Beethoven Pathetique

[pianist7]

My piano teacher says to hit the opening Cm chord with "weight," not force or percussion. Your takes? I think playing with force is more powerful and suprising the listeners.

[antichrist]

you can bang it if you wanna crowd-pleasing

but if your playing in front of some pro,you rather listen to your teacher

anyway after the introduction, the C part main theme will probly dazzle the audiences

[stringoverstrung]

if you listen to your piano you will notice that the sound can be very easily forced. This is not good that is why power/force is not required. Let your finger drop from a cerain height onto a key and you might be surprised how quickly the tone forced into a bad sound let alone if you put force into it. So yes listen to your teacher this time!

[ramseytheii]

The kind of attack you use always depends on the character.  I feel this is a monumental, tragic (not in the pathos sense) music, and sharp attacks will detract from the character and be vulgar.  It has to have a dignified quality, dignified in its tragedy, and not an angry bitterness, which would be conveyed by strong attacks.

More importantly though is voicing the chord.  Do not make the common mistake of playing all the notes equally.  Rather you should practice like this: play all the Cs in the chord at a certain volume.  Then, play all of the Gs and fit them "inside" the Cs.  in other words they should be a little bit less.  The least of all should be on the E-flats.  The third of a chord in a voicing like this should serve as the tint of it, and should not be too prominent.

Voicing is everything; it conveys the world of sound directly to the audience.  The Cs should sound like a column; the Gs like the tablet on top; and the E-flats like the ornaments carved into the tablet.  Something that your peripheral vision perceives, but still attached to the whole structure.

Walter Ramsey

[pianist7]

The kind of attack you use always depends on the character.  I feel this is a monumental, tragic (not in the pathos sense) music, and sharp attacks will detract from the character and be vulgar.  It has to have a dignified quality, dignified in its tragedy, and not an angry bitterness, which would be conveyed by strong attacks.

More importantly though is voicing the chord.  Do not make the common mistake of playing all the notes equally.  Rather you should practice like this: play all the Cs in the chord at a certain volume.  Then, play all of the Gs and fit them "inside" the Cs.  in other words they should be a little bit less.  The least of all should be on the E-flats.  The third of a chord in a voicing like this should serve as the tint of it, and should not be too prominent.

Voicing is everything; it conveys the world of sound directly to the audience.  The Cs should sound like a column; the Gs like the tablet on top; and the E-flats like the ornaments carved into the tablet.  Something that your peripheral vision perceives, but still attached to the whole structure.

Walter Ramsey

Thanks! Very good advice.