Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninoff) - Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow) - Two Piano Journey - Christopher Kuo

Yes, #shigatsuwakiminouso (Your Lie in April) brought me here too...
Back in 2015, as I was just starting to practice piano seriously for the first time in my life, my friend told me to which this series. I had never heard this piece before and was immediately enraptured. I tried so hard to start learning the piece but my hands wouldn't cooperate after a lifetime of musical laziness. As I started touring with my mom since then, I kept getting buried under mountains of two piano music and this kept falling the back burner.
Almost 9 years later, I finally had the time to sit down and work on this piece (and even take it out as part of our tour repertoire in Spring 2024)!. I'm very grateful to my mom for all the patient piano lessons and for working through this with me, and to Andrew Raiher for sound engineering / Frank Alvarez for video editing as always!
P.S. I've finally convinced my mom to come out of the woodwork and perform some solos with me this Fall! So if we're lucky, you may see some of her solo recordings come out here too.
Next we will be working through our recordings of our last concert in Chicago!
Hope you enjoy
Chris
Two Piano Journey
twopianojourney.com
#rachmaninoff
#piano
#classicalmusic

[@MichaelConwayBaker]

Absolutely wonderful!! Fritz would have been more than pleased! Bravo!

[@twopianojourney]

Thank you for the kind words!!

[@tan231]

You just casually have a Steinway in your house Amazing performance

[@twopianojourney]

@@tan231 hahaha my mom is a professional so it makes sense!!! This is my family home 😊 thanks for listening!

[@AmIReallyKosei]

I fell in love with this piece the same way as you did. I watched a ton of recordings of this piece and I can say sincerely that you played this piece better than anyone else I ever listened to. It's to the point that it brought back a lot of memories and I can't thank you enough for this. I wish you the best in your piano journey. Keep sharing what you do, you're amazing !

[@twopianojourney]

I love the name of your channel! That’s really sweet thank you for leaving a note! There are many wonderful recordings I’ve found on KZbin, and I was really inspired by some like the Horowitz interpretation. This piece was so rough for me to be honest - keep at it!

[@Chromaticly]

Same exact way I started playing! Now two years later I learned moonlight sonata because it was what kousei played in the beginning and im halfway through ballade in gm

[@twopianojourney]

Keep it up! Hahaha it would be amazing to do the enter repertoire from the show someday! 🎉

[@Topaze69-f1b]

Très joli à écouter, c'est une belle interprétation ! Et surtout un très joli son

[@twopianojourney]

Merci beaucoup!

[@ZyrusRivero-z7h]

This has to be the cleanest interpretation I heard. bravo!!

[@twopianojourney]

@@ZyrusRivero-z7h that is so kind thank you! 🙏 there are really wonderful recordings out there!

[@raulfernandezolivera9120]

The real Arima Kosei🤧 Great performance!!

[@twopianojourney]

@@raulfernandezolivera9120 hahahah thank you 😂

[@emaikei6498]

amazing interpretation

[@twopianojourney]

@@emaikei6498 thanks for taking a listen!

[@sukru2463]

so good i glad you my friend I love your expression

[@twopianojourney]

@@sukru2463 thank you for listening!

[@gabi.coroian]

This is absolutely amazing work! You played it so beautifully! Thank you for sharing!!!❤👏

[@twopianojourney]

Thank you so much! I appreciate your support 🥹

[@slayer7739]

This is legit better than Rousseau or whatever, this deserves the millions of views man... I'm rooting for you! +1 subscriber :)

[@twopianojourney]

This is so sweet, thanks for the encouragement!

[@user-ub777]

Прекрасно. Сейчас изучаю это произведение. Конечно такой лёгкости в пассажах как у Горовица не добьюсь, но всё же😊...

[@twopianojourney]

🎉🎉🎉

[@Comc9]

Beautiful! You have really made this piece your own. Good job!

[@twopianojourney]

@@Comc9 thank you so much for listening!

[@_MSK_.]

KZbin algorithm took me here, and boy, was it the easiest sub ever 😂 incredible performance man!! Hope you keep playing and recording the journey 💪💪

[@twopianojourney]

That’s so kind thank you 😊

[@Morascko91]

Beautiful

[@twopianojourney]

@@Morascko91 thank you!!

