Help with Tempest movt. 1

[popdog]

Okay I am having real troubles with the triplet passages in bars 21-40 in this piece. 

When I try to play this bit up to speed it just sounds like a shambles, I can't the LH trills up to speed, let alone up to speed and soft enough to let a piano RH sing above it.  Sometimes when playing this section fast I leave the last note of the LH trill off to make the jump down to the next melody note which, needless to say, sucks.  I've practised the jumps but this still occurs. 

To anyone who has played this piece, how did you practice it?  Are there any other pieces which focus on this technique and would be of some help? 

I have tried rhythmic accents, alternating fast and slow practice, starting with one note and adding them etc but this hasn't helped that much. 

Thanks for your help,

popdog.

[eric_wong1387]

The RH-to-LH switch is understandably very tricky in this part.  The way I did it I believe is the way that Tovey recommends in his commentary for the ABRSM edition of the Sonatas.

I can't be sure, but from your description, I think you're doing it the same way since you mentioned switching the tremolo over to the left hand.

By rhythmic accents do you mean phrasing them as triplets?   Thats what I did and it eventually worked for me.  However I didn't pick too fast of a tempo for this movement (probably around Claudio Arrau's tempo if you've heard his recording) so that may make a difference.

[popdog]

Thank for your comments,

I can't be sure, but from your description, I think you're doing it the same way since you mentioned switching the tremolo over to the left hand.

Yeah I should have made it clearer - I am changing hands with the tremolos. 

By rhythmic accents do you mean phrasing them as triplets?   Thats what I did and it eventually worked for me. 

I am not sure what you mean by "phrasing them as triplets".   What I meant was that I practice it by making one note of the triplet longer than the others (ie. long-short-short; short-long-short; short-short-long). 

I've also started practising volume accents (ie. loud-soft-soft, soft-loud-soft, soft-soft-loud), making sure that the softs are very soft as this is needed where the RH has the melody. 

It's actually come a fair way since I last posted.  I just wondered how other people practice these types of passages. 

Also you make a good point about tempo - most recordings I have listened to take this section very fast, I will try and hunt down more recordings. 

Thanks again. 

[eric_wong1387]

Oh I meant as in taking the tremolos slowly, emphasizing the strong beats a bit so you can get a sense of the rhythm as you're playing and then working in the hand changes from there.

Arrau tends to take slower tempos with many of the sonatas I think, people's opinions of his interpretations will probably vary.   However I was first introduced to the Beethoven sonatas through his set.

[kjell]

I would practice the tremolo as groups F-A-D.   FA-D.   F-AD and so on.
Next would be the rythm variations(long-short and short-long)
Then the accent first on F(ad soft) (f)A(d) (fa)D

I would also make shure to use forearm rotation for the tremolos.
I dont cross my hands for this and play the tremolo first with RH(when the LH plays the melody in the bass. Then,LH takes over the tremolos to free the RH to play the melody in the diskant.

I dont know if this will help you, but this is how I did it with very good results.

Kjell

                               

Thank for your comments,

Yeah I should have made it clearer - I am changing hands with the tremolos. 

I am not sure what you mean by "phrasing them as triplets".   What I meant was that I practice it by making one note of the triplet longer than the others (ie. long-short-short; short-long-short; short-short-long). 

I've also started practising volume accents (ie. loud-soft-soft, soft-loud-soft, soft-soft-loud), making sure that the softs are very soft as this is needed where the RH has the melody. 

It's actually come a fair way since I last posted.  I just wondered how other people practice these types of passages. 

Also you make a good point about tempo - most recordings I have listened to take this section very fast, I will try and hunt down more recordings. 

Thanks again.