I have been working on Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words Op 19 #4 "Confidence". I welcome some insights into how to make this piece come alive with expression, dynamics, bringing out the melody (in the first 3 measures) and other playing and fingering suggestions. I will be playing this piece in a piano party in November and would like to have it ready by then. I am playing it now without pedal and working on smoothness and connection between the notes.

I am using the Henle edition: Piano Music from Bach to Debussy. I have the MP3 of this piece played by Peter Nagy.

joangolfing ;

It's pretty hard to give "insights..." that you ask for without hearing how you currently play this piece. The best advice that I can think to give is to be sure that you follow the phrasing and the dynmics in the score once you have the notes well in your hands.

The opening two measures should certainly increase in volume to the high B in the middle of measure two, to which I would give an agogic accent before gently descending to the A major arpeggios in measure four.

For the rest, although the writing is very chordal in nature, the melody should always sing above the chordal structure. Don't forget to "breathe" at the end of each phrase, nor should the ends of phrases be clipped short.

I would do another agogic accent on the first beat of measure twenty-four, where, after the unexpected harmonies of measure 23 at [ib]FF[/i/b]the harmony once again resolves to A major.

In measures 1, 2, 3 and 26, 27, 28, I would emphasize the rising melody in the arpeggiated figure : A, B, C#, D, E, E, F#, G#, etc.

Note that the pedal is held throughout the last two measures, even though there are rests inserted between each of the last three chords.

These are general comments that I would consider helpful to someone studying the piece, but I want to reiterate that they may not be of much help to you, depending on what you already do with it.

Regards,

Thanks, Bruce
Those comments are much appreciated.
Regarding the melody--
"the melody should always sing above the chordal structure" Is there a recommended way of arriving at this?
Any additional help would be welcome. I might record it on my Roland FP4 if I can get any willing listeners.