pathetique first movement

[guidofellini]

Hi everyone !

I'm currently working on Beethoven's sonata no.8 (Pathetique) Op. 13.  I have some trouble in the crossing hands section of the first movement. How shall execute the mordents (or are they trills ?) For instance, lets' have a look at bar 57 :

Shall I play the principal note before the auxiliary note and play like this : g a g f f g f e

Or like this : a g f g f e

Or are they trills ?

I have listened to several recordings, but I couldn't really say what they play. They do it really fast.

Sorry for my english, I'm not a native speaker.

Thanks in advance.

[allthumbs]

Those are upper mordents. You would play it like you first suggested, (with the appropriate flats of course.)

[guidofellini]

Thank you very much.

[guidofellini]

Also, I have a question about the left hand tremolo. Like every person working on this piece I feel som pain in my wrist. I have read on several threads that I must rotate my forearm. I have watched some videos on youtube and I don't see the pianists do any movement. Am I missing something ?

[pianoperformer]

Read this book. The author makes reference to exactly this several times.

As for me, it's been several years since I've played this, so I don't remember. I would recommend trying to play it as fast as you can, and then practice relaxing your wrist. If it doesn't work, slow down a little bit to a comfortable speed, where you can relax, practice at that speed for a while, then try to increase a little again.