Interpreting Mozart: Sonata in C, K.330, Ist mov. (tutorial)

[@cdvorpiano]

Excellent tutorial, Clive! I worked on this piece about 50 years ago! It's such a joy to revisit it now and you're suggestions and examples for absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much!

[@Hkluck]

Such an insightful and hearty teaching. Fully enjoy it. I wish you were my teacher 30+ year back 😂.Thanks for your kindness ❤

[@clarayue7790]

Thank you for spending so much time preparing for this very helpful video. This is very helpful to any piano student learning this seemingly easy and actually quite difficult piece of music.

[@falstaff63]

Excellent analysis!! Thank you so much!!

[@bestmusic7339]

Amazing play such with soul and heart, bravoo maestroo👏🏻👏🏻❤️

[@Chimpy_Mc_Gibbon]

i love these videos, excellent insights. Also the first few seconds of every video where you wait to make certain you are being recorded are comedy gold lol

[@pianoinsights6092]

Thanks. And.. 'comedy gold'.. that's a first!

[@swedishorganist]

Great that you share your knowledge.

[@elliotwong748]

Great video! Thanks for the advice, very helpful! You bring so many details to our attention.

[@agneslam9261]

Thank you so much !

[@FlyingDominion]

2:25 I couldn't tell the difference between the two the first time. I had to play it again and only noticed the difference because of how you held your hand.

[@marcus8258]

What a great tutorial. This has helped me a lot:-)

[@per174]

Great info! Working on this myself now, and very much agree on the trills outline you suggest. Paying attention to slurs and staccatos, like you say the markings are quite detailed here! Thank you so much! Question: When will you do one on the lovely second movement, or have you already done that?

[@danielbischof2843]

I liked this Tutorial, very fine and helpful

[@pianoinsights6092]

Thank you, Daniel.

[@guacamole7493]

Why are Mozart's piano works performed so devoid of drama? I understandtand he wasn't Beethoven and the classic period was more restraned but every performance I've heard sounds prettified, boardering on insipid. I don't hear that so much in his other works such as his operas and symphonies. Curious what others think?

[@pierrecohenmusic]

Have you heard Zimmerman’s performance?

[@jimtownsend8010]

I think half of the problems raised by previous comments come from your piano/mic setup. There is a clicky sound? Is that the cardboard?

[@pianoinsights6092]

Not the cardboard kitty deterrent. Possibly the pedal, or some needed action regulation on an oldish piano. Oddly its only this video which seems to have raised this question.

[@jimtownsend8010]

@@pianoinsights6092 Well for what its worth, I think your playing is very good and would sound great in a good hall with a superb piano, and your insights are great and helpful

[@kliu3531]

Haha 7:43 made me think of Lang Lang 😆

[@massipicun8658]

Grande video didattico. 2 e 3 movimento please !?

[@GSHAPIROY]

I agree with most of the content here, except for the fact that, without explanation, you prolong notes followed by rests to their full length or longer (e. g. the g in m. 2), whereas the style dictates that notes followed by rests are to be shortened. 8:23 The more simple reason not to add a nachschlag is because it already exists in the form of the two notes d-e. If Mozart had wanted the regular nachschlag to be played with this trill, he would not have written the two notes d-e following it. 11:42 I never noticed that; nice observation! 14:01 Agreed; we are sometimes unfortunate enough to hear similar grace notes played accented and on the beat, and destroying the melody (e. g. openings of mvts. II and III of the Piano Trio K. 502, or the first movement of the Concerto K. 466, m. 126, or the first solo in the first movement of K. 491). 17:42 Trill on the beat, yes, but certainly without nachschlag (here the 32nd note f-sharp immediately following the trilled note acts as a substitution for the nachschlag)! The trill should only consist of three notes.

