Mozart 570

[pianoman53]

Hey y'all,

Due to an injury, I haven't really felt like hanging here... But now I've returned, with the very charming, late B-flat sonata by Mozart.

I didn't record the whole thing, because, well, I didn't want to.

Here is anyway the 3rd movement!


Tell me what you think!


Oh, right.. it starts about 20 secs in.

[dcstudio]

Glad you are back!  sorry about your injury but your playing is sounding quite healthy...   

[jimroof]

I played this sonata in my senior year in college.  I have an idea for you to consider...

When I was working on this, I made this funny little discovery that may or may not be worth mentioning, but I will anyway.  It seemed to me that Mozart's piano sonatas seemed to fall into two categories - symphonies and operas.  Hear me out...

The first movement of K570 could very easily be rescored as an opera.  There are tutti sections, then places where one could easily hear a lead soprano, a basso buffo, or other solo voices playing around over simple orchestral accompaniment between interjected tutti sections where the 'whole orchestra' plays.  When I started to think of the FIRST movement in this way a whole world of interpretation opened up for me.  In contrast, K576 is NOT such a piece.  576 would transcribe into a very nice symphony.

The 3rd movement of K570 is not really like the first movement in this way, BUT the first movement colored my take on the 3rd.  The key term I would apply to the 3rd movement is 'lyrical'.  There are the little staccato sections that are like laughter and the entire movement, for me, was lighthearted and joyful.  It might be your recording (sounds a bit overdriven and for that reason you might not have captured your dynamics in the recording), but I am not hearing the delicacy and nuance that a lot of these phrases can produce.  Or, quite possibly, I am just hearing it differently than you.  I would encourage you to think in terms of how a vocalist might perform many of the phrases in this movement and see if that brings any change to your concept of this work.

Hope you don't mind my comments.  If it was not for my intimate knowledge of this piece I would have just said 'sounds good, keep up the good work'...  ; )

[pianoman53]

Hi, thanks for the nice comments!

Yes, the sonatas tend to be symphonies or operas (Or wind-quintet, as the second movement).

I think the third movement is much more operatic than the first, in the way the sections are built. On the other hand, I don't quite see it as lyrical, but very instrumental... But thanks for the input!

[dcstudio]

When I was working on this, I made this funny little discovery that may or may not be worth mentioning, but I will anyway.  It seemed to me that Mozart's piano sonatas seemed to fall into two categories - symphonies and operas.  Hear me out...

interesting insight there...  and I agree.  That makes a whole lot of sense.  Interesting, also that you were a senior with a brain that was literally teeming with music history, theory, literature, acoustics, and every other class they could put "music" in front of when you had this revelation.   I related everything in my life to musical concepts when I was at university.