Practicing Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso with Dr. Leann Osterkamp

Watch Dr. Leann Osterkamp teach the music of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and more on tonebase!
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While Mendelssohn immortalized the Scherzo genre in his Midsummer Night’s Dream, this exhilarating style of writing shows up regularly in his compositions. The fleet-fingered “Presto scherzando” section of his most famous piano work, the Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14 is exemplary. It can also be a pain for the pianist.
In this segment from her hour-long lesson on the piece, Steinway Artist Dr. Leann Osterkamp targets the chief technical challenges of the scherzando - including fast staccato playing, rapid alternating octaves, and oscillating double thirds - and shares insights into gaining facility in Mendelssohn’s scintillating passagework.
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[@someonerandom1332]

1. On staccato 00:00. Avoid thinking about staccato upwards when playing quick 00:58. Playing staccato without actually leaving the key: it's more about the attack (01:24) and keeping close to the key 01:57. Use a scale or a piece that you've played a lot: pretend that the whole piece is in staccato and work on never leaving the key as you do the staccato + loose wrist, almost scrubbing the key a little bit (02:25) 2. Safety checkpoints 02:41. Video-game analogy 03:42. Use every 2nd eight note within the groups of 3 as a safety point 04:04. Relaxing your arms, checking in and redropping your arm weight in every one of the small groups 04:27. Example 3. Oscillating double thirds (05:05) 06:05. Leaving of the G 06:36. Leaving out the B - the same with the following third (06:52 and 06:58) 07:42. Starting the trill from the bottom 4. Finger twister from mm. 156-157 (08:26) 08:45. in m. 154 we can bring out the top note to make it sound sparkly 08:58. Mm. 156-157 09:24. Think about where the pattern (09:41, every group of four notes) repeats itself and regroup it that way 10:11. Instead of memorizing the whole measure as a unit, memorize it in groups of four notes 10:23. Dropping your arm weight 10:41. Try putting it with the left hand grouping the right in groups of four (even though at the end we won’t bring those groups out) without the left hand having to play necessary the exact same rhythm 10:58. Summing up 5. Practice advice for octaves (11:15) 11:42. Start by always playing them together to have complete balance between both of our hands 12:12. Relax and have a sense of what is like to transition from octave to octave - 12:22. Dead squid, dropping the squid to go splat on the keys: a) get used to the feeling of having 0 control over your fingers when you drop (12:44); b) not prepare the position, drop your hand with no expectation (12:52) 13:14. Exemplification of the dead squid Once the notes and the pattern memorized 14:14. Begin to know your own hand, rotating motion (14:18) 14:41. Think of the “stirring the pot” motion to play octaves and play the notes separately (thumb-thumb out, 14:58, to coordinate the thumbs to feel next to each other) to “scoop” both ways (15:07) 15:18. Other options: bottom to top/top to bottom but trying not holding onto notes and creating tension, so it’s better to keep the natural rotating movement 16:04. The left hand is going to have to lead everything Once used to the balance of both hands together 16:30. Pretend in your head both hands are playing together without actually doing it, what is, start separating your hands ever so slightly (16:41) 17:00. Summing up (getting rid of tension in your hands, getting used to notes and patterns)

[@da__lang]

I love that she gives us permission to cheat on the double trills.

[@shawnchen1637]

Like this is the hardest part I can’t even play it fast lol 😂😂😂😂

[@tommasocona]

They are the reason why I’m here

[@parabecio978]

Thank you! I'm very happy! I studied the Rondo when I was 24, today I'm graduated but this piece was never perfect. After 36 years, at the end, you give me a solution. Today my job is organist in Florence, but I love piano too. Thank you! 💙

[@alee2578]

Best octave teaching! Thanks

[@annachepikovaconcertpianis791]

Terrific, insightful and professional-thank you! 💖🎹

[@tommylee6034]

Thanks for sharing those very useful tips for playing fast staccatos; playing octaves without tension. 👍👍👍I really enjoy the lesson! Hope there’ll be more videos from you.

[@blahblahh189]

Very articulate. Thank you.

[@Soundofcats99]

Excellent video, very helpful, thank you!

[@olivergaag]

Amazing! I felt a bit stuck in my practice and this helped me see the piece with new eyes. Thank you!

[@jazzcama]

Thank you so very much for this wonderful video. I am a decent amateur pianist. Just last week I ordered the sheet music of the rondo again in a flash of inspiration. I have played before, quite some decades ago, as a teenager. I am eager to try it again, helped by your awesome pointers.

[@rattusmorfo8517]

It has been really useful, thank you!

[@pauchalo]

Very useful, thank you! Specially about the fast staccati. The less vertical movement the faster you can play.

[@verymozart]

Thanks for this video lesson 👍❤️

[@user-hn9px1rj6p]

Thank you!!🎉

[@CruceEntertainment]

I’m learning this now. It will be great for parties when people say hey play something on the piano!

[@privateprivate22]

Thank you, very constructive. Hope to see more.

[@s.hawkins3288]

Thanks for the technique on octaves. I will start practicing the technique on tonight.

[@anb.1053]

thank you

[@victorfernandezgarcia]

Very useful, thanks

[@raymondloeffler1656]

Good illustrations

[@freemusicstation22]

Great work 👍🏽

[@michelscotto3900]

thank you very much Madame ))) 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@ChopinPianos-pf1my]

to get staccato, you can also use use a fast prehensile movement, with the fingers, and not lifting with the arm, but with the wrist... Arm participation is something that was incorporated in the late 1800's, partly because of the more massive piano action, partly because the emphasis on finger velocity was diminished. This is written down on paper, on period books.

[@aleksei_slastnikov]

i wish i would be her student while leqrning this piece

[@weiyeezhou9734]

Why did i find this 2 days before my performance :((((

[@violinhunter2]

This is interesting but,...I came here thinking it was a lesson in Saint Saens' Rondo Capriccioso and - thinking it very peculiar that Tonebase would feature the piano accompaniment by Saint Saens I just had to check it out - but I learned something anyway. 🙂

[@tsan-tsanshih2721]

The technic is very much like the Taubman technic.

[@LahuellitadelWookie]

quiero un piano : (

[@stephenarnold6359]

Pretty knees

[@Lololololol666]

And very cute - is she married?

[@merlindavids]

Also for a safe checkpoint we strongly recommend to wear a mask

[@cloudrouju526]

Subbed. And then unsubbed.

[@amadeusradio9608]

If you can say Presto pronouncing the T, you can say Staccato and Sonata and Concerto. They're not english words.

[@andrewsmith4356]

This is all you have to say after she gives a nice tutorial? Idiotic, and if you knew more about linguistics you would delete your comment. An English speaker does not pronounce Beijing like the way a Chinese speaker does, does not pronounce Paris the way a French person does. Nor does an Italian pronounce Seattle the way a person from the US does. That does not make their pronunciation "wrong". In fact, each is correct according to its own pronunciation standards. For a US person to accentuate the "t" is unwarranted and comes off as pretentious. She's not speaking Italian, she's speaking US English. And Staccato and Sonata and Concerto are now words in the corpus of English, as are many other words with origins from other languages, like shampoo (Hindi), rucksack (German), espionage, villain, corps (French), etc. So stuff it.

[@s.hawkins3288]

@@andrewsmith4356 Thanks for this reply!

[@ymaysernameuay1113]

@@andrewsmith4356 Based

[@Lololololol666]

@@andrewsmith4356 well said!! I applaud you!