Week 1: Beethoven Birthday Challenge ā Choose Your Piece! 
Welcome to the first week of our Beethoven Birthday Challenge! In celebration of Beethovenās genius, we invite you to select a piece from his repertoire to explore and perform this week. Whether youāre drawn to his sonatas, variations, or shorter works, the choice is yours! Letās dive into his music and share our progress throughout the week.
Happy practicing, and may the spirit of Beethoven inspire you!
Challenge:
- Pick your Piece!
- Share your first video with us - it could be sight reading, playing, or talking about why you love the music!
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I have selected Beethovenās Sonata No. 24 in F sharp Major (Opus 78). As Henle points out in the description āthis work strikes a new and lyrically cantabile toneā - I guess thatās what made me fall in love with this sonata when I heard it for the first time.
Besides, F sharp Major is very unusual, so it will for sure make me practice scales again. And the sonata has only two movements, therefore making it a shorter work with the second movement - Allegro vivace - only around 3 minutes long.
Today, I started to work with my piano teacher on the first movement: so kind of a perfect start for this challenge.-
Sindre Skarelven thank you
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Iām going to work on the Moonlight Sonata, op. 27, no. 1. Iāve learned and taught the first movement, but only ever dabbled in playing the 2nd and 3rd movements. But I would really like to finally add this to my repertoire.
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Hi everyone, Iām currently working on the Pathetique Sonata and would like to play the slow movement for this challenge!
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Hi all!
I will present the 1st movement of sonata op 101
I worked on this a few months ago , so hope to bring it back up to speed quickly. I love this piece , I find it very lyrical.
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Hi everyone! I'd like to join with Andante Favori (WoO 57), which I've wanted to learn/record for a long time. It's also a great excuse to spend some time looking at the Waldstein sonata, which is too hefty for me to learn at the moment, but can still help me better understand why Beethoven originally intended Andante Favori as the 2nd movement.
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Some brief commentary in the video description. Sorry for my out-of-tune piano!
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Judy Kuan Very beautiful playing, Judy! You have a beautiful sound and nice color changes in the piece.
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Andrea Buckland Thank you, Andrea!
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Judy Kuan Gracious and elegant hand and arm coordination and movement. Bravo!
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Judy Kuan Lovely playing, Judy.
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Judy Kuan Enjoying your warm sound and beautiful dynamics! Havenāt heard this lovely piece before.
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Judy Kuan really enjoyed this Judy and great version already ! Looking forward to how you develop it further,
definitely caught the spirit of Ludwig!
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Adena Michelle R Vidhya Bashyam Mark Cooper Thank you for listening already and your encouraging comments! Trying to refine the choreography to reduce ghost notes, even out the phrasing/rhythm, and highlight the different articulations, so hopefully you'll hear more of what Beethoven actually intended in next week's practice
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Judy Kuan Thank you for introducing us to this gem! Lovely dynamics.
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Judy Kuan I really enjoyed your performance, such beautiful interesting motives you have, the phrasing and overall flow.
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Julia Thank you! It's funny watching your video of another Rondo and how the two we're playing are so different yet clearly Beethov-ian
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Judy Kuan 100% agree!
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Judy Kuan such a beautiful piece! I love your warm, singing tone. Beautiful! Great, that you outline what you want to work on for the next two weeks.
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Judy Kuan This is lovely, Judy! Iām taken by the gentle spirit of this work. So enjoyable to listen to! Looking forward to hear your progress.
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Ursina Boehm Sindre Skarelven Thank you both kindly!
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I am going to do a cover of the Moonlight Sonata- Mov 1. I know, many people have picked that topic, but I'm 90% there and this birthday challenge is going to be an opportunity for me to hit 100% and make a fun sketch out of it for my YouTube channel - Sketch Piano, where I combine Piano with comedy/ photography/ dance/ art to present it with more context.
https://www.youtube.com/@sketchpiano2710-
prathamvarshney I just subscribed! You are awesome
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prathamvarshney ha ha !! Great fun prathamvarshney
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Would you like to see a past video of the 1st movement of the sonata op 2 no 3?
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Angelina Tan With pleasure. Ludwig forever and whenever! :-)
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