Playing Mozart

[perfect_playing]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on playing Mozart and how you go about practising his works.
Here are some of my thoughts.

Whenever I play Mozart I am simply blown away by the sheer perfection of the music. It sounds so perfect and complete, so smart. Have any of you ever had this feeling?

Also, when going about practising Mozart it's a great idea to try and see what happens when you bring out a line that is not the main melody. It never ceases to amaze me how such a seemingly simple piece with generally only single notes in each hand can be made to sound so interesting by a variety of different touches and subtle balances between the parts.

I encourage you to discuss!

[hardy_practice]

To such genius we happily assign our will!

[gr8ape]

I found its easy to learn but hard to play well. I think one needs to take it slow, concentrate and listen!  I admit its quite hard to take it up to speed without messing up all the intonation. I dont really any concrete tips but if anyone does please share.

Especially for playing mozart runs and ascending/descending motifs..... they are quite hard to play evenly

[verqueue]

I also find Mozart hard to play. There is nowhere to hide in his music. His pieces demands great listening to every detail without getting overwhelmed by them.

I practice his works slowly, I don't do every detail at first. After I learn a piece I start to work on fast tempo, but I still mix it with slowly playing to not loose the details. And then it's time to do all details and get frustrated that everything sounds bad;).

[faulty_damper]

It's difficulties lies in the ability to execute the differences in:
1. legato
2. non-legato
3. staccato, various forms

There's a huge difference in musical character between legato and non-legato.  Both are connected but legato has overlap.  If a melody requires a smooth quality, legato must be employed.  However, if the performer doesn't know the minute differences between legato and non-legato, then that will be problematic.  They sound similar but express a difference in tone which affects musical meaning.

Further problems with understanding the bass notes.  Alberti bass usually requires the bass to be held like a continuo.  Otherwise, the sound will be too jumpy if played as written.  This is especially true in adagios.

[perfect_playing]

I found its easy to learn but hard to play well. I think one needs to take it slow, concentrate and listen!  I admit its quite hard to take it up to speed without messing up all the intonation. I dont really any concrete tips but if anyone does please share.

Especially for playing mozart runs and ascending/descending motifs..... they are quite hard to play evenly

I generally find it very easy to play the runs evenly and with the correct notes...the true difficulty in performing Mozart lies in mastering the subtleties...sort of like what faulty_damper wrote.