Week 4 — Share Your Playing 🎶

Mark Cooper Hello Mark! You have a very musical family. Thank you for sharing this and hats off to Noah who's doing double duty with two Mozart sonata movements. Despite the work, he seems very light-hearted =) Some very fine ensemble work between Noah and yourself as well as Noah and Daniel. Many clean hand-offs of the passagework and coordinated releases. I was particularly impressed by Daniel's confident and calm support of the violin with so much busy passagework in the piano part. You have perhaps shared your own fine knowledge of clean Mozart playing with him! Noah projects very well and has much facility. Quite liked his trills! Very expressive playing all around enhanced by the careful ensemble.

Dustin Anderson thank you so much Dustin for your kind words !

This idea only came to me a couple of months ago , prior to that we had never done any ensemble work, so I’m very pleased with what we were able to produce.

Noah has had quite a lot of experience playing in school ensembles and youth orchestras . Daniel on the other hand does not enjoy the limelight at all so I was thrilled that he agreed to do this .

beyond that I was very happy that the two brothers had a chance to play together which will hold them in good stead for the future .

Btw I had virtually no input at all in guiding the overall performance, so it’s a credit to their own understanding of the music , and past teachers 

Once again , I really appreciate your comments and support !!

Jarkko Janhunen Hello! Thanks for sharing this, I really enjoyed your work. I have taught this one many times and what I quite like about your playing here is that you show a lot of sensitivity to the colorful harmonies and texture changes. I also like that you do not get carried away in the cadenza passages; restraint with clean execution always makes for a more convincing overall performance. I was also impressed by your control of the chromatic passages leading up the cadenzas (these are common slip points). 

Have you listened to Uchida's version of this where she rounds the piece off with a different ending that brings back the introductory material? I've come to like it quite a bit more than the traditional ending (which of course was not Mozart's). Your ending was well played though so this is no criticism! But if you would like to try Uchida's, I have it written out somewhere for my own students and can share it.  

Great work!

Dustin Anderson many thanks for your great feedback! 🙂

Maria you can still submit your progress. I uploaded mine last week, including hesitations & errors, because I ran out of time (school hols this week, so no chance to record a better version!). I hope I won't be the only one! Keep me company with an imperfect version!

Amanda Clark I just listened to your recording, and you sound much better than me! If I end up recording anything it will be on Wednesday or Thursday.

Maria oh gosh, that's very kind! I look forward to listening to your efforts!

Amanda Clark It is true! The sonata movement I am working on is much further from a performable state!

Maria I wonder if you could focus on a short excerpt, rather than the whole thing?

Amanda Clark I was already going to submit an excerpt.

As I said, I have been quite busy the last month with auditions, other pieces/piano deadlines, and other classes, and a plumbing issue that flooded the basement. The piano also recently developed change-of-seasons tuning and regulation issues, as can be typical for a new piano, so if it is being worked on later this week (which would be unlikely, but possible) I would be unable to record. 

Maria aw, that does sound like you've had a lot on your plate! All the best with everything!

Amanda Clark Thank you! I may or may not record depending on how much progress I make in the next few days. 

chuck levin Absolutely - this is a multi-movement piece without breaks. Great deal of work here! I have a student that has been working hard on this piece the past 3-4 months to get all the different details of touch, tempo, articulation, ornamentation, style etc. in place for them to play it in their upcoming music festival competition. You've made some excellent progress with it for a 4-week challenge. And recording anything is challenging let alone this 11-12 minute giant. Very admirable of you and thank you for sharing it!

chuck levin Great interpretation of a great piece. I like your tempo and all the nuances of your deeply expressive playing. Bravo, Chuck!