Andante Maestoso -- a graduation exam

Andante Maestoso in the Ballet Nutcracker is the last duet by Clara and Prince just before their parting.

It will be the last piece of Tchaikovsky=Pletnev of my playing. This can be regarded as a graduation exam of my comeback because it requires agility of some kind, delicate pedaling, dynamic range and above all, concentration of 6 minutes.

For this piece I used Steinway-B. It did not sing as I intended and I felt miserable about it. The balance in the first part is bad. Nevertheless the piano helped me in another way afterward and sounded peculiar with half soft pedal and ff in the climax. Overall, I find this recording is satisfactory.

When I was a student, I studied down to Schumann and skipped to Debussy, Ravel (and Dukas). So grand style like this piece (by manner of Liszt, perhaps) was new to me and left me a strong impact. Through these four pieces from Nutcracker I fell in love with Tchaikovsky's music (thanks to Pletnev's pianism), but it is time to go. I hope I will soon come back with a bit of experience of the composers in between.