Waldstein Sonata Movement 1

[pill]

I'm trying my luck at panel-advanced level, Certificate of Merit thing, right now (any information about how it's like would be deeply appreciated).

I've chosen the waldstein sonata's first movement as one of the pieces.  The difficulty right now is with the main theme where the left hand has to quickly play the repeated chords.  At first, I tried using the pedal to make it smooth and it just turned into a pile of mush.  I then stopped using the pedal, it became to "stacatto"ish, and bounced around.  Are the repeating chords supposed to be played 'bouncy' or 'smoothly'?

Another issue with these chords is playing it FAST AND SOFT.  I find it incredibly difficult to play it soft with the current tempo I'm playing at.  This problem is also showing in Chopin's Winter Etude piece I'm playing, when the right hand has to go soft while playing all those notes.  Any advice?

[mlsmithz]

When I first tackled the Waldstein many aeons ago, one of the first things my teacher did was to cross out Beethoven's tempo designation and write in "Largo" - though it's possible that he was tailoring his approach to teaching it to what he wanted me to learn from it (various aspects of technique including the repeated notes at the beginning).  So one thing you may want to try is practising it very slowly at first, and then gradually bringing it up to speed.  The repeated notes should be slightly on the bouncy side, but not overly so - it should be possible to hear each individual chord as it sounds (so, no pedal).  Keep your fingers reasonably close to the keys as you release the notes so that they don't sound too staccato or too loud - this is something you can fine tune by playing the passage very slowly.

At least, that's how I practised it.

[sonatainfsharp]

To play fast chords softly, don't lift your fingers off the keys at all in between chords. In fact, the key shouldn't even come up all the way between chords.

You need a grand piano for this, and this will introduce you to what double-escapement is all about and taking advantage of it.  If all you have is a studio upright, use the practice pedal in the middle for now.

[mwarner1]

mlsmithz's advice is sound. However, I would also like to add that you should not be afraid to use a little pedal here. Maybe don't hold it down all the way, but it's okay if it gets a LITTLE mushy here. Works better on a grand, but you can make it work on an upright. Your call though.

Tricky spots in the movement (for me) --
in the recapitulation right after the right-hand octave section and trill. It ends on a C chord, and then there are those runs in the right hand in various C minor modes. Get this passage down cold early! It's much harder than the exposition's parallel passage in E minor.

The runs after the Db version of the main theme toward the end of the movement that lead to the musical climax can be quite tricky. Make sure you practice it slowly at first so you get the left hand in sync with the right-hand runs -- especially the parts where the left hand makes a quick jump of a 10th.

Don't underestimate the lengthy triplet section in the development, either.

That's my advice, enjoy this gem!