Group 4

Hi everyone!  I’m looking forward to this chance to work on Mozart with you all and  Orli Shaham.  I’ll be working on sonata 2 in F Major, k280. Excited to learn from everyone and have fun!

Hi Orli, thanks for leading this 2 week intensive. Looking forward to the assignments.  I also  wanted to say after you mentioned in your video about the dominant pedal in many of Mozart's sonatas, I can't help but spot it in other pieces too :)

Hi everyone, hi Heidi and Alice,

Nice meeting you here. I look forward to improving my Mozart sonata. I'm learning Mozart's Sonata in C major, K309, and hope to play it well someday. Look forward to your videos, and hearing from you.

Sounds like a sonata movement would be much better for this course, and since it doesn't have to be completely learned or polished, I'll work on a movement from either K311 or K576 instead of the Adagio.

Thank you for the opportunity to join the group. I have not learned any Mozart Sonatas yet, K545 1st movement will be my next project. If there're other people on the waiting list who is currently practicing a Mozart Sonata, please feel free to give him/her the spot. I've learned a lot about the form/structure of sonatas through the videos. I'm currently working on Clementi Sonatina op36. 

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply; I've been busier than expected.  I'm working on the 3rd movement of the easy sonata (K545).  I've just started working on it.  My major challenge is playing it at tempo; I've got a ways to go to get there.  I've got most of the notes under my fingers, but I think it'll probably take a while before I'm playing at speed.  I don't want to push too much, so it'll take as long as it needs.  At this point I'm interspersing slow practice with short bursts of speed, but still not up to tempo.

Hi, all! Here are some questions and a video to help demonstrate some decisions I'm pondering in the first movement's exposition of 311 (Allegro con spirito). 

(1) General question for Orli: I'm always interested in pianists' learning processes. I know it's different for everyone and/or potentially depends utterly on the particular sonata in question, but are there any basic steps you follow yourself and/or pass along to students in terms of the sequence of activities/practice approaches when learning a new Mozart sonata? 

Specific questions about the exposition of 311 (first movement):

(2) Dynamics and articulation: In one of your videos, you talk about how Mozart's dynamic markings leave a lot of room for interpretation in the sections between markings (which are often pretty long). In this movement, there's a forte marking at the very beginning of the piece, then a piano marking in measure 7 ... and nothing in between. And the character of the musical ideas packed in between those markings are potentially quite different. The articulation options, esp. for the left hand, also seem kinda wide open, and produce very different results in terms of the mood. Similarly, measure 24 is marked forte, then there's a piano marking in measure 28. In shaping the dynamics in between, I'm feeling puzzled/indecisive about how much contrast to create and/or whether to crescendo and decrescendo toward those dynamic changes, whether he perhaps meant these shifts to be surprising, or ...? How did you arrive at your choices in this movement (one example would be great, no need to explain every single choice)? Are some choices more "right" than others, based on historic practices, etc.? See video for examples of my waffling. (Sorry, the quality of the video is not that good and I didn't have time to get great takes, so bear w/ me.)

(3) In the recording in your video of the opening of this sonata, you play the grace note in measure 4 differently than I'm inclined to. What's the deal w/ this type of grace note? Can it be interpreted as an appoggiatura or is that a bad idea? How do you distinguish between those two critters? 

(4) There's a sorta terrifying passage in the development section that requires careful fingering (measures 66-74). What fingering do you use/recommend, esp. for 71-74?

Any ideas, from anyone, more than welcome! And Orli, if you don't have time to answer all of these questions, no prob — get to whatever you can. Thanks again.

https://share.vidyard.com/watch/LzzLHaA8KoZRkKuxi3ouWm?autoplay=1

Hi Orli, Ben, everyone,

I need to work on playing more accurately, and would love to sound lighter and bouncy-er, but this is the best recording I could put together this weekend. 

(I'm trying to figure out why the volume is so low. You may need to turn up the volume on your device. Edit- video with enhanced volume added.)