Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Request For Insight On "Ritter vom Steckenpferd"

For those who have read my recent post "Classical Piano News Story," it should not come as a shock that I am not a big believer in literal interpretation. And, this particular scene from the Kinderszenen is a good example.

The A section is no big deal, but, regarding the B section, in none of the three recordings that I have of this piece (Gieseking, Horowitz, & Moravec) can I hear anyone playing beat #2 in the left hand. Therefore, for those who have mastered this beautiful work, I would appreciate any insight you might have as to practice techniques in terms of grouping.

Currently, with the exception of measure #17, I just leave the second beat out in the left hand.

I'm pretty sure everybody does play it. (I checked two recordings, Horowitz and Lisitsa, and they both play it.)

I looked very closely at the Horowitz to make sure I wasn't imagining, and yes, you can see that he most definitely does play the beat (like, with the LH thumb for the first several of those notes). I wonder if the reason you think he and others aren't is that most people would view the note as being pretty subdued -- I sure would, and indeed that's how these people play it.

If you leave it out as you said, you're missing some of the subtlety of the passage. That second beat lends a slight extra impulse to the offbeats, and contributes to the harmony.

Pardon my saying but from the other thread, I got a distinct idea that you're a little too quick to take an assumption and run with it, and it looks like that's what you did here. I hope you won't again get annoyed with the different input than you expected but will rather try to gain from it.

I typed a reply over in the adult student group.

Sounds like you need to slow down.

BTW Louis, probably part of why you're not getting more looks on the thread is that few people are familiar with the German title and don't recognize anything from it. In fact, even with the English title it still wouldn't click for a lot of people. Best probably would be to mention Kinderszenen in the title for such a thread.