Week 2 Assignment
Assignment 2: Let the Fun Begin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspnP5Vqo5o
Now itâs time to explore! Look for all the expressive markings in the score. What do they make you feel? How do you express that with your playing? What tools do you have?
- Sound â Can you create a dark, bright, rounded, flat, sparkling, rough, or smooth sound?
- Time â How do you shape timingârubato, phrasing, stretching or tightening the pulse? How can you play with the listenerâs perception of time?
- Voicing â What happens when you bring out different voices in a chord or phrase? How does that shift the emotional quality of the music?
Experiment!
- Try different touches: finger legato vs. arm weight, various ways of releasing the key.
- Play with pedalingâhow does half-pedaling or catching resonance change the atmosphere?
- Imagine: Can you make your instrument sing? Growl? Whisper? Shimmer?
- Play the same passage in three completely different ways. What changes?
Now itâs time to listen!
Since you already have your own opinions, you can engage with recordings in a more informed way. See what other players doâtake what you like, leave what you donât.
- Compare different interpretations. What choices stand out?
- Does anything surprise you?
- Try playing along with a recordingâdoes it shift your perception of time and phrasing?
Get Even More Inspired!
- Read about the composer. What influenced their writing? Any personal struggles, obsessions, or quirks?
- Make creative associations:
- If this piece were a landscape, what would it look like?
- What painting, poem, or film scene does it remind you of?
- Describe the piece in three non-musical words.
- Maybe the composer is aliveâcheck out their Instagram! (Or even message them!)
Play! (Metaphorically and literally.)
The more musical âresearchâ you do at the instrument, the more possibilities you create in your brain. And the more possibilities in your brain, the more improvisatory you can be. What makes your interpretation unique is its spontaneityâwhen you have choices, you can live in the moment with the music.
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Hi everyone!
So proud of all the work youâve done last week â great job! Now Iâd love for you to dive deeper. Take notes as you explore and feel free to share them here to inspire each other. Iâll be keeping an eye out for your recordings, artworks, and other inspirations :)
One more thing I forgot to mention: make sure to record yourself! Itâs one of the best ways to hear your interpretation more objectively and notice things you might miss in the moment.
Happy practicing!
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Such an interesting and inspiring topic Piotr. Thanks so much
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Janet Horsford Glad you like it! I think it applies to so many aspects of what we doâand even if some of the ideas may seem like truisms, itâs still worth reiterating :)
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Thank you so much Piotr KozĆowski your advice is easy to understand and very informative. Itâs just really hard though to achieve what I want to accomplish with piano đ«Ł
Listening back to my recording, Iâm not content but time is running out. So I like to post my progress, thank you.
TWI with Piotr (20.05.2025)
https://youtube.com/shorts/EIcDGdlW2DA?feature=share-
Sachi Beautiful playing, Sachi. Explore more legato in the right hand. Also, decide where you need more finger activity and where you can completely relaxâthe natural weight of the finger will be enough to produce sound. You can also engage your wrist a bit more to help shape the phrases :)
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Piotr KozĆowski Gratitude for your pinpointed feedback.
I wonât be able to record more for this TWI because of my work schedule. Thank you Piotr, youâre awesome
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Hi there,
Thank you for such inspiring questions. I have explored different touches as I have been continuing to learn my piece. It was fun to play a melodic passage with a dark tone or a dark passage brightly.
I have a question about sensing the audiences perception of time. Is recording oneself the best way to accomplish this?
Thank you for any thoughts you have on this.Karen Wood
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Karen Wood
Hi Karen, so yes and no, haha. In a way, recording yourself will help you perceive time more objectively; however, it wonât necessarily capture the full acoustic spectrum that influences how audiences experience time, pulse, rubato, etc.
For example, taking exaggerated time during live performances often worksâthereâs the space of a big hall, visual cues that help maintain the audienceâs attention. On the other hand, in a recording, we often need to temper it a bit (unless we have a genius sound engineer :P).
