WEEK 1: Discovering Schubert Month
Dear Pianists,
Welcome welcome! It's always a highlight for me to hear your playing and get to celebrate in your achievements with you. This is the thread where we'll all be posting our biweekly updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying!
Twice a week between February 1st and February 22nd, I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Piece you are working on:
- One passage you are satisfied with:
- One passage you are not yet satisfied with:
- (Optional): a video of you performing any or all of the piece you've been practicing!
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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Hi Hilda , I am new to piano. I have been playing only for one year and I am taking lessons. Question is: is there a beginner piece from Schubert you would recommend?
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Luciano Salvatore Hi Luciano! Welcome! Here's a great website that has Schubert's piano pieces listed in an approximate order of difficulty. Keep in mind everything Schubert wrote is pretty challenging, especially musically. It sure is fun to work on it. https://www.pianolibrary.org/difficulty/schubert/
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Luciano Salvatore Hi Luciano!
Some of Schubert's dance music is wonderfully accessible. I recommend taking a look at the Waltzes D 146 or the Ecossaises D 299. How do these look to you?
Great to meet you!
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Hilda thank you so much for the input on those pieces.
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Hi there!
My name is Georgia Sears, and for this project I decided to play something that I've never played before. As I investigated which works I might do, I decided that with the limited amount of practice time I have I needed to be realistic!
So, I chose the Variation D 718 Waltz on a theme by Diabelli. I thought it was something lovely to learn as well as accessible to many of my students.
As I've listened to recordings and studied the score, my biggest challenge will be navigating some larger intervals - 10ths - which my hand is too small to play. I found a few artist recordings that have them rolled, so it is my practice plan to roll them as well!
Additionally, there are some lovely multiple tiered melodic moments - I need to work on bringing out not only the main melody beautifully, but also the interior lines.
I'll keep you posted!
Georgia
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Georgia M Sears Thank you for that selection. I will be learning this piece, unknown to me thus far, vicariously through your posts!
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Georgia M Sears Wonderful choice! Yes, I would roll the tenths myself! I also don't have hands that are large enough. The pedal is really useful too!!
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I am working on the last sonata, and here is one of my favorite passages of the second movement. I believe it to be the most beautiful movement of any sonata written by Schubert, and perhaps, by anyone, at all! My heart.... it hurts after listening to this.....
I will continue to work on the whole sonata as the most difficult aspect of this piece is not technical but, rather, the depth of emotional valences and nuances. The expression of these colors... Schubert gives us a well from which we can draw our water. Death awaits us all, and I wonder - what will be the last piece of music we hear? Wouldn't it be lovely to die listening to this movement?
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It's one of my favourite pieces of piano music too. And there is a deep sense of loss felt in the music, one's own or someone close to you.
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Brother Will Green Thank you for sharing both this beautifully played excerpt and some of the reflective mindset where the performance originated. Aren’t we incredibly privileged to be able to hear any piece of (familiar) music on command, in our heads, at any moment in our lives?
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Brother Will Green When I was a child I believed that this Sonata was the reason I was learning the piano. Sublime.
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Brother Will Green Absolutely, it is one of the most beautiful moments of piano music, not only Schubert. Thank you for sharing, Brother Will!
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Brother Will Green Really good choice of piece. Well-played. There must have been a very different relationship with death before medicine began to eliminate many of the diseases that were fatal. They must have lived with it all the time rather than the way that we can avoid considering it for decades.
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@Brother Will Green I was listening to Qingzhi on Youtube and the next piece was Liszt (arr. Schubert) - Ständchen (Serenade), S. 560, No. 7. This is the piece that I aspire to play before I die! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1TuNxxVZA
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Brother Will Green I can hear your feeling and sympathy for the music in your playing, and I find it touching... please continue to share... sorry I didn't get around to listening sooner, my zombie graphic design career has been clutching at me from the grave.
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Brother Will Green Well done with this beautiful movement! Looking forward to hear more!
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Brother Will Green Wow! I can't wait to hear you play this music during the challenge. I loved listening to you so much at the concert. It was wonderful.
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Brother Will Green I look forward to hearing more of this breathtaking sonata from you! Excellent choice for the challenge. One of my all time favorite pieces of music.
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(Per a fellow TB pianist's suggestion)
- Variation on a Waltz of Diabelli in C minor, D.718
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Hi, I’m in a re-learning/re-memorization state with my repertoire, currently on Bach French Suite No. 6 — yep, the entire suite... As, it’s coming along & to coincide with this Schubert challenge, I’ve decided to move up my re-visit of Impromptu No. 4 from Op. 90 D899.
My score is from the Royal Conservatory of Music Level 10 book.I enjoyed that it didn’t have to read the score much before finding the feel of the piece again after not playing it for 2 years.
My current challenge is playing the correct chords again. I don’t know why some sets of chords come back more easily than others.
Since the pandemic, my attention span has deteriorated to the point where I’m only practicing in 5-10 minute spurts throughout the day, usually while waiting for something to boil or cook … I’m also being mentally drained in preparation to take my first international gymnastics judging test in a few days, so I don’t have great expectations to be able to play this piece 100% in 3 weeks.
This is my first post here with video, and I’m terrible with playing for recordings, so apologies if this might be hard to listen to …-
Grace Nice playing - it is obvious that you have played it before. Remember: Slow, rhythmic practice :)
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Grace Good job, Grace!
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Grace Love it!!!
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Grace Your experiences are similar to my own except that I am practising in longer stints. I am returning to the piano and this challenge enabled me to return to Schubert waltzes that I have played before. I think I am playing by muscle memory but sometimes the memory fails and that's when I get stuck. My personal challenge is now to read the chords, play separate hands where there's a problem and check that I am using the fingering in the piece or change it if I prefer other fingering.
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Grace thanks for sharing, and look forward to hearing the French Suite too... I understand the difficulties and distractions of recording, it short-circuits my brain too, so let's keep going, I am sure it will get easier.
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