[@pianoinsights6092]

Thanks for your thoughtful input, Gabriel. It was good to do a little further research into the nachschlag. I had never thought of the end of the opening phrase as a nachschlag, any more than the second and third notes of the last movement. But if indeed it is one, all the more reason not to precede it with a dip down to B, the commonest nachschlag formula of Mozart's time, which seems quite popular here but always sounds cumbersome. Concerning your point about the trill (m.37), I agree with Sandra Rosenblum, who, in her monumental tome "Performance Practices in Classical Piano Music", quotes this particular trill (p.246) as being one 'among numerous situations...for which the answer depends on the performer's informed opinion and taste'. I have tried just using E and F# only, but feel it to be leaden-footed and lacking the brio and elegance that the six-note turn can provide on this assertive strong beat, as substitute for the short trill. Rosenblum provides several examples of such effective substitutions. I like that she quotes important passages from the classic contemporary works on piano playing such as those of Fuchs and CPE Bach, but allows for some freedom as well. You mention the dictates of the style. A style as complex and full of refinement and infinite variety as the Classical style shouldn't be tied to sets of unbreakable rules. These treatises set out guidelines and paint a general picture of trends in performance practices of the day. But sticking to them with military discipline surely cramps one's own imagination and limits the wide range of experience that can be enjoyed from different interpretative options. As long as one's choices (including taking the low G in m.2 to its full duration) are based on informed opinion and taste, deviations from the 'rules' are not just allowable but essential.

[@GSHAPIROY]

@@pianoinsights6092 My piano teacher once said "rules were made to be broken" and "there are exceptions to rules, and then there are exceptions to the exceptions". In m. 37, one could perhaps begin the trill from above, and thus add a few more notes, but I believe that the dotted rhythm should be preserved, which is not possible if a nachschlag with the lower note (d-sharp) is added. Furthermore, just yesterday I noticed an interesting passage in the Act I Finale of Cosi fan Tutte (dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/nma_pdf.php?c=dnNlcD0zMDYmcDE9MjU2JnAyPTI2NyZsPTImdGl0bGU9Li4lMkZvYmpzJTJGcGRmJTJGbm1hXzMwNl8yNTZfMjY3LnBkZg==&cc=a54f54e413cfe0f449363b0971dc092d), m. 381, where the trills on the dotted figures (vl. I/II, Despina) have no nachschlag, since apparently the following sixteenth note replaces it, but the trill in the viola has a nachschlag written in.

[@pianoinsights6092]

@@GSHAPIROY Ha ha, yes, there will always be Beckmessers out there taking exception to exceptions! In m. 37, if you start the trill on the upper note you harm the upward trajectory of the melody for no good reason. If you want to maintain the literal dotted rhythm without shortening the 32nd note (which in itself is also 'allowed'), you can play four 64ths and two 32nds instead of two triplets of 32nds. The appearance of the "Cosi" nachschlag in the viola only is owing to the fact the viola only has one upward step to travel where the voices have two. The effect is much more comical and woozy and off-balance sounding than if Mozart had chosen to have the voices trill on D and B instead of C and A and end with a nachschlag in parallel with the viola.

[@rosemaryclarke6250]

Who's giving the tutorial here?!

[@jimtownsend8010]

What in the lords name are you doing with cardboard over the dampers? Lovely video though. Very helpful

[@pianoinsights6092]

Good question! The equation is: two cats+nice cosy dark inside of piano=strong magnetic force!

[@metteholm4833]

Have you done one on 2nd movement?

[@pianoinsights6092]

No

[@FrederickViner]

Thank you! Just started this sonata and found this really insightful. What do you think of Horowitz's famous interpretation?

[@pianoinsights6092]

I remember hearing his Vienna(?) recital broadcast live on PBS around 1985 and being enchanted with his performance of K330.

[@27scole]

I don't know about all this dynamic notation and bother about how to play something. Why don't you just listen to the melody, feel it and then play it. From that feel. Don't play without feel, it will sound empty. You can't feel when your head is stuck to the paper. So, listen to something, a part of a piece, and play it by ear whatever comes up as something you feel to play. You cannot be too much in the details, like quieter note after a slur. It's an overall feeling and from that you play the phrase. Melody is feeling, it has emotioal content, meaning. And you can play it like You feel too at any given time (feel).

[@sanchopansa1950]

all fine and dandy. but we would like to be able to read the keys as we follow you.

[@rothschildianum]

I listened to your Pathetique, it sounded pretty good. But this Mozart, you cannot execute nicely, but I know that you have the correct idea.

[@rothschildianum]

After listening to your Mozart playing, I think the main problem is your touch (you hit the key so hard). It was very harsh and also lack of evenness.

[@jesseth9419]

Where is your recording?

[@sanchopansa1950]

your piano needs a brush-up.