Guitar & cello duet: Chopin Prelude no. 4 op 28, 1839

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Guitar & cello duet: Chopin Prelude no. 4 op 28, 1839
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#1

Hey friends,

As mentioned in the other bash thread I started yesterday, I’m collaborating with a cellist colleague to do a couple of numbers to give to my boss on the occasion of his 70th birthday next week. This is the second of the two we’re doing, a classical piece for cello that is usually accompanied by piano, but for which there is sheet music for a guitar accompaniment.

This is the first time I have sat down with classical sheet music and come up with an original arrangement in over forty years. I recorded it in sections and mashed them together, no way I could play this all the way through without months of practice that I don’t have. This is my Pimentel custom classical guitar through my AT4040, and I used nearly identical EQ and compression settings on the cello here as Andrew recommended for the other tune.

Thanks for listening!

Final version:

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#2

This is a beautiful piece @Chordwainer and the two of you have done a wonderful job of arranging and playing it here, very enjoyable, your boss will certainly feel honored by this.

Not that it matters but AFAIK this was written originally for solo piano and is often played much slower but it certainly works well like you have it here.

I’m confused though, you say your Pimentel is a classical guitar but you used it to as a substitute for a Guild GF-30 in the other thread, am I missing something here?

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#3

Thanks Ingo, yes, I have two Pimentels, one is this classical and the other is the grand auditorium steel string I wrote about in the other thread. They made me two axes back in 2004-05.

#4

It absolutely was, but as I noted, there are some guitar transcriptions out there, and that’s what I worked from. Our first take on this was at 60 bpm and it was in fact too fast. This is at 54, and the sheet music actually stipulates 60, so I feel like we’re doing OK on the tempo. The piano-cello duets I’ve seen are not that much slower, so much as the artists get very rubato and legato as they play because they are together in person and can play off each other. Much harder to do remotely…

#5

Sounds great, Dave!

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#6

I thoroughly enjoyed this! It is one of the most refreshing things I’ve listened to in quite some time actually. I’m a huge fan of Chopin, this is just beautiful and the performance is great.
The mix isn’t without its flaws (the main one being a big resonance around 200Hz throughout) but that absolutely didn’t prevent me from loving what I heard. :+1:

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#7

Ah. I like it. I feel like you could have gotten away with the guitar being a little louder, but definitely not necessary.

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#8

I will take a close listen, I did not notice that… thanks!

I still can! :wink:

Thanks for the comments folks, will post an adjusted version this evening my time. Will also back off the reverb on the cello a bit, by request of the cellist.

#9

This has a really nice feel to it! I like how the guitar feels very intimate and the cello is really sweet sounding. Good listening to this kind of stuff here. Great job!

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#10

Thanks again everyone, looks like this one is now set, and the final version is in the OP. Much appreciated!

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#11

Beautiful Dave!

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#12

Yeah, that was really nice.