Mozart K545, easy!?

[feddera]

I haven't played any Mozart, and I'm looking for a piece to start with. After reading around the forum, I got the impression that Mozart's sonata in C major, K545, is considered an "easy" piece. (grade 5, or whatever)

Judging from the score and a recording (Gould's), this doesn't look or sound easy at all! The tempo of the first movement has to be around 120 bpm, with nonstop 16th-notes and long trills. And everything has to be super-even. In fact, to me this looks harder than Beethoven's op2.1. Is it just my technique that is weird, or am I missing something else? Exactly what is making this sonata easy?

[teresa_b]

First of all, throw out that recording!  Gould was the worst Mozart player in the world, as far as I'm concerned.  I don't know his rendition of K545, but I'm willing to bet it's weird and unbecoming to Mozart. 

There is nothing really easy about Mozart except the sight-reading.  The notes of K545 should be pretty accessible.  You don't have to go at breakneck tempo.  The difficulties lie in the transparent quality, the required smoothness, and the fact that every bad note sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Practice at slower tempos and be sure you play those runs and arpeggios as evenly as possible, and be careful to play the LH Alberti bass softer than the melody so no one hears chunka-chunka.   

Mozart requires more grace than Beethoven, but never so delicate that he sounds anemic. 

Have fun!
Teresa

[camstrings]

You might wish to hear this performed by other pianists. The Adagio in Gould's recording is 2'19 while played by Uchida it's 7 minutes! Much as I  love Gould in most things, this recording is perhaps quite irreverent &  humorous.
The sonata while simpler than others of Mozart, still requires a good clear scale technique & "easy" is not a description I would apply to it. Worth the effort though.

Good luck.

[feddera]

Thank you both.

I didn't know Gould's Mozart was considered bad, that could explain why it didn't sound like a grade 5 piece. Who do you recommend for Mozart then?

Having played lots of ragtime, and not so much classical, smooth scale-runs and trills are my biggest weaknesses. Maybe some Mozart can do the trick. And of course, I'm still struggling with my loud left hand, but it's getting better.

Approximately what metronome-mark should I aim for at the first movement? Sure, I can play a C-major scale four octaves up and down at 160 bpm+ if I let my fingers fly. Controlled up and down like this, however, I don't think I can do more than 100 bpm. Guess I have some practising to do!

[camstrings]

Gould's Mozart contains some wonderful recordings. Concerto No 24 & the Cminor &  Aminor sonatas are worth a listen IMO.

For the complete sonatas you might try Mitsuko Uchida.

The tempos for K545 are perhaps best determined by good phrasing.
My personal rule is if you lose the shape of the music, then try a slower tempo.
Hope this helps.

[feddera]

This is how fast I can do some of the scale-runs without losing control. Still not even enough though. I agree about the phrasing, but I should be able to get it a little faster if that is a more proper tempo. Thank you for for answering, I will check out Mitsuko Uchida.

[danny elfboy]

Mozart is everything but "easy"
And the musician who snob his music claiming it is easy, are clearly going to offer horrible renditions in the illusion that all you have to do is play the notes you read on the sheet.

[slobone]

Mozart's sonatas were (with a few exceptions, of which this isn't one) deliberately designed to be easy enough for a home player to play. They were intended to make money by selling sheet music. Professional pianists didn't perform them in public -- that's what the concertos were for.  Which is not to say that they're not beautifully composed, just not as ambitious as some of his other works.

So just use common sense. I think a metronome mark of 120 is perfectly reasonable -- if it's to the eighth note! (You could work it up to a little faster tempo if you wanted to...)

PS: And yes, it's painful to hear Mozart played badly, but it's also painful to hear Bach played badly, Beethoven played badly, Scott Joplin played badly... I fail to see what's so precious about Mozart's notes that they have to be treated with greater reverence than anybody else's.

If he were that hard to play well, there would most likely be a lot of really terrible recordings, considering how popular he is. But I rarely hear one. As opposed to terrible Chopin recordings and Bach recordings, which are all over the place...

[slobone]

There is nothing really easy about Mozart except the sight-reading.  The notes of K545 should be pretty accessible.  You don't have to go at breakneck tempo.  The difficulties lie in the transparent quality, the required smoothness, and the fact that every bad note sticks out like a sore thumb. 

I hope you're not saying that other composers (Liszt for example, or Debussy) are easier because nobody will notice if you hit a wrong note?

[danny elfboy]

I hope you're not saying that other composers (Liszt for example, or Debussy) are easier because nobody will notice if you hit a wrong note?

Not easier, Mozart is as hard as them though.
I think we're all advanced enough to have dicthed the idea that the main work for a pianist is hitting the right notes at the right time. What really make a piece hard is the rendition, the interpretation and the musicality. So each composer has its own paculiar difficulty. In Debussy for example is the super legato continuative spatial sound. With Mozart is the contrast between the dynamic of the different voices (expecially within the same hand) So the point I'm making is not that Mozart is harder than others but that considering him easier than others for the simple fact that there's little blankness in the sheet and the "notes are easier" is pure nonsense.

[teresa_b]

I hope you're not saying that other composers (Liszt for example, or Debussy) are easier because nobody will notice if you hit a wrong note?

No, I'm not saying the others are easier at all.  They are not!  And I play Mozart with wrong notes here and there, because nobody's perfect!  I just meant that because Mozart is so transparent a wrong note sticks out worse, thus adding to the challenge of playing it smoothly and convincingly.  You can generally get away with a bit less precision in some other composers, but if you are a good musician you strive for precision anyway! 

Teresa

[slobone]

Not easier, Mozart is as hard as them though.
I think we're all advanced enough to have dicthed the idea that the main work for a pianist is hitting the right notes at the right time. What really make a piece hard is the rendition, the interpretation and the musicality. So each composer has its own paculiar difficulty. In Debussy for example is the super legato continuative spatial sound. With Mozart is the contrast between the dynamic of the different voices (expecially within the same hand) So the point I'm making is not that Mozart is harder than others but that considering him easier than others for the simple fact that there's little blankness in the sheet and the "notes are easier" is pure nonsense.

I agree with that last statement. But again, don't you need to bring out the different voices in Debussy as well? I hope you don't just cover everything up with the pedal 

But to clarify what I think we're all saying -- it's not that other composers are more permissive about wrong notes or sloppy playing, it's that they leave more room for individual interpretation. Mozart certainly allows you to express yourself, but it has to be done more subtly than with Chopin. And the sheet music doesn't give you much help.

You can't use the same dynamic range because it was written for a smaller instrument. You can't use the pedal as much. So you have to be more observant of differences in articulation.

As for rubato, agogic accent, slowing down at cadences etc., I'm sure they did all that in the 18th century, but they would have had different rules than the 19th century used.

In other words, it's not necessarily harder to play accurately, but it may be harder to play well. Although, as I said, there's not a lot of terrible Mozart out there. Not quite sure why that is.