Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Light or Heavy ?

I am trying to teach myself a piece for piano meetup as an experiment. Do you think the prelude should be played light like the first or heavier and less smooth with more pedal like the second ?

V1



V2



Thanks you.

Hi Moo
Your first video is ‘not available’.

Mendelssohn should never sound heavy or laboured, even when the writing is 'dense'. There should always be air around the sound.

For instance, listen to his most famous piece, the Octet (especially the very Mendelssohnian Scherzo starting at 20:50):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY_gbooPwoc

Ok, it works for me. Maybe this is another example.





Thank you and for the video suggestion. I have played a lot of Mendelssohn but only know his piano music so thank you the video. Most of the versions in youtube where very heavy and over pedalled so I was questioning myself.

I tried to find another example of a lighter version. Most of them are like this. DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Then it should be played like DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It is a rare piece so most of the youtube videos are from people who play it like that. I think it should be a bit lighter as most of his music is. I have not heard of the octet before but most of the music mendlessohn wrote is light so I'm not sure about the bang-bang-bang epic heavy style fits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHTV3GFyHfM

Would be interested to hear if you think it should be heavy. I played another prelude by mendelssohn op 35 no 6 that I was notey and heavy. So I'm still a bit torn :o).

The sound quality is poor in this recording but Zi like the interpretation—- not as abrasively heavy as the first bug a little slower and more mhlific IMHO
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eulq1S6gbnE

Thank you. I didn’t find that a good interpretation. The score has marcato and sf’s which suggested heavy but I think it relates to the tune which is in the middle. I think I worked it out now that the tune needs to be projected but to make it sound lighter it can be done by keeping the accompaniments in the top and chords in the bottom quieter. Seems to work. Let’s see how the experiment goes. Thank you x

It just means emphasis, so your thoughts about bringing out the melody seem spot on. 👍

I think Benjamin Grosvenor has it about right for my taste:

Grosvenor plays Mendelssohn's Prelude in E minor

He plays it so well it sounds like a different piece.

Grosvenor's piece is the well-known Op.35/1, but the one discussed by the OP is a rarely-played WoO.

Well, in fairness, one if your two examples was played in excellent conditions with great microphones and sound engineers, while the other one wasn't.

I'm sure it can be played in a "heavy" way while graceful. Mendelssohn was still somewhat of a classicist, and that should of course be taken into consideration, but that doesn't mean it has to played very light.

The main problem with the second recording, in my view, is not that it's heavy, but that it's very poorly phrased. Every note, even in the right hand, is just hammered out without being properly phrased. If it was phrased, it could have been much more successful. But it was also recorded during an exam, so obviously the person in the video was nervous.

Ah, I see. Thanks for this information. Were Grosvenor to play the posthumous piece...

Thank you Aaron. I have played prelude 5 and 6 from opus 35 but the 1st one in e minor is crazy hard. I cant find Grosvenor playing this E minor prelude no 13. :o)