Beethoven sonata no 9 - what does it still need

[panolof]

Hello PS members, before I continue work on this sonata, I need some help with this movement. This piece is the one piece I have most experience with having performed it countless times over the last 3-4 years.

I want to take this piece one step further. I'll record the entire sonata after the December holidays along witha list of works for a competition.

Any constructive criticism - I don't care how negative, go for it.

And any comments on performance of this sonata, phrasing or shared motifs or themes between movements. I'm by myself over the next month with this, so any help will be considered very highly.

Learning/perfecting at the moment for a competition in March:

Bach Prelude and fugue in c minor BWV847
Beethoven sonata in E major No 9 op. 14 no. 1 (whole sonata)
Chopin étude in F major op. 10 no. 8
Chopin Ballade in Ab major No 3 op. 47
Poulenc Toccata no. 3 from trois pieces (unsure about key - any idea? Atonal, polytonal)
Debussy cathedrale engloutie from book 1 in C major
Peter Klatzow Makoemazaan
Mozart concerto No 20 in d minor (first movement)

Later this year(June):

Schumann fantasietücke No. 1 and 2

If all the pieces are learnt :

 Chopin andante spianato and grande polonaise brillante (quite ambitious😁)

[birba]

What does it need?  It needs music.  You have all the notes right, played with a nice tone, correct rythm, etc.  But now you have to breathe life into it.  Take the first four measures. It's one long melodic phrase.  Can't you feel it trying to climb climb and finally reach the top (of a hill or something)?  So you have to judge the crescendo that reaches over three measures and climaxes in the fourth.  Split it up. First measure piano, second mezzo piano, third mezzo forte, fourth forte.  The accompanying chords are only a harmonic and rythmic base, so play them softer.   Go through the entire movement and find these phrases and sculpt them in this way.  There's almost always a culminating point to a phrase where everything else leads up to it and/or leaves it.  Your preparation is good.  Very metronomical.  Almost too much so.  Even for early Beethoven.  It would also help if you just speed it up a few notches.