing Millhaud's, La Creation Du Monde. I had only a few reherasals to get this done with the orchestra, thus a bit underpracticed but still awesome. As playing in youth orchestras usually corresponds to boring music most of the time for me.

Please leave any constructive criticism, im always ready to improve my playing. Some obvious problems(squeeks, etc) have been sorted.

Click here for the recording.

Clari

[SephirothTNH]

Here are some recordings of me. I’m playing the Rachmaninoff Vocalise and the other is the Bozza Aria. I believe these are from about two years ago but feel free to give criticism. Unfortunately our school changed the way they did stuff after that and I can’t find any of my more recent recordings.

Here is the Vocalise.
And here is the Aria.

Oh wanted to add that I didn't really like the way the soprano sax sounded untill I heard you Merlin.

[classysax]

Hey Saxophonists,

I uploaded two movements from Bolcom's Concert Suite from a live performance a few weeks ago. Check it out if you'd like...

http://www.myspace.com/kimreece

[Wawaha]

Hi, here you can hear some parts of the suite of Alois Haba, or Divertimento from Yuyama or Ibert, you have to look under the link "Musikbeispiele"
www.wardyhamburg.de.vu

Greetings,

Wardy

[VaudvilleSax]

I finally gave in... I'll post something, from the vaudville-ish era no less. Have to keep in the style of my name and all. haha.

This is something I played 2 years ago at a recital. Let the critiquing and ripping apart begin! This is a clip made of two smaller clips of the performance to keep the file size down. I faded it in and out between the two.

me playing Rudy Wiedoeft's "Valse Marylin"

p.s. When I converted the file to mp3 it made it a bit edgy and "metalic" sounding and added a slight buzz... but you know how mp3's are.

[Rick]

Hi, here you can hear some parts of the suite of Alois Haba, or Divertimento from Yuyama or Ibert, you have to look under the link "Musikbeispiele"
www.wardyhamburg.de.vu

Greetings,

Wardy

Aww, the Ibert cut off right when it started to go into the altisimo .

Sounds good though.