Medtner: Sonata Night Wind, Part 1 (Eric Xi Xin Liang)

Recorded on February 28th, 2023. Learned and refined in approximately 8.5 hours. I actually attempted recording this about 5 times in succession and this was the last attempt which I didn't take that seriously, but ended up being the run I decided to post hahaha. But that also means I didn't record video to go with it, unfortunately. (Probably I told myself to relax the last run.) How did I manage to get this ready in such a short time? 1. I've heard this piece numerous times (mostly 3 years ago) with several interpretations, so it gives a boost to my sight-reading abilities. Not only am I capable of sight-reading, I'm also capable of transferring exactly what I hear in my head directly to my fingertips with little to no practise, yet what I hear in my head differs from any other interpretation I've heard. This transference ability was actually so effective during practise that I was simply keeping a pulse through sections and it was as if my hands operated independently. There was no conscious effort to align rhythms between hands; the two hands simply each aligned themselves to the pulse. This is especially true for the fast 16th-note passages. 2. Adept sight-reading skill, mostly attributed to the techniques in this video:    • b78b871e-3aba-40c2-a488-9c2f450f28e2  . In fact, many sections in this, I think I've only played them no more than 10 times in total. 3. Lots of broken chords, common scales, and intuitive fingerings. This made it so that many of the sections I didn't even need to practise much at all. 4. Lots of experience knowing what does and doesn't work in terms of flow. Medtner's pieces are notorious for being exceptionally challenging to "make sense" and "keep together", but after working through many of Sorabji's works which are like 10x more difficult in the same regard, it's practically effortless. 5. Passion and interest for the piece. Otherwise, my playing would be relatively mediocre and I'd probably not finish it. (Oh ya, the bit at 17:42 is cut off because I didn't intend on having that in this recording, but I sight-read through it anyway.) [0:00] Introduction [2:28] Exposition [8:24] Development [11:20] Recapitulation [15:38] Coda + Transition All movements from Opus Clavicembalisticum I've recorded:    • Kaikhosru Sorabji: Opus Clavicembalisticum   "VIIa. Preludio" from Opus Archimagicum:    • Sorabji: "VIIa. Preludio" from Piano Sonat...   "VIIc. Cadenza" from Opus Archimagicum:    • Sorabji: "VIIc. Cadenza" from Piano Sonata...   All works by Sorabji I've recorded:    • Sorabji Piano Recordings (Eric Xi Xin Liang)   At time of recording, Eric is a full-time software engineer working in Big Tech, graduated from the University of Waterloo, Computer Science major. @musicforever60_official on IG:   / musicforever60_official