Week 1: Choose your Schubert Piece!

I'll be learning a Landler, D681 #5. I'm choosing it primarily because it's easy and I should be able to learn it in a month! It's also fairly easy on my LH. I couldn't find any recordings I liked, unfortunately!

Thurmond and I are going to work on a simple 4-hands piece together (D366 #3). It will be fun to see where he takes it! And it will be good for both of us to do some collaboration that doesn't involve singing. 🙂

I’m in with Impromptu in A-flat major, D 899 op. 90, #4. Happy to see it here listed as an intermediate level piece. That’s encouraging, because I always have wanted to learn it, but felt slightly apprehensive about the allegretto arpeggios. I’m still quite struggling with the fast bits on piano.

I fell in love with this impromptu a long time ago. I heard Arthur Rubinstein’s recording and for a very long time it was the only version that I could "accept". 
Now, planning to study it during this month, I have spotted some new and interesting interpretations. Among them — by Edwin Fischer, Mitsuko Uchida (1997), Rudolph Buchbinder (2022), and the wonderful Alfred Brendel (1963).

I will use Edition Peters as my main edition (very practical page turns!). Imslp shows Godowsky, which is highly informative for fingering and all kinds of voicing and phrasing. I also found the tonebase course on Schubert impromptus by Jerome Lowenthal very inspiring.

Now it’s just working on it that remains!

Ok….big breath….here goes-

I’m going to join this challenge.  I just recently joined Tonebase to help my goal of rebuilding and reclaiming some of piano playing abilities.  I played seriously in my youth, revisited and rebuilt in my late 30’s and 40’s but life, family, and work always get in the way.  A few months ago, I started anew mainly working exercises and easier old repertoire.  I joined Tonebase just a couple weeks ago but its been fantastic.

So with the disclaimer aside lol…

I chose:  Landler D790 No. 5 - Why?  I enjoy the beautiful melody and lyricism.  It’s also short and not too taxing.  Lastly, I have a few work related trips that will keep me away from the piano, so this seems to be realistic.

What do I hope to get out of it?  Some fun and a new piece to keep me happy as I continue trying to rebuild.  It will also help with voicing and dynamic skills.

Cheers all!

I'm going to try Schubert's Sonata in A major, 2nd movement. It's the piece that, years ago, made me love Schubert. The problem is, I'm traveling and am away from the piano, so I won't be able to try it on piano till July 8. And it's a bit of a big piece with a middle section that might exceed my skill level. 

So, for now, I've been working on annotating the score--annotations so far are attached (some notes might be a little silly)--and doing "table piano playing" for some of the trickier rhythms in the middle section. I'll try memorizing the chords and what not over the next week. It will be interesting to see how the piece comes together after doing two weeks of work with the score away from a piano. 

Well, this week's assignment didn't say anything about playing or practicing yet, so... 😉

I did play through my chosen piece (Impromptu A flat major Op. 142 No. 2) a couple of times, just to get a feel for it and to mentally prepare what I want to work on. 

From my brand new 24-item YouTube Playlist dedicated exclusively to this piece, I'm sharing a few recordings, in case people like to listen to them. 

1.) Krystian Zimerman. He uses a lot of "breaths" in the phrasing of the A section which avoids cloying sentimentality or a mushy sound. The middle section moves forward a bit more and just flows beautifully; he keeps the sound simple and stylistically right for Schubert, never veering into late Romantic thickness. 

https://youtu.be/zIcxYwB-KR8?si=9LfUk4fIbXmKdNfg

2.) The first record (an LP then, of course) I ever had of the Impromptus was the recording by Wilhelm Kempff, probably my all-time favorite pianist if I had to pick one. So, even for just purely sentimental reasons, I must share his rendition here. It has Kempff's trademark lightness and delicate, innocent, but mysteriously magical musical sensibility, so absolutely perfect for German romanticism (even more so in his Schumann recordings)

https://youtu.be/_qH-ptaQO9A?si=xCCels5SVNTJkGYk

3.) Here is a little discovery as I was browsing through available recordings: a young man by the name of Louis Schwizgebel who plays the piece as an encore. He chooses a very brisk tempo, but I think he makes it work. He doesn't need to speed up at all in the middle section compared to the opening (and the end), which is oddly compelling. The sound is lovely and lyrical throughout, and the faster, less solemn flow of the musical line fits well with the folk song style of the melody. Not everyone is going to like this interpretation, but I found it interesting and stimulating enough to include it here. 

https://youtu.be/mWuNqw3erVY?si=QO7IYhD-KlBf-bhR

4.) Finally, the great Wilhelm Backhaus. It would be silly of me to try and say anything about the music he lets us hear in this recording. Just listen. (This was also the piece Backhaus would choose to play as the last encore of his last recital, on June 28, 1969. I was just three months old then. A week later, Backhaus passed away.)

https://youtu.be/GeExYh1k0pU?si=JH5uM8qNWhk3W6fb

I’m practicing the Schubert Impromptu op90 no3. I’ve been playing it for a few months now as I plan to play it in my ARSM exam at some point so I thought this would be a good  place to work on it and get some feedback.