Mozart K330 Advice needed

[electrodoc]

Hi

This is not part of a duel as I cannot hope to play to the standard of some of you good people out there. The problem for me with this work is to get it to sound like Mozart. How does one obatin the necessary lightness and shimmering effect? I feel that the first movement is too heavy especilly in the bass (I am also aware of one or two small glitches but this was take 1).

I feel that the slow mvt is somewhat more successful but capable of improvement.

All advice welcome.

Thanks

Electrodoc.

[thalberg]

Hi

This is not part of a duel as I cannot hope to play to the standard of some of you good people out there. The problem for me with this work is to get it to sound like Mozart. How does one obatin the necessary lightness and shimmering effect? I feel that the first movement is too heavy especilly in the bass (I am also aware of one or two small glitches but this was take 1).

I feel that the slow mvt is somewhat more successful but capable of improvement.

All advice welcome.

Thanks

Electrodoc.

You are asking for advice on the first movement yet I do not see it posted.....will it come later?

From your second movement, I can deduce some issues that might also apply to your first movement.

But first let me say your second movement is really beautiful--you clearly have an excellent artistic sense, and you hear the beauty in the piece very well.  You definitely have soul.

Since you are welcoming advice, I can offer two principles you from which you may benefit:

1.  Weight management. 

This will help your phrasing and shaping to come out more strongly than it currently does.  While you sit at the piano, become aware of all the weight bringing you down--your fingers are on the keys, but your forearms pull down because of gravity, your top arms pull down because of gravity, your shoulders and torso are pulled down by gravity....lots of heaviness. 
     Now--make yourself light.  Pretend your torso is floating like it's underwater--be aware of your rib cage and shoulders.....make them light......now make your arms light and floating--there  should be some space between your arms and your body.  Miss Olga used to slap upward a students elbow from underneath and say "too much dead weight!" 
   When you play now, you play with your whole body, controlling the weight.  Sound quality improves.  As you phrase, you apply weight in a graduated manner from your whole body and then "toss it off" slowly as the phrase ends. 
   This makes it possible to do very subtle, long range dynamics, and gives you a lot of control of your sound quality.  As you play, be sure not to just pull down with your arms--you want to "play up"--like you are pulling sound from the keys, cushioning the sound from your shoulder.
   Teaching this over the internet is great fun, no?  If you can do this based on written text, you are a genius.  Let me know if you want more.

2.  Shading.

This is a very subtle thing, but your playing would become more refined if you incorporate it.  Shading refers to the idea that we do not play all notes equally -- for instance, eight notes alternate strong-weak-strong-weak.  Sixteenth notes are strong - weak - medium weak - weakest.  Like the word watermelon.

We have all heard this, but actually doing it is a different matter.  You place your muscle contractions on strong notes, and on the weak notes you just "let them happen."  It's a strange feeling at first, like you're not working hard enough, because you are actually subtracting muscle contractions from your playing.  You're playing one note with muscle contractions, then playing the next note with what seems like far too little effort.  As you get used to this, you can experiment with where you want the pulses or muscle contractions to be.

This would help in your first movement.  If you listen to my Beethoven Op 2 no 3 movement 4 (page 5 or 6 of this room by now) you will hear what I am talking about.  My fast 16th notes near the beginning sound remarkably clear.  But they only became this way when I did half as many muscle contractions as notes.  I pressed every other note hard, and for the notes in between, I just let the finger fall on the key.  It was mentally hard at first, but easier in the end.

This "thins out" your playing and gives it lightness and animation.

Hope this helps.  This post is so long no one will read it but you.   

[gerry]

You play this movement really quite beautifully. Andantes and Adagios in amateur hands can be painful but this was very very musical. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you sound like you have come from a more romantic training and are wanting to sort of go back to the classics and refine them. In my case, I spent many many years playing Chopin, Rachmaninoff, etc. and find myself now spending a lot of time working to lighten and sort of purify my technique in order to handle Mozart and Scarlatti (something I should have worked harder on before attempting the romantics). Mozart also poses another challenge with his terrace dynamics--sudden sforzandos, every other note f,p,f,p--something we romantics are unfamiliar with.

It's difficult to tell from just this example (slow movement) what you feel your shortcomings are in that only the more rapid movements will reveal this. I hear a really fine sense of phrase and a very accomplished legato technique. I think you could work more on bringing the appoggiaturas into correct meter in order to make them a more integral part of the melodic line. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

[electrodoc]

Dear Thalberg and Gerry

Many thanks for the kind remarks and especially for the advice. I do appreciate the fact that you have not only taken the time to listen but also taken considerable time to post a thoughful reply full of good advice.

Thalberg: I think that I understand what you mean. I realise that it is difficult to decribe something quite complex in a paragraphh or two. I read your reply during my lunch break and have been trying to put some of it into practice this evening. I must say that after an hour of full concentration that I feel quite exhausted.

I don't know what happened to the 1st movement - it is somewhere in the ether! I will repost but I think that I would like to make a second take as I was not happy with the first one. Give me until the w/end.

I enjoy all aspects of "classical" music with the exception of modern which I do not profess to understand. I don't have the necessary musical background or training and I find simple harmonic analysis quite difficult without having to get into more complex structures.

The problem that I am facing is that my teacher has been taken ill and I have now been without any lessons for six months. Whilst I should be able to stand on my own feet (or fingers!) it is very helpful to have a critical ear available and constructive advice. I just hope that my muscles and nervous system can retrain themselves in their 60's. Anyway I do do recognise that it will take time to put some of this into practice but be assured that I will be trying.

Once again, many thanks

electrodoc