Arghg Mozart!!

[jmao]

I'm having a hard time with mozart's k332.... I find it so difficult!!!. YEAH, DIFFICULT. I couldn't care less what other people say, mozart is extremely difficult!. At first it seems so simple but when you play for a while you realize how hard it is. Those little details, ornaments, trills... arrgh I cannot play them correctly.
I personally think that someone who says mozart is easy is a complete ignorant, and probably hasn't played any of it. Anyone can play the correct notes, that's just the first step. But to actually make it sound good!!!, that's when you find out his genius   and start to admire those great mozart permormers like Mitsuko Uchida or Annie Fischer. For me, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and all the others are easier than Mozart. I mean it!!!

*sigh* Oh well I feel better now after saying that... does anyone share my opinion?

[pianistimo]

yes.  but try to prove it to someone who thinks otherwise.  the exciting thing is that if you believe it - it is true for you.  so enjoy the hours of practice.  i happen to love mozart. 

i heard annie fischer? play (oh what was it?) some kind of variations for orchestra and piano.  it was sooo beautiful.  but, at the opening theme - she played super slow and didn't match the orchestral tempi.  i thought - what kind of a player is she?  then, the next one she perfectly matched the tempo and it was such a surprising contrast that i thought 'aha' - mozart is aLL about contrast and reflection.  he's a consummate artist/composer and always will be in my mind.  perhaps mozart had that very interpretation in mind.  but, i am a sort of 'keep the tempo straight' person.  so, to my teacher i play a sort of bland version of mozart.  now, him, being a romantic classicist instead of a classic romanticist - he would probably have not thought twice about what fischer did.  the effect was there. 

mozart was quite a personality - so i wouldn't doubt if he were alive today - he'd sorta spark up the interpretations.  it's been very hard for me to want to put alot of momentus drive into some parts of the fantasy - but overall - i think my perception of mozart has changed from careful composer - to risk taker and peruser of considering all the options in interpreting mozart.   (but, when i'm seriously playing - i think of myself as a preserver of tradition.  i don't play repeats differently from each other).

[leucippus]

For me everything is difficult.   

I'm actually thinking of starting in on K545 because it sounds easy.  I'll probably discover otherwise once I actually get into it. 

[pianistimo]

i love warming up on that piece    it drives people crazy - but pianists like to hear it if played well, right?  and playing it well means playing it evenly.  with a little bit of pumped up energy here and there.  for instance the runs up and down don't have to be exact speed - but evenly spaced increments accelerating or decelerating.?  as with physics?  i think of those kinetic balls.  the decay of speed at a sort of even pace (and the same with speeding up).

when i play mozart, my heart feels stronger afterwards.  i think it's the combination of 'love' that he put in his music (as with chefs to food) and also the regularity of knowing sort of what to expect (generallY). 

also, the K545 pretty much tells you if you are playing a decent piano or not. 

[leucippus]

I never play anything the way it's supposed to be played. 

If there are any questions I just point to the license hanging above my piano:

[pianistimo]

i like that!  i need a few beers to do that.  i'm not uptight, per se...but i have this image to keep up.  my teacher wants this romantic mozart - and i just see mozart with long fingers or something.  but, in fact -he was a short stubby classicist. 

[jmao]

I like Uchida for the sonatas and Fischer for the concertos. Fischer's recordings for concertos 20 and 21 are fantastic.. she was such an extraordinary pianist. I highly recomend them. That's how mozart should be played. Sadly, not so many people know her...

[pianistimo]

she really put a lot of feeling into her playing.  cassedesus, murray perahia, and others like this are good examples, too, of 'sparkly, effervescent' playing.