[@Rensz]

Nice work, the melody is beautiful and lyrical. Btw I’m the first to comment here 🫡

[@twopianojourney]

Hahahah thanks rens 🫡

[@kwanada898]

bro sounds majestic

[@twopianojourney]

Thank you 🙏

[@faqenz3902]

Hey man, I love this recording. The warm sound of course your playing is amazing! I was wondering if you would be kind enough to make a short video explaining how you setup yours mikes / edit your audio and video. I would greatly appreciate it. Best of luck and thank you once again!

[@twopianojourney]

Hi! Will certainly try - the microphones are AKGs and were positioned to try and balance treble and base. They connect to a grace pre amp and then we use pro tools to take in the data. But then for mixing we have an amazing sound engineer that helps take out the deficiencies from this boxy room setup to make the tone more warm and rounded. And then for video we just have a whole lot of cameras rolling. If you get it all in one cut, it’s extremely easy for a video editor to cut and paste everything because their tech is super automated. I wish I had the time to do it all myself but I will try to share more when I can!

[@fieldmartan4426]

I love your interpretation, It sounds like you spent quite a bit of time on 1:45 to 2:20, I always have struggled with the staccato right hand there even after this many years!

[@twopianojourney]

I can still hear the metronome ticking 😢

[@bubbly_piano]

so very nice man

[@twopianojourney]

Thanks for listening!

[@luciusliu5733]

great performance!

[@twopianojourney]

Thank you!!! Are you the one who performed with us back in April?

[@luciusliu5733]

@@twopianojourney yes! ive been following your youtube channel and i particularly liked this video bc i never knew rach arranged this for piano

[@twopianojourney]

@@luciusliu5733there’s also a loves joy that you often hear at weddings! I actually played this at the show in April. So good to hear from you! Hope you’re still practicing hard 😊

[@강민진-e3z]

It sound very good & appreciate your play. what is your tip of recording of sound?

[@twopianojourney]

Thank you! You have to find a good microphone! Two will do per piano. We use AKG microphones that we connect to a grace preamp!

[@Pianissemo]

amazing performance, I dont want to be too negative here but I just want to point out something 3:51 is too stacatto thats not how it shoudl sound i dont know if you purposefully did it that way but I think it would sound better if you kept that part sustained

[@twopianojourney]

Thanks for taking a listen! I took inspiration from the (kind of crazy) Horowitz interpretation but if I do a careful read of the score I would agree probably some pedal flipping would make sense there. Let’s see if I remember the next time I play a concert 😂

[@Pianissemo]

@@twopianojourney im actually learning this piece though lol im like barely before that part with the 4/4 arpeggios

[@Pianissemo]

@@twopianojourney well actually a little bit before the cantabile part but still around there tho

[@Pianissemo]

@@twopianojourney sorry for all the yapping, but what would you say is the hardest part of the piece?

[@twopianojourney]

@@Pianissemoit is all challenging honestly. When I first started out the jumps on the right hand on the recap were tough. Take your time and use a metronome a million times over as you work through things 🎉

[@sh_aspking]

learning the A Major section rn, how do you play the arpeggios in the left hand with much relaxation and fluency? is there specific fingering for them? also great performance, you're underrated af

[@twopianojourney]

This is really kind! Thank you for the encouragement! I don't do this professionally at all so this means a lot! My suggestion is that there are a total of 9 notes in the arpeggio on the left hand. Left hand: 5 2 1 4 3 2 1 Right hand takes over with 1 2 and plays incoming melody with 4 (5 2) I hope this works for you but do whatever fits your hands well! Good luck!

[@sh_aspking]

@@twopianojourney thank you so much! this cld finally help me advance to the first section but with the underlying quaver voice

[@fanach]

Wooow, how long is ur steinway and how much did it cost!

[@twopianojourney]

We have two Steinway B’s in the studio! One is my mom and one is mine but we share 😂 and they have very different personalities 😊

[@fanach]

@@twopianojourney woow, I envy you! it must be a heaven

[@cadsisgoat]

how long have you been playing piano

[@twopianojourney]

Since I was 5! But I started practicing seriously when I was 23 after stopping when I went to college!

[@cadsisgoat]

@@twopianojourney wow thats amazing this my favourite piece now i am 15 and i started playing piano 1 month ago i hope i can play it like you

[@twopianojourney]

@@cadsisgoat I’m sure you will! Share it when you’re ready! Never underestimate the value of metronome training all of the sections until they’re super secure so you can take whatever rubato you want to comfortably! I look forward to it 😊