Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Mendelssohn Appreciation Thread

If you do a google search for Mendelssohn art or Mendelssohn paintings or Mendelssohn drawings you can find several more.

Sam

I love his Op19 no2, it has a very sadness to it, and the ending with the last hearbeats, almost if someone died, or he was thinking of death. The piece has great meaning to me. His venetian boat songs are also amazing if played well, and lets not forget his amazing Albumblatt (which is much more beautifull if not played at full speed, imo). He was truly one of the greatest!

Harold Schoenberg's "The Great Pianists" has some good information on Mendelssohn as a virtuoso pianist. The entire book is a fun read.

@Sam Smith: I'm working on op. 19 no. 4 as well. It's a wonderful piece. I'm also working on no. 2 and still keeping no. 6 in reasonable shape. I'll probably just do something else for the recital though. I'm not completely happy with the sixteenth note passages.

Yes, the 16th note introduction is tough. I thought I was playing it OK until I listened to a recording. My right hand thumb is too heavy and loud - all the 16th notes are not of equal importance. The thumb notes should be subdued and the upper notes brought out more. Easy to say - hard to do.

And, of course, the intro is repeated at the end, so there are two opportunities to screw it up.

Have you posted a recording of 19/6? I'd love to hear it. Here's a question - are all of his Venetian boat songs in 3 (or 6) and a minor key?

Sam

thanks for the tip on the drawings, Sam - I'll look for them.

Cathy

EDIT: thought I had pushed quote from Sam Smith.

All the Venetians are in 6/8 and all are minor as well.

A few misses in it, but reasonable: Mendelssohn op. 19, no. 6

For op. 19, no. 4, I'm okay with the thumbs in the 16th note passages, it's the transition in bar three just prior to the dim. that is usually my downfall. I've been drilling that over and over a lot. For op. 19, no. 2 it's down to a few two bar parts really. I'd probably be done both if I spent more time practicing than playing.

Very nice job on 19/6. I remember listening to it before now. You do a good job bringing out the melody, something I always have a problem with.

I know what you mean about playing as opposed to practicing. I get caught up in the music and don't want to stop and work on a troublesome section.

My problem with 19/4 is, for instance, measure 2. The repeated "a" by the right hand thumb is too prominent.

What edition are you using? I just bought the Schirmer (editor: Sternberg) and I have some problems with the way the music is crowded on the page. Also the odd titles that have been given to everything (19/4 is "Confidence"), but that has nothing to do with the ease of reading the music. The fingerings are reasonable, but it seems a little heavy on the pedal.

Sam

Alfred Masterworks (Maurice Hinson) edition. I am very comfortable with the note density and visual contrast in Alfred's series. It has a spiral binding and some nice notes for teachers on the order of relative difficulties (your mileage may vary) and some reasonable words about each piece. Your pedal comment is interesting since it says here that "Pedal usage must be very subtle."

I used to have heavy thumbs (still do some times) and I am not sure what made it go away other than practice.

I only look at pedaling for where they say not to in general and then after I'm at the 90% happy phase I will listen to some recordings and start varying the tempo and playing things oddly to see what I like. I have gotten better over time at not pedaling as much, but I am still a bit of a lead-foot driver.

Titles. I mentioned before that Mendelssohn only named a few of the Songs Without Words, but now almost all of them have titles. I wish they weren't titled. There is too much baggage associated with words. Regrets, there is a loaded word for a title.

I really want to learn op. 53 no. 5 some day, but I've got such a gigantic list of pieces to learn and so little time.

I agree with Sam.

From a free podcast for my grade 5 (RIAM). Here they do an overview of the piece. The guy explaining is from the examining board.
http://www.box.net/shared/7ae980ra0q

I have this piece for grade 5. I'm starting it soon. Unfortunately using it for my exam expires by the time I'll take my first exam but I'm learning it anyway.

I'll pm his rendition of the piece.

Thanks for posting that Devane - very interesting. I've finally gotten 19/4 to the point where it is mostly memorized and I am trying to polish it - making final decisions on how much pedal to use, the phrasing, the dynamic changes, and so forth.

Sam

No problem. Its a pity they only spend a few minutes on each piece but still you get a few tips.

Thanks for the links Devane. What is everyone looking at for a tempo? My edition says quarter note for 72. Good points on bringing out the melody over the chords. I still need some work on that.

Here's my interpretation. A couple of kludgey bits, but reasonable. I'd play it in front of friends. Tempo is around 70 for the quarter.

Mendelssohn, op. 19, no. 4

great idea for a thread. I'd like to join in. I have been working on op85 no.2 for a few days and I would like to eventually have this piece memorised and up to performance. I spend too much time reading these days and not enough on completing. So I would like to join you guys in committing to this piece so that I don't abandon it after a few short efforts.

But since this is Mendelssohn appreciation, I'll say that I have made exciting discoveries to this piece already, the harmony is beautiful - definitely worth the investigation. I think I'm going to enjoy this journey. The piece is also called The Adieu.

canonie

I'd like to try and join you Canonie, but I think it might be a bit above my level with the tempo. I'll give it a go the next week and see if it fits my brain.

Thanks for the reply, Shoes
You are already helping my motivation, I will do a session right now and post how far I get. So far i've read through about 3 times and sorted fingering, I have a loose and unstable memory of 1st 10 bars and physical familiarity with the next 12.

I see a teacher about 4 times a year to keep me developing, and to make sure I continue to be useful to the beginners I teach ! This teacher showed me this piece and I fell for it for sure. Not making any promises about speed tho, adult restarter excuses apply here.
right - I'm off to work on it
just after this nice cup of tea...

That's great Shoes. Much faster than I can play it. The Schirmer edition suggests quarter note = 84. In my opinion that is too fast.

Here's my version of 19/4:

Mendelssohn 19/4

One hesitation and one bobble near the end. And my bench creaks.

I can do my own critical critique:
- too slow.
- thumbs are too loud.
- pedal is awkward in spots.

But I am pleased with the dynamics - I've learned to exaggerate them so they come through in a recording.

There's a month until the next ABF recital? Maybe I can speed it up some before then.

Sam

I love 85/2 also. "agitato". But it's too fast for me right now. I'm also working on 102/6, another one with great harmonies. I think it is probably easier that 19/4.

I have a long list of he Songs Without Words that I would like to do some day.

Sam

I can't wait to get home and listen to it Sam. I would agree that 84 is too fast. I think it would be less lyrical at 84. I've got a recording at about 72 and it's quite nice. I find too slow really does a disservice to the intro and ending sixteenth note passages. They rarely sound light like they should be (in my mind) below about the mid-sixties.

I'm hoping for op. 19, no. 2 for the recital, but I might fall back on a little Schumann from op. 15 to bail me out. I don't have as much time as I used to for bringing things up to a presentable stage for me for the recital.

Next on my list for Songs Without Words are:
op. 19, no.2, no. 1
op. 53 no. 5
and maybe op. 85, no. 2 as suggested by Canonie

Has anyone tried Consolation? It's supposed to be one of the easiest, but I found the voicing just unnatural to me. I can't sing it to save my life and my fingers can't find the notes at all, which is weird. Do our brains work in key signatures?