Beethoven Tempest 3rd mvt

[daniloperusina]

Recorded on a Steinway model O in a church. It'd be really interesting to hear opinions, so don't spare any, good or bad!:-) I'm the pianist and recording engineer.
/Danilo

[el nino]

i like your playing very much,but i think it should be faster

[daniloperusina]

Thanks for the comment! I'm not sure it would be Allegretto, as marked, though, if played any faster.

[zheer]

Recorded on a Steinway model O in a church.

   Its intresting that you record this sonats in a church, since Beethoven was a deeply religious man, infact his late sonatas are spiritual and religious sounding. I agree with the tempo, also are you a composer and do you work in a church.

[cjp_piano]

I think your tempo is perfect.  Most people DO play it faster.  That gets on my nerves: something that should be pretty fast and people play it TOO fast like, "look how fast I can play this, I'm great!"

Anyway, I enjoyed listening to you play this, I wish I could have been there in the church while you played   

For the main motive (3 sixteenths and eighth), I heard the last note of the slur carry over without a staccato or rest.  It's probably the reverberant acoustics of the church, and I can't tell how you're pedaling it, if at all, without seeing you, but there were other places where the staccato articulation wasn't completely clear (ex: m. 56-66).  Again, it's probably the acoustics of the room.

Back to the main motive: for my taste, I would like to hear less on the last note of the slur, which is the downbeat eighth note.  It's interesting because we usually think of the last note of a slur as having less stress, yet here it's on the downbeat, which IS stressed.  I love the the contrast of feeling forward momentum with the pick-up notes but then backing off with an UNstressed downbeat.  Doesn't it also throw you off that the left hand contributes to this unstressed downbeat with the stress apparently being on the AND of beat one?

So instead of the typical ONE and two and three and , ONE, we get:

RH:   and THREE and one (rest) and THREE and one

LH:  one AND two and . . . one AND two and . . .

so together:  and THREE and one AND two and THREE and one AND two and THREE . .  .

Say this out loud while you tap your hand only on beat one; it's quite fun!

I'm not saying accent these, but just be aware of the intrest it adds to the sense of pulse. When the left hand plays it in m. 30, try NOT emphasizing the downbeat. Then it's a surprise when you DO in m. 34 on the sF.

Beethoven plays with this sense of pulse several times, like with the hemiola in m. 43-47.

I liked your dynamic change to piano in m. 67, but can you do it without the slight pause before the measure?  I'm not sure if you added the hesitation for that specific effect, or if that was the easiest way to play suddenly soft, but I think there should be NO break in timing, but just suddenly soft.   This is easier said then done, actually it's difficult, but it's typical of Beethoven to do this. 

This suddenly soft thing also occurs m. 91.  If you can keep the momentum going without the slight pause, AND play it suddenly soft, it would be very effective.

At the end, m. 384, be sure you don't add another beat after beat 3 before you play the D next measure.  I like how you slowed down slightly on that chromatic scale coming down before that, but then m. 384 should still be ONE two THREE ONE, you played ONE two THREE four ONE.  Maybe just a mistake, I don't know, but you said don't spare any comments 

Great job really, as you can tell I love this piece.  You played it very well, thank you for sharing!

[daniloperusina]

Thanks a lot, very kind of you!

I'll go through each remark you made asap, and post my comments!

[daniloperusina]

   Its intresting that you record this sonats in a church, since Beethoven was a deeply religious man, infact his late sonatas are spiritual and religious sounding. I agree with the tempo, also are you a composer and do you work in a church.

Beethoven deeply religious? Are you sure? I've always thought about his Heiligenstadt testament as the turning point in his spirituality, but a spirituality that comes from within himself, and not of a specific religion. His will to go on living despite his increasing deafness, and that the only point in doing so is to create music without any wordly considerations, a point he seems to reach in his late sonatas, string quartets etc. The sonatas in op 31 are the first he composed as "re-born".
No, I don't compose nor work in a church. I'm the lucky caretaker of a Steinway grand, which we decided to have in a church instead of at home. My recording aspirations changed forever!:)

[steveie986]

This is quite splendid. I enjoyed it. As far as I could tell, there was only one hiccup around the five minute mark. I especially like your interpretation, which is mannered without being stiff and very classical, unlike many too-romantic interpretations of this sonata. 

[piano121]

Bravo! All movements are marvelous.

[annoying_airhead]

NIcely played!  =)