But usually, listening to a recording will never be quite the same. It ties into this sort of âtripolarâ concept Leon Fleisher talks about in one of his masterclasses
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Karen Wood
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Karen Wood Hi Piotr, thank you for your reply to my question. I will watch this masterclass soon. I have listened to recordings and have noticed some details that I have missed. I will not have time to submit a recording. A few details to note were the Alberti bass marked with a long slur near the end of the development compared to the unslurred Alberti bass in the Exposition. What would Beethoven be indicating? How does one know to play the unslurred Alberti bass differently?
I interpreted the ending as darker but finishing with the a hopeful shift to G + so I played a slight crescendo to the last chord. The recording artists ended with darker tension but a quiet ending. This leads me to my bigger question. After research and comparative listening how do you know or decide what the right approach is for the sections that are not marked specifically?
Thank you for all your time to make this a really applicable and interesting workshop. -
Karen Wood
It took me a little bit to respond as I wanted to think it through.
Regarding the unslurred Alberti bass, it tends to serve more of a harmonic function. A slurred Alberti bass, on the other hand, would suggest a more melodic approachâin which case, you might consider bringing out the middle voice, which is quite beautiful and lyrical.
As for your broader question, interpretation is always a combination of stylistic awareness and personal artistic decisions. Many of our choices are guided by the composerâs style, the era, historical performance practices, and everything we learn through our musical education. Then thereâs what I like to call creative or individual interpretation.
Ultimately, we aim to build a logical and cohesive interpretation by engaging deeply with the score. Even a detail like comparing slurred versus unslurred Alberti bass can offer important insights. I hope this helps clarify things :)
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Piotr KozĆowski Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. I wish I was able to apply all of your experiments with a recording but nonetheless I learned a lot.
Thank you for this!
All the best, Karen W.
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I did some playing/listening/experimenting and came up with this video (commentary added). I think it holds together better at this speed. Any feedback would be welcome!
As I searched for videos/recordings of the piece I found a kamancheh/piano duet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2fDmf3fT2Q
This video gave me some ideas for how to shape the melody and bring out the rhythms/contrasts of the dance. I found I needed to tighten up the ornaments quite a bit to imitate that middle eastern "quiver", and that took some practice.
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Marc M
Such a great job! You took this challenge exactly where I was hoping it would go, and I love your interpretation!
As for feedbackâperhaps the dissonances could be a bit more intentional and "placed." At the start, the LH staccato could have more activity. The cadenza scale might benefit from feeling less âfingeryâ and more like a sweeping gesture. Also, Iâd love to hear even more of that B naturalâtry really bringing it out in the chord.
I really like how you played the Tempo I section differently the second time, almost like a memoryâŠ
Thank you for this! -
Piotr KozĆowski thank you for your feedback! And for the course. It is a great help⊠these things encourage me to push myself a bit more.
Would you have any tips on making that fast scale run less fingery sounding? When I try playing it in a less fingery way it ends up sounding messy/mushy instead. Maybe thereâs some exercise in the book by Jonas that could help? -
Marc M Sure, you could use Jonas, but also playing more and more repertoire and creating your own exercises is very helpful. You can use the way you played it as a practice tool; however, when you perform, try to stay closer to the keys, activating only the tips of your fingers. Also, synchronization might be an issueâtry leading with your non-dominant hand so that more attention is directed toward it.
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Piotr KozĆowski I will work on it with those tips in mind. Thanks again!
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Marc M This is wonderful! I thoroughly enjoyed listening, and as always appreciated your commentary, too.
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Michelle R Thanks Michelle!
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Piotr KozĆowski Thanks so much for offering this TWI. I learned much, though I didn't post after the beginning. I wasn't able to do as much as I'd hoped, but have been following along. Thanks again! Hopefully I'll be able to participate more next time.
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Michelle R I am so happy you enjoyed it! Also, it is never too late to post something, I will be looking out :)
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