Faure - Barcarolle Op.26 No.1 in A minor (3rd rendition)

Just about to go on holiday this evening… thought I'd spent a free afternoon to get this recording done. This is the 3rd time I recorded this adorable little piece called the "boat song" by Faure. First time was 9yrs ago, second was 4yrs……how time flies.

Previous renditions all had a similar issue: I rushed way too much. This is a piece that should sound more on the relaxed and carefree side, yet I played like I was escaping from the edge of a waterfall while recording… Today, with more wisdom (i.e. baldness), I am finally able to slow down to what I feel is a satisfactory pace. Though, I also get the feeling conquering three Chopin Ballade really helped with my control over tempo for other pieces too. All in all, still not perfect, but as I've said during my Chopin Ballade journey, all projects need an endpoint, and I think this is good enough for me to move on.

I fell in love with this relatively unknown Faure piece because:

1) The beautiful melodic middle section of 01:34~03:00 really paints the picture (for me) of a relaxing afternoon learning how to row a Venetian gondola. Notice how I deliberately use very little pedaling at 01:40 passages to represent someone still trying to learn the arts of boat rowing. At 02:04 this beginner finally gets it (I start pedaling more to create legato feeling) and starts enjoying the atmosphere of country riverside views.

2) It sounds deceptively straightforward to play, but actually is anything but. The problem is it's in the absolutely EVIL key of A minor / C major. Seriously, having too little black keys is detrimental to one's finger-health. Luckily, I have the fingerings I figured out from 9 yrs ago so it ain't too bad this time round. I also found a few notes that I learned wrong from previous tries - corrected them this time while I'm at it.

Conclusion: always wanted to re-do this piece, and my current status of "in between major projects" presented a great opportunity. Hope y'all like it - and who knows, I might do another one of these smaller pieces before I commit to the next "big one" - stay tuned!

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今天下午，利用踏上休假旅途之前的一點空閒，把這首佛瑞的「船歌」做了第三次錄音。第一次是9年前…第二次是4年前… (嘛呀，歲月真是殺豬刀啊)

之前的兩個版本都有類似的問題：技巧掌握不夠，慢不下來，本來應該是要聽起來悠哉悠哉的划船意境，被我彈的像是逆流急划，深怕要跌落瀑布似的… 這次，有了年紀的洗禮，總算整體慢到了一個我覺得能接受的程度了，終於有了一點「不急不徐」的境界了。我也懷疑學成了蕭邦的敘事曲是不是也幫助我更好的掌握其他曲子的急緩度了。但還是那句話…不完美，但差不多可以了，該 move on 了。

我會練上這首偏冷門的佛瑞作品主要是因為：

1) 中間的愉快弦律我特別喜歡 (01:34~03:00)，我腦海的畫面是：開開心心剛學划船，新手上路一開始跌跌撞撞 (01:40, 有沒有發現我用較少的踏板，故意把弦律談的沒那麼的絲滑)，但慢慢的熟悉後，就很順的 (02:04 開始連著踏板了) 滑到一處景色悠然的河畔，小橋流水，享受著愉悅的心情然後開始哼起了悠閒的小曲。

2) 看似簡單，其實彈起來挑戰性不少。說穿了，其實就是天(邪)殺(惡)的A小調/C大調…對鋼琴初學者很友好，但彈更有深度的曲子來說時，沒有黑鍵真的是非.常.煩！很容易彈錯…手指關節在練習的時候很不舒服！好在9年前我就把這些指法定下來了，所以這次重新練沒有花費太多精力，但有發現幾處之前學錯了的音符，這次努力改正過來了…順道分享給觀眾吧！

結語：在進行下一個大project之前，舊曲新錄，希望大家喜歡～ 近期說不定還會選一兩首小曲子簡單錄製簡單發表 :)