I play this Sonata for a half of a year now and I have mostly problems with the third movement. This movement doesn't fit me, but I still want to play it to convince myself that I can do it. This part of Sonata I play for two months, so it's far from what it supposed to be.
I have to be my own teacher, so here are my comments to my recording from today.
I didn't breath - I think it's my major problem in this piece. There are obvious mistakes, which were caused by mental fatigue - it started in the second part of it and killed the coda. The tiredness was caused by not breathing enough - when the phrase doesn't breath, the pianist also doesn't. I kneaded some phrases, because I couldn't stop myself.
I can't hear the difference between piano and forte in my recording, it may be caused by quality of camera, but I should pay attention to it in future.
I think the tempo I had chosen was too fast for my knowledge of this piece. I couldn't manage pulse properly in this tempo, because I couldn't count it. It may be even the final tempo for me, I think it's fast enough. But now is not the time for such tempo.
Rubato sections should be more rubato, but with counting, the will be more natural. I should sing more in these spots.
There is no interpretation in my playing, I just played the notes - I think it's my second major mistake. Maybe when I interpret this the phrases will become more understandable and it will be easier to breathe. Nothing had any meaning, which makes this recording not acceptable.
I recommend myself:
- Practice slowly.
- Practice with counting.
- Play in a medium tempo a whole movement, don't make mistakes - it's an "exercise" for my mental problems with it.
- Pay more attention to dynamic marks.
- Create an interpretation of it, listen to some recordings more.
Howdy. It's "neuralfirings" from Piano World. I find that I hear dynamics more clearly when I play than when I listen to a recording. And I record myself on a digital piano, so I can't blame it on bad recording equipment. I think when we play, our mind expects a certain richness in dynamics. So our mind's ear influences the way we hear ourselves playing. On recordings, we don't have this noise clouding our judgment.
ReplyDeleteAs for interpretation, do you mean you don't have an interpretation or that the interpretation didn't come through in the recording?
About dynamics it seems to me that in this case it's both - my mind which exaggerate the dynamics and the camera issue. It's something I should work on.
DeleteAbout interpretation - I know that I haven't got any, but after two months of playing it I wouldn't expect it from myself. I also think that it's time to prepare one, because it'll take some time to learn how to express it.
You know.. I used to learn notes first, then worry about interpretation. Lately, I started to think about interpreting while learning notes. I LOVE IT! Actually, now that I don't have a teacher I start by listening to a bunch of recordings. That's when I first start thinking about interpretation--how different artists have interpreted the piece. Looks like you've already started doing that since you've settled on Horowitz.
DeleteAs I'm learning the notes I think about interpretation and try out different things. I find that this actually makes my note learning phase much more enjoyable.
That said, my interpretations change all the time though. :)
I heard many of recordings of this Sonata, also many different versions (for example Lugansky has his own also), so I'm not settled. I like Horowitz's version of score more, but it doesn't mean I will stick with his interpretation. I don't want to copy him.
DeleteUsually I think about interpretation when I learn notes like you, but I'm not attached to it, because in this way I can't interpret the piece as the whole. In this case it was different - this particular movement doesn't fit me, I have got a problem to understand this music. I have some clues, what it should be like, but it's not enough to be an interpretation, but I'm working on it :). I just need time to sit on the coach with the score - that's how I make my "final" interpretation (of course it's never final).