Beethoven sonatas/works to prepare for op. 110

[kelly_kelly]

I'll start by saying that I'm not a huge fan of Beethoven sonatas in general compared to most pianists, but I do love the last few along with some others. Op. 110 is probably my favorite and I have heard that it's not quite as technically demanding as op. 109/111/53/57, and I would love to have a shot at it within a couple of years or so while I can still take lessons from my current teacher. The problem is that I haven't yet played much Beethoven, since I generally prefer Mozart/Schubert, but I know I can't jump into op. 110 without experience. The only Beethoven sonatas I have played are Moonlight (but this was many years ago and I'm sure I would be disgusted if I heard my playing then) and op. 14 no. 2 (more recently, but I didn't like the 2nd and 3rd movements enough to really polish them). Relatively recently I've played Schubert D. 537 (mostly the 1st movement) and D. 664 (this one I really polished), and also Mozart K. 332, and I'm currently working on Bach's C minor partita, Chopin's Barcarolle, and Kabalevsky's 3rd sonata. I would prefer to avoid everything op. 14 and earlier, with the exception of op. 10 no. 3. I also have smallish hands (can just about reach an octave, occasionally a 9th if the tempo is slow enough) so pieces that demand a lot of stretching might be difficult.

Thanks!
Kelly

[joeplaysthepiano]

I would suggest playing at least 2 more Beethoven sonatas before you tackle Op.110.  I say this mainly because you don't want technical difficulties to get in the way of interpreting this profound piece.  Interpretation should be 95% of your worries when you try to play a piece like this.  I even think you should play 1 earlier sonata that is technically harder than op.110 beforehand just to make sure technical issues won't get in the way at all.  With that said, you should play any 2 of the following to help prepare you:

-op.10, no.3
-op.26
-op.27, no.1
-op.78
-op.81a
-op.31, no.2
-op.31, no.3
-op.90