VIDEO: Beethoven Sonata Op. 31 No. 3 I. Allegro

[nightwindsonata]

Would love some comments! Do you think the tempo is too fast, or just right? It's right on the edge of what I can pull off technically.

[perfect_pitch]

I think you've almost entirely got this comfortably under your fingers in terms of the technical side. Just work on the mordents and turns and just a few little bits like 1:20 - 1:26; 4:02 - 4:10, and make sure you are entirely even with the crotchet beat - we just lose the beat just momentarily.

Just in the slower moments (0:00 - 0:17; 2:04 - 2:16), I would just take more time and enjoy those slow deliberate chords and not make them too metric. This makes the jump to the faster tempo a little more fascinating and energetic.

But apart from that - you definitely know what you're doing and you managed to get round that piece with a lot of gusto and bravura.

[anacrusis]

I think the tempo overall is good. You don't have to play any faster at all! I think you can now do some slower-mid tempo technical work to help the work settle in your body, and then this tempo will not feel so much on the edge of your technical ability anymore.

I agree with perfect_pitch that you could keep the tempo calmer, or at least not play as if you are in a hurry, but allow yourself to take time during the lyrical parts with the chords and the dotted rhythm.

Check that your wrist and thumb are supple when you play the running passage work and the alberti bases that change position in particular. It looks like you have great, awake, fingers, but that you are hindered a bit by tension that to me seems to be most likely associated with the thumb sometimes.