Beethoven 25 Op 79 - 2nd Movement

[neciebugs]

Still not perfect, but also working on movement 1 and 3. I have been playing since I was 5 (so a long time!). I have a BA in music (piano) from years ago, and teach private lessons on top of teaching Special Education classes at the high school level. I got away from practicing... so I am working on a few Bach Inventions, Schubert Waltz Sentimentales, and Beethoven 79 in its entirety. I have dreadful performance anxiety... however, I am getting better. My husband is a professional pianist... so I always feel as if I am competing! Thanks for any comments good, bad, ugly!

link to youtube video

https://youtu.be/0BEJdmjLPCU

~Denise

[lelle]

Good job! I don't think we always acknowledge the courageousness of putting yourself out there when you feel anxious about your performance.

My feedback would be:
- Work on playing all the double notes exactly together. Counterintuitively, I find this to be easier the more soft and relaxed you can keep your hands, because it becomes easier to control your fingers gently and exactly the less muscle tension you need to fight.
- Work on your legato. Make sure the melody sounds as legato as possible. This is also a very good feedback mechanism for your suppleness and smoothness of movement, because it's easier to get a legato sound (regardless if you are physically binding the notes together or not) when you are relaxed.
- You can have a slightly more flexible tempo to help you shape the phrases. There can be a slight rise and fall of pulse to help you - if it draws attention to itself, its too much.

Thanks for sharing and do post the other movements later!

[neciebugs]

Thank you for your feedback! My nerves definitely get the best of me... I hear what you are saying and the recording is all telling. The double notes definitely need more crispness - togetherness. Something I harp on my students about at each lesson, but guilty on my own. As far as phrasing, with the legato passages... definitely hear you there too. Great feedback! Thanks again!

[dw4rn]

I think this was a lovely and very touching version! I admire your courage and would really like to hear more. I am sure your dog feels very content and peaceful lying under the piano

Of course lelle is right that the legato cantabile is key to this movement. And to help with that I think you need to work through the fingering of the right hand double notes. With your current fingering you need to make jumps which hinders the flow of the melody.

I'm not sure about lelle's flexibility of tempo advice - spontaneously I would actually say the opposite. When the accompaniment switches from eighth-notes to sixteenth, make sure you continue in the same tempo and try to find your flow within this very stable framework.