Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow) - Fritz Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninoff)

It’s April. And you know what that means…

Love’s Sorrow is an incredibly beautiful piece, and the arrangement that Rachmaninoff made for the piano only adds more complexity and nuance to it.

Given that, it’s surprising to me that I’d never heard of this piece before until I watched Your Lie in April. But it was quite the introduction to the piece indeed.

For me, this performance of Kousei’s was probably the one that I resonated with the most on a personal level. Not only did it remind me of the feeling of playing on stage again, but it also reminded me of all the ways that my teacher taught me how to shape and mold my tone, everything from the way I pedal to the way I enunciate my notes with my arm.

This was undoubtedly a large part in my deciding to return to the instrument with the passion that I do now.

Of course, that puts a lot of pressure on this performance. It’s a finicky piece; the chromaticism feels unfamiliar to me, the tone a bit foreign, and to top it all off, I had never played Rachmaninoff before so I was in for a ride with all the large intervals.

And there are simply so many different interpretations out there of this piece, all of which sound beautiful and have their own merit. Personally, I found Tiffany Poon’s especially compelling, which is why my performance draws the most ideas from hers (and why I did a whole review on her playing which you can find here:    • Classical Pianist Analyzes TIFFANY PO...  ).

But add all this up and the result was that I found myself incredibly confused by this piece. It wasn’t that the notes or technicality was super difficult, but something always just didn’t sit right with the way I played it or the way I heard it. And because I always felt like I was reaching for something out of sight, then the rest of the technicality and memory would crumble as well.

This recording was done mid July in 2021 on the same day that I recorded the Minute Waltz (   • Minute Waltz - "Valse de Petit Chien"...  ) and Dual Existence (   • Dual Existence - A Certain Scientific...  ), and if you read those descriptions, you’ll know that this was a recording session where I was burnt out from editing and making content, and I only wanted to play and record for my own enjoyment. This was actually my second attempt at recording this piece, the first being in May when I did the Wrong Note Etude (   • Wrong Note Etude - Etude Op. 25 No. 5...  ), and if you read that description then you’ll know that I kinda hurt my wrist a little getting that take, which then tanked my recording of this one.

Even so, it still sounded very incomplete. More enjoyable, yes, but incomplete and confused nonetheless.

And that’s ok. I’m happy to have this piece live with me for a while, and I’m excited to see what it’ll turn into in the future. Having worked on more music since then, I already have many more ideas on phrasing and execution, and I’m excited to one day return to this piece.

It’s always nerve-wracking though to play a piece that I’ve reviewed in the past. It feels like I’ll inherently be judged to see if I match the performances that I analyze. But I play what I like and record when I like, so those fears are relatively short-lived.

Sometimes.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my work in progress, and I hope that you look forward to the next time I’ll be playing it on my channel!

Until next time,

Watt

Outroless version:    • Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow) - Fritz Kr...  

Watch me relearn this on stream!
   • Redo SPEEDRUN - Love's Sorrow - Kreis...  

Watashi no Uso:    • Watashi no Uso (My Lie) - Your Lie in...  

Join my Discord!
  / discord  

👉Interested in lessons? Contact me at: [email protected]

▶️ Listen to me on Spotify and Apple Music!
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Yjq5...
  / wattkeys  

My Keyboard (Yamaha p-125) (affiliate link):
https://amzn.to/3fG6v9G

My recording setup:
https://kit.co/WattKeys/grand-piano-r...

My keyboard setup:
https://kit.co/WattKeys/digital-piano...

Support me!
  / wattkeys  

Follow me on Instagram!
  / wattkeysofficial  

Catch my livestreams on Saturdays!