Week 4 Beethoven Challenge – Recordings Watch Party 🎥🎶

Week 4 is here, and it's time to share!

For this final week of the Beethoven Challenge, your goal is simple:
record your piece and submit it for our community Watch Party.

It doesn’t have to be “finished” or perfect. In fact, it’s more useful if it isn’t. Record where you are right now with your Beethoven and let that be your snapshot of growth from Week 1 to Week 4.

How to participate:

  1. Record your Beethoven selection (phone video is totally fine).

  2. Upload it to Youtube!

  3. Post the link in the Week 4 thread below with:

    • Piece and movement

    • One sentence: “The thing I worked on most in this piece was…”

We’ll collect submissions and feature as many as we can in the Watch Party, with live commentary, encouragement, and a chance to hear how everyone has grown over the month.

This week’s challenge:
Don’t wait until you “deserve” to record. Hit record, share your current best, and join us for the Watch Party!!

77 replies

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    • Victoria_Macdonald
    • Yesterday
    • Reported - view

    Hi All, 

    Here is the beginning of the Pathetique - the Grave intro and the first Allegro section. In the interest of time, I cut it off there (since there's quite some repetition in this movement anyway). I went more for feel than precision - or as they say, playing the wrong note right rather than playing the right note wrong. 

      • Rui
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       nicely done.  The first movement is my favorite and I hope to learn the entire sonata one day.

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      Thank you!

      • Sachi
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

        wow Beautiful dramatic intro! 

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Sachi. I picked up some great tips from the Leon Fleisher and Ben Laude video.

      • Andrew_Smith
      • 23 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Way to go, Victoria -- are you planning to play all three movements? Sounds like you could. 

      • Sachi
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       I will check them out, thanks. 

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 22 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Yes! I can play the first movement at this pace- and a bit better without the video recording nerves. Comfortable with the 2nd movement. And working on speeding up the 3rd movement. Thank you for the encouragement. 

      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 1 hr ago
      • Reported - view

       Powerfull chords and sense of drama. Great playing, Victoria. I love the big Beethoven bust keeping you company at the piano.

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 5 min ago
      • Reported - view

      nice job Victoria, played with gusto! 

    • tonebase_user.211
    • 20 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hello,

    https://youtu.be/j_nbkHdh-tI?si=Rd5qHDbwl9-Ro2zx

    I'm probably late. Here is the link to my second movement Pathetique Sonata recording. Very difficult to record free of errors.

    I´m still working on the proper use of pedal, need to reduce the use of it.

    Thanks!

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 45 min ago
      • Reported - view

       Very nicely played and nice use of rubato. Though you may want to aim for more consistency with the rhythm. Some parts felt a bit rushed.  That might help with the pedaling as well. 

    • Deana_Dossey
    • 20 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    thank you to everyone posting recordings of their Beethoven pieces. I'm really enjoying listening and learning more about the music. 

    • Mark_Cooper
    • 17 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi all

    I will echo a previous comment about how difficult it is to record this without errors !  But , interestingly, the recording process does help show up the weak points which will need more work …..

    anyway here is my rendition of op78 1st movement 

     

    Beethoven op78

    1st movement 

     

    https://youtu.be/pDqrUMGNFOA?si=wGztVx3jMw8jzPW0

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 41 min ago
      • Reported - view

       Wow, that was great! So many different textures and you captured them all beautifully. Your finger work is spot on!

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 16 min ago
      • Reported - view

       thank you Victoria appreciate that . A bit of self criticism, due to nerves , I’m playing this piece too fast , the metronome marking is 116 , I’m sure that I am exceeding that , and I come a bit unstuck in places ! 

    • Church organist and amateur pianist in my free time. Otherwise a lawyer and sinologist now studying psychology.
    • Astrida_Gobina
    • 5 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Dear all!

    Thanks a lot for this challenge and the opportunity not to lose focus on goal despite of all the frustrations and (relative) lack of time.

    This is my “progress report” on Moonlight part 3. Mostly, I tried to work on precision, dynamics and articulation. I see the need to get the big jumps faster and more efficient and to have more even pulse throughout. To be continued …

    https://youtu.be/g1MYLYFDPVI?si=tzQfXoqRk38vrlOF

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 38 min ago
      • Reported - view

       This is going to be fantastic. You seem to have all the notes down and just need to build some incremental speed. The lyrical sections are just gorgeous. 

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 33 min ago
      • Reported - view

       really impressed with this Astrida, I can see the amount of work you put in here. This worked very well at this slower( and sensible !) tempo, 

    • Kerstin
    • 3 hrs ago
    • Reported - view

    https://youtu.be/h2Jq0EI0CeE?si=bFmPOLkEzNcZWEC6

    Beethoven sonata op. 7,                    3. Movement. The game for me was to play from memory. 🙋‍♀️

      • Rui
      • 1 hr ago
      • Reported - view

       nice dynamics!

      • Victoria_Macdonald
      • 36 min ago
      • Reported - view

       You won thr game 10 out of 10. Great feeling and interpretation. Love the sweater too!

      • Mark_Cooper
      • 19 min ago
      • Reported - view

      this was a joy to listen to Kerstin , thanks for posting ! 

    • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
    • Juan_Carlos
    • 1 hr ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone!

    Here is my video of the "Tempest" Sonata, 3rd movement (Allegretto). Playing it feels like being on a roller coaster, with the sense that you could fall off at any moment.

    I didn't repeat the exposition, mainly because of the video's length and, you know, to minimize the possibility of mistakes 🙂.

    Like in previous challenges, I wish I'd had more time, as others have mentioned, to refine the interpretation and achieve a cleaner execution. But, well, we are among friends..., and we always have the opportunity to keep playing and revisiting the pieces we learn for Tonebase challenges. At least, I hope a little bit of the Beethovenian spirit comes through.

    The thing I worked on the most in this piece was restraining my use of the sustain pedal, reducing it as much as possible following Beethoven's score.

    Thank you so much, as always, for this challenge!

      • Rui
      • 1 hr ago
      • Reported - view

      that was pretty good!

      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 1 hr ago
      • Reported - view

      Thank you, Rui!

Content aside

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