I've tried to make it "flow" naturally, if you can't tell it's an odd time signature then I'll consider it mission accomplished :D Thank you very much!

I'm always glad when people connect with my music, it's the only thing I hope for when publishing. The fact it inspires you in the same way as these great classical composers is very pleasant to read! They are way above my level though. I always aim for musicality before complexity, these composers are masters at high levels of complexity while keeping awesome musicality. It's very flattering though being compared to them! :) I'm never sure of the reception of my music, when people connect with it, it gives a purpose, it encourages me to continue to release my creations.

A wide dynamic range is important for expressive playing! I was not using it that much before the past couple months. I think I recently left a plateau that I was on for a couple years. It's another level of difficulty, requires more control, but it adds so many possibilities to add meaning, even to the simplest ideas, this and rubato are my favorite expressive tools. I'm glad you remarked these contrasts. It will probably often be present in what I publish.

The mix was more blurry, muddy before. The actual version is a a lot better, more clear, and I'm still working on it! I will update to the latest version at some point, it still lacks in some minor aspects. In order to create a more professional sound, you need to dive into understanding lots of devices that can be used in the DAW ; Equalizers, compressors, limiters, maximizers, side chains, etc, etc, etc. It's a whole world out of the composition side of things. But it's truly worth it to give a go at understanding it as much as possible, it is what can make your sound as interesting as it can be. I couldn't get the actual piano sound without it. It's way harder than going through a library of VSTs and presets, but it allows you to craft exactly the sound you want.

13/8 was really hard to keep up with! The first melody, it sounds simple but I had to play it for hours before my brain starts to register the proper time signature in order to stop going back playing even timing after only a couple bars. Then the other 2 parts are based on this flow, it keeps the whole thing together despite the wild change of tone. It sounds almost like 4/4 but each 4th beat would be slowed down a bit. It gives a rubato impression even when there is none.

It's really nice that this little drag in the end of each bar gave you this impression!
It was in my thoughts as well it's a little bit like you go into the storm... Then must pass through it! It gives an impression of hesitation in the first part before getting into the real struggle. I "finished" this piece only a couple hours before deadline so there's the part where the sun comes back, that I didn't have time to compose but had a couple ideas... It's maybe something I will do in the future.

Thank you very much for the review and the kind words!

True that I got pretty active in DM with you and a couple NG judges too to get my sound right after the 3/10 shock. I was quite stunned by the production result, but in the end if it can be used to make sure I'm not releasing bad audio quality in the future, it's a big win!

Otherwise it's still a very positive surprise regarding everything else, so all in all I'm happy with the results, and feedbacks. It's important to take that as well into account.
I'm glad you liked this piece, that it connects with you! The impressive score you gave was a big weight in the balance to offset the bad feelings of reading the disastrous production scores. At least it made it a bit less of a task to you to listen to my endless versions if you like the composition. I'm now at the 27th :) but it's only getting better! Now with a clearer sound the fine tuning is way more efficient. I'll update again soon.

Thank you very much for the chat, encouragements, and suggestions!

Thanks for the kind words about the composition side of it! It's what keeps my morale afloat these days.

For the time signature, I can swear it's 100% 13/8, it's carefully designed and thought throughout to be in this time signature until the last note. I've put a couple things in the forum for what may not sound like 13/8, I'll put it here (There was a typo in the forum post, it's at 47s and not 37s for the unusual syncopation) :

"I play with tempo a bit and add rubato at some places, metronomes won't fit
First there is an anacrusis at the very beginning of 5 1/8th notes before getting into 13/8
30s there are 3 consecutive quarter notes with fermata, it stays 13/8 though.
47s a little syncopation, out of character for the usual rhythm, and a ritardando.
57s to 1:04s it's a total of 13 groups of 3 notes, fitting in 3 separate 13/8 measures that sound like it's not, but trust me, it is ;)
1:30 ritardando"

But sure if my sound quality is such that it's not even possible to distinguish the time signature, sorry for you ears. I understand the 13/8 score!

For the mix, I totally get it! I got feedback from the NGADM and it was pretty deceiving production side due to same reasons you mention here. I did upgrade sound quality a lot yesterday though. I didn't update yet but now that judgement for this contest is passed I may update it to the latest post processing version. The composition will stay the exact same, but with less med frequencies build up. Piano is truly not easy to mix in order to keep a rich sound and tame build up of different frequencies when applying louder dynamic, while avoiding any phasing and resonance issues, but not too much because resonance is part of what makes piano sound alive. I'll get better!

Thanks for the review!

Production quality has been the big weakness dragging me behind it seems, so I'm all for correcting it. I didn't feel like playing music today, but I reworked my post processing. I may send you a newer version, and if you have the time and feel like it, I may ask you for an opinion on the new mix. 3/10 was hard on the moral I admit. It was really a huge negative surprise, I didn't expect to be considered the worst of all, and by a big margin, in any category.

I get what you say though about mid frequencies blurring the mix. I use 4 mics, each their own EQ and compression, and add mix and master bus effects to glue it together. Keeping a clean sound over a wide range of dynamic with an instrument that creates a wide range of frequencies like a piano is way less easy than most people think. Nothing can be cut too much (Except very low freq) or it deteriorates the natural quality, the richness of the sound. Keep a bit too much of one freq on one of the mics and you lose definition in certain ranges as soon as louder dynamic comes.

Despite the harshness of this production score. I'm all for making it better! Better sooner than later. If my sound quality is disgusting I don't want to publish too many pieces before it's better. I'll reupload new versions of all the pieces I already uploaded at some point. I prefer 3/10 and high scores in other categories than high prod but low everything else! That's my consolation prize :)

I'm glad you find those qualities in my music despite attributing it a poor production quality.
I'll make it better! Thank you very much for the thorough review.