Week 2: Sleeps a Song in all things! 🎶
Welcome to the Main Thread for the second week of "The Romantic Era" challenge!
- Make sure you've read the guidelines before replying (<- click)
- Watch the kickoff livestream! (<- click)
Who is your favorite romantic lyricist?
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
154 replies
-
Mertz - Op. 13 Abendlied (May 11)
Listening to Wai play some Mertz so beautifully yesterday inspired me to start poking around some of his pieces. Once I started playing them, however, I just did not want to stop.
So, I'm starting with this piece from his famous Bardenklänge, Op. 13.
The first take was not quite as successful today. There were a number of mistakes, but my biggest issue was executing the little arpeggiated texture in the accompaniment during measures 19-33. It needs to be quiet, but quick and consistent.
-
I'm on holiday in Lanzarote so unable to practice and only just managed to log on. Back at 2 or 3am on the morning of the dress rehearsal! I have been looking at the scores and devising fingerings for Das Fischermadchen - Schubert/Mertz (@martin why is it das and not die?) And Sor , Andante Largo op 5 no 5. Hoping to work on these when I get back home.
After posting the video of Fingal's Hohle last week I performed it live. It seemed to go down well!
-
We still have a few spots left for our Dress Rehearsal, please consider signing up and perform your pieces on front of a very nice audience - YOU!
Sign up here for the Dress Rehearsal this Saturday, May 14th here!
-
Mertz - Op 13 Abendlied (May 12)
I'm fairly happy with the improvement here. The repeated sextuptlet figure in measures 19-33 is still troublesome, but I found two things helped a bit. First, I needed to play it fairly slowly, not trying to rush it. Second, I found it helped if I really concentrated on the last note of the sextuplet, making sure I don't just miss it in my rush to get to the chord that comes on the beat right after the sextuplet. (Don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me! 🙂). It's still not perfect, but it's better.
-
Mertz - Op 13 An Malvina (May 12)
I decided to try this well-known piece next. I have always liked it, but looking at all those endless sixteenth notes on the page would scare me off. Once I actually tried playing it, though, it wasn’t too bad. Lots of open strings.
This piece seems very representative of the style of this era. There is lots of room for rubato and ultra-expressive playing. I'm sorry I messed up the ending so badly. I'll keep working on this.