Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2
Tell me about this Beethoven; Pastoral Sonata
Topic Started: Dec 31 2006, 05:32 AM (567 Views)
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Followup:

Started working on the 1st movement about 2 weeks after the New Year, and now can almost, almost get through it. Still with fumbles and mistakes, and, if I've had one too many Scotches, it breaks down. However, it's very approachable and lovely.

Even Mrs. ("Must you play that classical crap all the time?") George said tonight, "That's pretty." I cannot imagine a higher complement from her.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Oh, how are the other 3 movements, in terms of difficulty (and I know about the end of the 4th movement which Beethoven included "to disourage the amateurs.")?
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
bachophile
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
im presently doing 49/1.

(EDIT, so apple doesnt have a fit, im also trying to perfect WTC II c minor prelude; i always try to have a bach in the works, even while working on other things...)

i like it so much more then 49/2.

i know they r both the light sonatas (read-for people who cant do much more then chopsticks anyway), but it seems to me that 49/1 has so much more depth and angst then 49/2.

i am so jealous george of your ability to just read your way through serious music. i am doomed to always play plonkety-plonk.

is there a similar "listing" of mozart sonatas from easy to difficult.

i can play the theme of 331 and the first few variations...

i am now working on the easier bits of the viennese sonatinas, but since i am familar with all the mozart sonatas by over listening to uchida's complete piano sonata, i would love to do something from that...maybe the andantes of 311 or 330.

i keep dreaming.
"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
David Burton
Senior Carp
Interesting thread. I’ll have to get back to you all on Beethoven as it seems, for whatever reasons, his stuff is being played more often these days, including me. I’ve been playing through a lot of them and have sort of decided to memorize Op 27 #1 - despite the fact that it bugs my youngest daughter, who lives with me, and Op 28, which she also thinks is less good than some of the others I play like Op 22 or Op 27 #2 – the last movement she always wants me to play, LOL. I’ve also been playing through Op. 81a which I used to have down pretty well, bringing it back up to speed, and believe it or not Op 2 #3 which begins with one of the more difficult to articulate little wiggles in thirds. It’s amazing how something that looks so simple can be so difficult. I’ve also been reading through some of the really big ones including Op. 109 which is actually probably my favorite of them all and even the breathtakingly beautiful – to me anyway – Op. 101.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Couple of thoughts:

Bach: I don't have an ability to "just read" through serious music. I was looking at Beethoven Op. 7 about 6 months ago. I "got through" the exposition, with fits and starts, at about 1/2-1/3 tempo - barely. Music like Ravel frustrates the hell out of me because it doesn't "fit" under my fingers. I'm finding Pavane for a Dead Pricess devilishly hard, because the chords and runs are not what I expect. I try to set aside about an hour and a half for sight-reading practice. Haydn is wonderful for that, particularly the slow movements. The more you do, the better you get. Besides, it's fun!

As to Op. 49, everyone learns that as their first Beethoven sonata (after the 1st movement of the Moonlight), and everyone shrugs and says, "Well, it's Beethoven, but it's easy." Not so. I have found Andras' Shiff's series of lectures to be wonderful in giving insights to the Beethoven sonatas, and his thoughts on Op 49 (1 & 2) are revelatory. Here's the link to all the lectures. Believe me, after you hear Schiff talk about Op. 49, you'll never play them the same way again.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
plays88keys
Pisa-Carp
George, the opening D major octave repeat in the left hand...someone once referred to it as "the pulse of the universe." I never forgot that -- treated that way it brings depth and meaning to what Beethoven was trying to convey.
You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
plays88keys
Apr 17 2007, 08:57 AM
George, the opening D major octave repeat in the left hand...someone once referred to it as "the pulse of the universe." I never forgot that -- treated that way it brings depth and meaning to what Beethoven was trying to convey.

off to my piano.......
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Phlebas
Member Avatar
Bull-Carp
George K
Apr 16 2007, 09:07 PM


Oh, how are the other 3 movements, in terms of difficulty (and I know about the end of the 4th movement which Beethoven included "to disourage the amateurs.")?

Second movement - difficult part is the staccato lh against legato rh. Makes for tricky pedalling.

Third movement - Broken octaves in the trio are tricky, also bringing out the different characters.

Fourth movement - Well, there's that coda. Also, you have to pay close attention to the dynamics throughout. It's important to keep it moving, and contrast (in a measured way) the stormier sections.
Random FML: Today, I was fired by my boss in front of my coworkers. It would have been nice if I could have left the building before they started celebrating. FML

The founding of the bulk of the world's nation states post 1914 is based on self-defined nationalisms. The bulk of those national movements involve territory that was ethnically mixed. The foundation of many of those nation states involved population movements in the aftermath. When the only one that is repeatedly held up as unjust and unjustifiable is the Zionist project, the term anti-semitism may very well be appropriate. - P*D


Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2