Franz Liszt: Au lac de Wallenstadt - Piano Tutorial // How to Create An Even Sounding Accompaniment

Hi everyone, this is Danae, and today's video is going to be a tutorial on Franz Liszt's Polak de Wallenstadt. It is a piece from his cycle Année de Pelerinage, and a week ago I posted a music video where I'm playing it, and some of you said, why don't you make a tutorial on it? So I thought that this was a great idea. If you're interested, I will link the video down below where I'm playing the music video. It is on my label because this is one of the singles that just came out from my upcoming album. The entire album is coming out on the 22nd of April, so stay tuned for that. And without further ado, let's get into the video. So Polak de Wallenstadt is one of those pieces that starts right in the middle of the atmosphere. And very often I find it hard to get into the character of a piece like that, because you don't have an introduction that prepares you for it. It is a little bit of a difficult beginning. So I always imagine when I go on stage and start playing it, that I've already been playing it for the last two, three minutes. And I think that helps. So I'm already completing the character. I feel like I'm listening to the sound world that this piece is in. And then within that atmosphere, I start playing it. I like to focus on the accompaniment figure a little bit. What I find important here is that all the notes sound extremely pianissimo and the same. That there is not one note that is more accentuated than the other one. This takes some practice because there are some uncomfortable switches where the thumb goes under the other fingers and where you suddenly have to turn your hand into an entirely different position. And all this needs to happen pretty seamlessly so that you can't hear it while you're playing it. So what I do is I practice it very slowly for this to work. And also when I'm practicing it slowly, I make sure to have every note sound as even as possible. I also make sure that my elbow is very much relaxed so that I don't have to move it in big fashion like that. It kind of just stays right here and my fingers are doing all the work. Now on top of that accompaniment, we get the right hand, which is playing an extremely beautiful melody. And what I find important with the right hand is to create the right sound. And the sound that I'm looking for has a certain brilliancy to it. It is kind of brilliant, it's shiny, but at the same time it's not that harsh. So I try to activate the fingers in a motion that is like that. So basically as if I was strumming a string, only I do that on the key because I find that this motion gives me the sound that I'm looking for. Both hands together. What I also focus on is a certain feeling of calmness. This piece describes the scene at a lake that is so pristine and as if it were in a postcard. And I feel like you should feel at peace when you listen to the piece, as if you were at the lake, just admiring the beautiful nature and the water and truly feeling at peace. So when I play it, I try to make it sound as calm as possible and not hectic, not anxious at all. how I phrased the same melody when it was just one finger. Because when you play it with one finger, it feels so much more natural and it's so much easier and you phrase it exactly how you want it musically. So when the octaves come in, I try to imitate that exactly the same way I played it before. So even though it's harder and more challenging with the octaves, try to make it sound like the same phrase that you would play with one single finger. An interesting point in the piece is the passage that comes next. There are four bars that sound exactly the same, but they are written in a different way. And I will show you the score. So as you can see in the first system up here, we have four bars. And then below in the second system, they are repeated. But the third and fourth bar are written in a different key. You can see in the first system, it's an F flat. And then in the second system, it's an E. In the first system, the left hand, then the second note is an E flat. Whereas in the second system, it's an E sharp. So as you can tell, it sounds exactly the same, but it's written in a different way. And I feel like you should be able to hear that it is written in a different way. Because basically, the first one is a very sad sound, maybe a bit of a disappointment because it's in minor. So it's kind of, it goes into your heart. It's a feeling that goes inside and it's sad and kind of dark. The second sound then is again a minor, but it is a C sharp minor, which then leads into the next dominant, which is the B major with a seventh that then goes into the E major, which is very hopeful. So I tried to play that second system in a more hopeful way compared to the first. After this long crescendo, I feel like the passage where the right hand repeats the E flat all the time and the left hand changes the harmony. The most important note is the base of the left hand because that is what changes. That is what shows us which color we're in right now. So I really tried to bring that note out. Now going into the recap, we have the same theme that we had before. However, this time with syncopation and with more notes, the right hand is doing a bit more and is a little more free. I find it important that there is still the same feeling of calmness, even though more stuff is happening and there are more notes and also the rhythm is not even anymore. Because of the syncopations, the character is the same. And I think this is the charm of the recap. There is more happening, but the pianist is not really influenced by that, not really phased by that. You're still in the same calm manner that you were in the beginning. Whenever the right hand has these large jumps, I would recommend to also think of them as bells. Very brilliant notes and the accents have this little impulse that make them sound like a bell and the other note is a little bit softer. Towards the end of the piece, we have the right hand doing something that sounds like a free improvisation. And I believe that probably Liszt did improvise this and then simply write down a version of it. So I think this really needs to sound very spontaneous, very free, as if the notes were just coming to you in that moment. If you would like to watch the music video and listen to my single, then click on the link in the description box. It will take you to the video, which is on the YouTube channel of my CD label, Berlin Classics. And let me know what you think. I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and my thoughts on Franz Liszt's Olag de Wallenstadt. Let me know if you have played this piece. And if yes, if you agree with my interpretation or if you have any different ideas that you would like to share. And I will see you again in the next video next week. Bye!