Schubert Sonata in A minor

[arielpiano]

From a recital a few months ago...

[slobone]

Very very nice -- I enjoyed that a lot. Thanks for posting.

I especially liked the way you played the last movement, which I'm guessing is the hardest one. You did a great job with the sudden changes in dynamics. Are you a professional? You certainly should be.

[rachfan]

Hi Ariel,

I was impressed by your playing of this Schubert sonata.  Fine musicianship and artistry.  Keep up the good work!

David 

[troglodyte]

Thanks for posting this. It is my favourite Schubert sonata and IMO perhaps the most difficult of all from a musical perspective. You have all the notes well in your hands and form the phrases nicely. Yet I miss something. I wonder what emotion you want to convey, particularly in the first movement which sounds a bit monotonous. It is marked Allegro giusto and I didn't really hear that. The short phrases of the main theme do not connect to form a longer phrase. And somehow I didn't hear the naked fear and desperation that I associate with this piece. Now this may be just my personal preference, and as I said it is really hard to make this interesting without overdoing it. Also I liked the third movement best. Playing those runs cleanly is no mean feat, and there were glimpses where you seemed to abandon the ambition to hit all notes and concentrated on bringing out emotive content. If you do that more - play it as if it is the most important thing in the world - you could make this really good. You clearly have the technique.

[arielpiano]

Thanks for the comments, guys. The topic of emotion comes up frequently in commentary on my playing. A fantastic example is a master class I played last week for Robert Levin (I played the Franck Prelude, Choral and Fugue). You can see it here:

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It is a whole hour, but you can skip my playing and go directly to the lesson, which begins at 20:40. For those of you who haven't seen or heard Robert Levin before it will be a huge revelation. He is a truly astounding musician and teacher.