Sara Davis Buechner: Ask Me Anything!

Robert Cating Hard to choose favorites among a trove of immeasurable masterpieces. In my late teens I dove into KV 533/494 and it's just such a perfect and incredible piece that I do have it in a special place of my heart. Equally amazing are the C minor Fantasy and Sonata, the A minor, and the last Sonata in D major, too.

The biggest challenge of playing Mozart is finding the sound, the sense of rhythmic freedom, and yes the rubato in such music. Usually Bach and Mozart are played so very straight-laced with little imagination. Yet any quick dive into Mozart's letters reveal a personality of astonishing vivacity, imagination, soul, honesty, vulnerability, lust, and, well, genius. Hard to imagine that such a musician would enjoy hearing his music played with metronomic meter.

The best Mozart lessons I ever received were hearing the great recordings of Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil and Paul Badura-Skoda (whom I later got to know and play for). To my ears, this is Mozart as he is meant to sound.

aliceyip Dear Alice: WOW what a detailed query!

Answers.

1. It's an improvisatory opening, like an Organ Prelude. Use pedal as you like and employ rhythmic freedom. Mostly legato, I would say.

2. I would not count that out. Play it freely. Remember that often, musical notation is inadequate to the task of fully showing the composer's intent. This is an ornament, albeit an elaborate one.

3. Mostly equal and be careful with pedal. The rests need to be heard.

4. I would not use slurs here.

5. Again, I would make sure to have the rests be audible (change pedal, or no pedal). No slurs.

6. If you choose to slur in the manner of a Gigue here (I would), it would be slur - dot - dot, for each group of three eighth notes.

7. I would play it legato, with as much pedal as you like.

Alice, I would strongly recommend you consult a few performance editions of the work, especially those of Busoni, Petri and Casella. It doesn't matter if such editions are considered "non-urtext." You will get a lot of valuable ideas about how to pedal Bach and how some of the greatest musical minds of the 20th century felt about interpreting his keyboard music. After that you can read treatises and use urtexts if you like. My own feeling is that the piano has three pedals -- use them. If you don't want to do that, then play a harpsichord. Unfortunately (a joke there) most harpsichords have pedals, too!

The idea of playing Bach in rigid tempo, with no pedal, cold as ice, and staccato especially in fast passages, all derives from unimaginative teachers thinking that Glenn Gould is Bach reincarnated or some such. Please remember, it's music. And listen to Bach's cantatas and read the texts. It's about human emotion, and as such needs to communicate that. It doesn't need to be "correct."

Michael Hard to say. I like to play the Yamaha and Bechstein pianos which I think serve Mozart, Scarlatti and Schubert very well. But I've enjoyed playing such music on Steinways and Baldwins and Bosendorfers, too. Good to have choices.

Steve Coffey Dear Steve:

Thanks for your nice words. And give my salutations to the Montauk Lighthouse! -- one of my very favorite places to be.

Ornamentation and embellishment in Mozart is a very big question and needs quite a bit of study and contemplation. The two important authors to consult that I always recommend, are Paul Badura-Skoda and Frederick Neumann. Both wrote books about Bach and Mozart, and you will glean a lot from them. I wrote my own cadenzas soon after reading Badura-Skoda's chapter about how to do it.

Please read above where I discussed some of that with the other questioners.

East Hampton! I am jealous, wish I was there seeing the beautiful ocean. All best, Sara.

Heidi Wowza indeed, thanks for your nice words and geez what a question. I would say that the biggest misconceptions in Mozart are also found in less-successful Bach playing -- tempos too fast, rushed 16th notes, staccato where legato or portamento is a better choice, not utilizing rubato or ritards, not playing with a singing tone, not pedaling or pedaling poorly. In general, too many pianists play Bach and Mozart like it's an exercise or warm-up for something of better emotional interest, like Chopin.

As for your second question, I'd say the best story I could share is the first time I did use free embellishment playing Mozart, specifically the Concerto in C major KV 467, slow movement. I had written down a lot of choices and deliberately did not make a decision as to what I would play before-hand. When that second movement began, I suddenly experienced the utter freedom that Mozart had in performance, for the first time. It felt more like playing with a jazz combo than executing a well-practiced rote performance. Absolutely wonderful, and it wholly changed the way I looked at Mozart's Concertos, and embellishment in general.

I think Robert Levin does this quite a bit, as well. I am not as fond of his choices in his own editions (new Vienna Urtext) but the philosophy is spot on.

Sofia Dear Sofia: I'd say, ease up on the trills. If they are slow, no problem. It's not supposed to be a virtuoso work! The main point is to enjoy the playing.

If you get frustrated, you can certainly try the Rondo in D major KV 485 which is very beautiful, or the Six Viennese Sonatinas. And there are plenty of bonbons in Mozart's London Notebook, works he wrote as a child and young teen. Great stuff in there which you will enjoy.

Tammy Tammy, that is so kind of you. I do love playing that piece. And I'm so gratified that you enjoy it so much. Hope you can hear me play it live some time. I put it on a lot of recitals, to this day.

Scott Nguyễn Dear Scott's Dad: I enjoyed those videos very much! You have a very talented son. Good overall command of rhythm though the ritards in KV 332 are a bit too much (too slow). Also make sure he changes the pedal cleanly -- lift the foot up and get air, in-between pushing the pedal. Otherwise, very good performances. Bravo!