Beethoven Sonata 15 (Pastorale) Andante

[dss62467]

I learned this piece last summer and am relearning it now.  My skill has improved since then and I am able to hear how I'm playing it... and am not exactly happy.   The section I'm referring to is where it changes to D major.   My teacher tells me to play it "cute".  Seymour Lipkin plays it "cute".  I play it like I've got cement fingers!   I can't get that light happy tone to it.

Is there a trick to making it sound bouncy and fun?  something I should be doing with my wrists?  Or should I picture myself chasing butterflies on a sunny day?  I'm not much of a butterfly chaser...   Doesn't help that I have a tough time finding notes when I'm doing staccato.  I tend to jump right over where I need to be.

[pianot]

I know what you mean by cement fingers. and NO, this is NOT an IMAGINATION issue where your mind is just not picturing the "right" things ... no!  the problem is in your hands and fingers and, I guess, in the entire body.  Almost no one teaching piano teaches and develops the strength and agility together in the hands and fingers.ad.  I did not have any strength or agility well before either, until I started working with exercises by the  somewhat odd pianist and composer Lubomyr Melnyk.  I heard his remarkable playing, and wrote to him, and got several special exercises that go my mind and fingers working . It took me around 2 months to get the difference to stick in my fingers, and then, after about 4 months, my 4th and 5th fingers were really strong, and everything got so easy then. Piano teachers just do not help in this realm, at least mine didn't, and I am just so glad that I found out about this because now, it takes me a lot less time to handle the Beethoven Sonatas.  I also found that doing those exercises got my wrist and arm working better, so that they both HELPED me get force into the keys.  Don/t just think about learning a certain passage , you should think about getting your fingers strong and supple because these two things GO TOGETHER!  without strength you can NOT be supple, the muscles won/t let you. You feel your fingers like cement because they need to get enlivened!
 I think you should contact this guy Melnyk.  He seemed very happy to discuss the art of the piano .. he teaches university students who have inferior technique and helps them a lot through his etudes. 
Trond W.