Teaching Schubert Impromptu op 90 #1, and Mozart 310 A minor - any advice?

[green]

Any advice on teaching Schubert Impromptu op 90 #1, and Mozart 310 A minor would be appreciated. Or links to master class material, utube or elsewhere would be great. How does Op90 no 1 rank in terms of difficulty compared with the other Impromptus? The student is an adult returner, 44 years old, she studied from 7-18 then stopped. Meeting in two weeks, she also wants to work through the Goldberg variations.

Thanks.

[j_menz]

Are you sure she is the right student for you, or perhaps more to the point that you are the right teacher for her? You seem to have asked questions about pretty much everything you are going to be doing.

[green]

Actually i will be teaching her daughter as well, and while there is much we can work on in those pieces, I have never taught them nor performed the GV or the op90 #1. I have played and taught the mozart though, just trying to get some alternative perspectives, advice from other posts was helpful, and of course these topics can always be of benefit to others here as well. I suspect she is playing advanced repertoire but not at the level it would assume.

[green]

The op90 #1 sounds so familiar to me, it sounds like many other Schubert pieces I know, but cant quite put my finger on which pieces. The symphonic opening, the pervasive chorale like structure, the drone like meditation on repeated notes, the sense of unresolved ennui, no real 'climaxes' - more like just juxtaposed textures - and what the heck are those two Brahms like sections - amazing! I hear the late sonatas in here and perhaps some of the songs - Death and the Maiden? Understated, heart felt, very melancholic, and slightly hypnotic. 

[iansinclair]

for me at least -- I'm currently working on the Schubert -- by far the most difficult aspect of it is getting the pervasive 2 or 4 against 3 correct and even.  The dynamics are important as well -- both between sections, and between melodic lines and accompaniment pretty much throughout.  It's not an easy piece to get right...

[slobone]

I'm working on the Goldbergs myself, even though a friend of mine who's a really good teacher told me they were too hard for me. But obviously some of them are easier than others. You might want to start her off with some inventions, or WTC, to get warmed up. But if she insists on going straight to the Goldbergs, at least don't try to do them in order from 1 to 30. In particular, stay away from the ones that were originally written for 2 keyboards.

Roughly in order from easiest to hardest, you might start with: 7, 19, 10, 13, 9, 4, 2, 3, 1, 6, 30, 18... Of course depending on what tempo you want to use.

[green]

How about the English and French Suites, even if only the Preludes, what would your recommendations for order there be?

[slobone]

I believe the French Suites are usually considered to be easier, but I don't know them all that well. In any event Bach has very thoughtfully provided the piano student with great pieces on nearly every level. And the things you learn from them will help you with other composers as well.

The Henle website has difficulty ratings for all Bach's keyboard pieces:

https://www.henle.de/en/search/index.html?Instrumentation=Keyboard+instruments&Instrument=Piano+solo&Instrument=Piano+solo&sort=Composer&filter=Bach%2C+Johann+Sebastian

[green]

As it turned out the adult student was very very out of shape, I would say not even playing up to a grade 5 level of technical proficiency. Anyways she wants to go back to Bach, perhaps some Haydn, and Scarlatti. Any recommendations?