Is Mozart really that hard to play?

[lelle]

It has been said that Mozart is "too easy for children, and too difficult for artists" or something like that. But sometimes I wonder if the whole reason Mozart is so feared and feels so hard is because we have decided he is hard and needs to be played extra perfectly, or something. Mozart is very transparent and naked so imperfections and wrong notes stand out, yes. But they do so in Chopin and other composers too. It's hard to play Chopin, or Beethoven, or Fauré, or Haydn, or even Liszt really really well, where we truly do justice to the works and show them off in their best light. At least I think so.

And I don't love every pianist's Mozart in any case. So why can't we allow ourselves to play some imperfect Mozart? Some Mozart that is rough around the edges? Some Mozart with wrong notes.

I think if everyone just could relax a bit around playing Mozart, it would become easier to play Mozart.

Huzzah for imperfect Mozart.

What do you guys think?

[dogperson]

Mozart is very transparent in that imprecision can’t be hidden in the pedaling or a flourish or a large chord. And yes, all professional performances are not equal —/ just as they aren’t with other composer’s works, as well.

Want to play Mozart with wrong notes, over-pedaling or imprecision. If that is your plan,  Go ahead.  You don’t need anyone’s permission.

[j_tour]

What do you guys think?

I think Mozart is hard to play. 

How many people have some of those crazy pianos with cymbals and all that to get the "Turkish" sound, or knee pedals on their home equipment?

Nobody uses those kinds of instruments anymore.

And, how many average pianists can read the full orchestrated score off the page, using all of the alto and the C clefs?  Any conductor can, but I don't think many pianists are adept at sight-reading an actual score, beyond just the F and the G clef.

After all, a lot of the glory of Mozart's music comes from his orchestral writing, IMHO, so one would need to explore that.

Maybe it's not just the notes of the page, for keyboard music of Mozart, but it's surely true one needs a broader understanding of music making than just a romantic and post-romantic idea.  And it does seem that most beginning students nowadays fetishize the romantic era in piano music.  I don't know why that is, but it seems to be.

Rather, one needs a sensibility for the era.

I'm not a Mozart expert at all, but his music seems to require a finesse and an understanding of the period that is not at all trivial.

[brogers70]

And I don't love every pianist's Mozart in any case. So why can't we allow ourselves to play some imperfect Mozart? Some Mozart that is rough around the edges? Some Mozart with wrong notes.

I think if everyone just could relax a bit around playing Mozart, it would become easier to play Mozart.

Huzzah for imperfect Mozart.

What do you guys think?

Before recordings were possible the way most people heard music most of the time was by playing it themselves or listening to other amateurs play it in their homes on a keyboard. Amateurs may have been pretty good in those days (with no screens to distract them from practice time) but I imagine they played some wrong notes or slowed down at the tricky bits sometimes. And yet they got something out of Mozart all the same. Of course a better performance is better, but Mozart (and most good composers) shine through even a sub-optimal performance.

[lelle]

Before recordings were possible the way most people heard music most of the time was by playing it themselves or listening to other amateurs play it in their homes on a keyboard. Amateurs may have been pretty good in those days (with no screens to distract them from practice time) but I imagine they played some wrong notes or slowed down at the tricky bits sometimes. And yet they got something out of Mozart all the same. Of course a better performance is better, but Mozart (and most good composers) shine through even a sub-optimal performance.

Yes, I think so too.

The reason I bring this up is because I do notice a real fear of performing Mozart among many of the pianists I know. I feel it's time we allowed ourselves to perform some Mozart with a lot of spirit, and allow ourselvs to make some mistakes along the way.

[ranjit]

I think part of the difficulty comes from the fact that the modern piano is quite different from the one in Mozart's time, so the technique is less natural for the modern piano. That is to say, I think that Mozart would be easier and more 'natural' on a period instrument.

[anacrusis]

Mozart is scary. But I think part of what makes it hard IS fearing that you'll play poorly. The more you can surrender and accept yourself and the music, the less you tie yourself into knots from thinking it's hard, the better you'll generally play in my experience.