Piano Recital 2019 | Stephan Williams

Here's a piano recital I gave a few years back, which only today did I make the time to edit. It's replete with mistakes, small and large, and filled with memory slips, but I'm uploading it nonetheless, if for no other reason than to give me the opportunity to look back at my piano playing then and see how it's changed.

Believe it or not, I was not totally dissatisfied with how it turned out (maybe I have low standards?? 🤷‍♂️😒). It was my first (and, so far, last) full recital, and only the fourth time I had performed on the piano publicly. I have always been a terribly inaccurate player (due to my unfocused and undisciplined practice - a problem I still have today, though to a lesser extent), and so the frequent mistakes really came as no surprise - they were expected. The only significant disappointments I had were in the large memory slips that I had during the Andante of the Italian Concerto and near the beginning of the Ballade. Besides those, I felt that I more or less succeeded in getting my interpretations of the music across, for whatever they're worth. Any moments of musical maturity that may stand out in this performance, I attribute to my wonderful piano teacher. All the mistakes and blunders are on me, and my lack of dedication.

Since the recital was not videotaped, I had a choice between the singular picture I have of myself at a piano (which is also my channel picture), or a beautiful painting, so naturally I chose the latter. Hopefully the offence to your ears will be atoned for by the great artwork.

Timestamps
PROGRAM
Piano Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op. 49, No. 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
0:00 Allegro ma non troppo
5:05 Tempo di Menuetto

Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
8:42 Allegro
12:24 Andante
17:47 Presto

INTERMISSION
21:42 Prelude in C Major, Op. 12, No. 7 by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953).

24:36 Romance in D-flat Major, Op. 24, No. 9 by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957).

29:05 Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849).

39:03 (Encore) Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach, transcribed for piano by Myra Hess (1890-1965).

Painting: Verona, Italy by Rubens Santoro (1900).