Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Mendelssohn's 'Duetto' (Op. 38 No. 6) - pedaling??

Hi everyone, first time poster here hoping to get a little help because I'm not taking lessons at the moment. I'm learning Mendelssohn's 'Duetto', one of my favourite pieces, and struggling to figure out how to pedal it. I'm sure that certain notes in the upper voice should be sustained, but I can't get the technique right. Does anyone have any advice on how to pedal this piece? There are no pedaling notations in the music, so any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks so much!

T

I don't use much pedalling at all in this piece - it makes for too much of a jarring experience near the end where the bass becomes staccato, and the piece doesn't require it.
The pedal I use is rhythmic, just a quick pedal for each voice, but almost immediately released - it's almost unnescesarry, a nervous pedal. Try playing the piece with little to no pedal, and you'll seen be able to judge the proper places to pedal. You just need to be able to play the voices smoothly with just your fingers for a while.

If you can find any edited copies of this score that include pedal, I'm sure they will have extensive pedal indications throughout the entire piece(basically on each chord change). Similarly, I'm sure any of the Youtube recordings by world class pianists will pedal similarly. Here's two of the best recordings(and they have extensive pedalling):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6GJwJRmkpg
(2nd on above recording)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtLgjZCEbQ