Uploaded April 2009 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
12 etudes d'execution transcendante, op 11. no 1 (Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, 1859-1924): Berceuse, Wiegenlied, Lullaby
Despite some unfortunate mistakes and my score falling from the piano somewhere in the middle of the piece, I'm presenting my version of a rarely heard "Etude d'execution transcendante" by Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, a student of Mili Balakirev, who just like his teacher was into collecting Russian folk tunes.
This piece is without doubt the most difficult piece I have tried to learn until now. The third page in particular (for me) is a mountain the size of the Mount Everest ;-)
Before you complain: yes the cadenzas are played an order of magnitude too slow. The truth is that I'm likely to mess them up at higher speeds. I'm not sure how Louis Kentner could ever achieve the dazzling speed he plays them at. Other recordings I'm aware of are Roberto Cominati and Konstantin Scherbakov. Good pianists make this piece sound easy - which is what caused me to think that perhaps I could play it too. Little did I know ... ;-)
Some technical data:
The piano is a yamaha gt2 digital grand piano. The sound was recorded onto a boss br 600 multitrack recorder. No effects or postprocessing was applied to the recorded sound. The video was made using an old and bad logitech quickcam webcam. Video and sound were mixed together using kdenlive 0.7.3 on debian linux.
12 etudes d'execution transcendante, op 11. no 1 (Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, 1859-1924): Berceuse, Wiegenlied, Lullaby
Despite some unfortunate mistakes and my score falling from the piano somewhere in the middle of the piece, I'm presenting my version of a rarely heard "Etude d'execution transcendante" by Sergei Mikhailovich Liapunov, a student of Mili Balakirev, who just like his teacher was into collecting Russian folk tunes.
This piece is without doubt the most difficult piece I have tried to learn until now. The third page in particular (for me) is a mountain the size of the Mount Everest ;-)
Before you complain: yes the cadenzas are played an order of magnitude too slow. The truth is that I'm likely to mess them up at higher speeds. I'm not sure how Louis Kentner could ever achieve the dazzling speed he plays them at. Other recordings I'm aware of are Roberto Cominati and Konstantin Scherbakov. Good pianists make this piece sound easy - which is what caused me to think that perhaps I could play it too. Little did I know ... ;-)
Some technical data:
The piano is a yamaha gt2 digital grand piano. The sound was recorded onto a boss br 600 multitrack recorder. No effects or postprocessing was applied to the recorded sound. The video was made using an old and bad logitech quickcam webcam. Video and sound were mixed together using kdenlive 0.7.3 on debian linux.
![[Experimental] The meaning of life (Roland Integra-7)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ylF8iCwIYRg/mqdefault.jpg "[Experimental] The meaning of life (Roland Integra-7)
Another close reading - this time of an animated conversation between two persons (Alan and Karl). In just 3 minutes time they discuss the meaning of life. Ive transcribed their conversation for piano and saxophone and background noises for percussion. This video might get taken down at some point in the future since I did ask their permission to reuse their video, but didnt get any reply. You can visit their youtube channel and find the original video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3demFMgK6I .")
