Haydn, Sonata KH XVI/35 in C

[kd]

Hi all, please tell me how bad you think it is. It is now in progress, so there are still silly slips and yes, I know I have to work hard on evenness. On the other way I took up the piano about 2 years ago, so rather at an "advanced" age, and though I don't think I learn very efficiently (and probably I don't have enough time for good practice), I hope that this recording is not that bad after all...
Anyway, let me know what you think.

[kelly_kelly]

I think you've got the feel of the piece, although there could be more dynamic contrast. Overall, I think it is pretty good (without scrutinizing details).

[cjp_piano]

Sounds great!  Good job for only playing piano 2 years!

Is this played on an electric piano?  If so, it's a pretty good one.  If not, then something is weird, lol.

Overall, I would like to hear less of your left hand.  It was too much for my taste.  In the first movement, I heard lots of the "tri-puh-let, tri-puh-let, tri-puh-let, tri-puh-let" and not so much of the "tee-ah bum bum bum" melody.  One good thing is that your left hand is very well voiced, nice job!

[kd]

Thank you for the motivating feedback. I rather expected comments like 'you chose a piece beyond your level' or so.
Yes, it was recorded on an electric piano, an old one though, so the sound is a bit strange. It sometimes does strange things to dynamic contrast. Not that I want to say my contrast was perfect and the machine destroyed it. But if something silent happens directly after something loud, virtually without gradation, the outcome is that you can barely hear the silent notes.
In the 1st movement I'm not satisfied with the ornaments and the left hand could definitely be more even. The 2nd movement is perhaps below my abilities because I didn't go about memorizing it so I have to sight-read every time - not really difficult, but more slips can occur. In the 3rd movement there is a part where in the left hand you have triplets like CDCBCBABAGBG for a few measures and that is tricky for me - the fingering is 312312312 but when I add the right hand I tend to hit with 1 on the strong beat of the measure which makes the passage sound ridiculous. Also in the final bars there is too much dynamical disproportion between LH and RH.
So it seems I have things I should improve... but perhaps overall it's after all not that bad as I thought. Right now, I'm thinking of a Beethoven sonata Op. 2 No. 1. I've already learned the 1st movement, it is not very hard. The 2nd and the 3rd also look acceptable. The 4th however is probably too difficult for me now (with all the LH arpeggios), so I suppose I'll have to learn it a bit below the required speed until I get more technique.

[totallyclassics]

It's awesome for only playing 2 years.  I couldn't touch it and I've been playing fo 20 months.  I do well with chopin nocturnes strangely enough (the 3 or 4 easier ones of course), but I have a hard time with mozart and haydn sonata's.  I work better with slower melodic pieces than faster ones as my fingers don't want to go that fast without tripping over each other!  I just switched to a teacher who is very technically minded and is helping me with that.   I am an adult beginner.  we don't learn as quickly as the younger!

How long did you work on this piece for before recording?  I have worked on chopin nocturne  Op72 in e minor for about 6 months to get it to where I think I could record it. 
I learned the notes to the whole thing in about 3 weeks, but am still perfecting it.  I learned through this piece that it's not all about the notes.  There is so much more to a piece.

I think you did great with this one.   awesome actually.   good luck with your new sonata!

[kd]

How long did I work on this? I don't remember exactly, I think I started late November or so, so it would be about 2 months and since it still needs perfection it will probably be 3 months in total. I sometimes wonder if all the things I do badly are not so clearly visible in the recording, because I'd never say it's awesome. My fingers can go fast, but in vertical directions, they are horizontally too static (so I have strange problems even with simple arpeggios, it comes out very uneven or there are many wrong notes).
I wouldn't say I'm an adult, but I don't think I learn very quickly, I know some younger people who progress incredibly fast. But there must be a difference between them starting the piano at the age of 8 or 10 and me at 17.
However, maybe if you're left with the music itself, without actually seeing me playing, the bad things like tense hands and wrong finger movements don't show that much. I played some easier pieces by Chopin (like preludes, nocturnes Op. 9) and I must say I practise, practise, practise and I still feel I haven't got into the musicality deep enough, even if the piece is technically mastered. For this reason some Haydn or Mozart sonatas may be easier for me (and the faster passages are usually very regular so if you work out how to play one bar you can play, say, 20 bars at once, and often you don't have this in Chopin).
I'll consider posting the Beethoven sonata when I think I'm more or less ready with it. However, I'm working on the 4th movement and I see it will definitely take a lot of time.