Hello,everybody first of all I want to say that I don't know any instruments but I have a question that I want to know for a long time.Is Mozart's piano works technically simple to play?I have been hearing so many people claims that Mozart's piano works are technically easy to play with, however is there any of his works you think are technically demanding?

Thanks for your attention

Mozart is deceptively simple technically. To play Mozart correctly it has to sound natural and effortless and the subtleties can be very elusive to master.

In a word, no. The works may seem simple technically, but they hard to pull off. Mozart's music is very transparent, so any mistake you make will stick out like a sore thumb. Quite often there is more than meets the eye going on in his scores too.

I've been working on one of his easiest (supposedly) sonatas for well over a year (K545, 1st mvmt mostly). I think I have it down quite well until I turn on the metronome. Then I have to roll back the speed pretty far. I'm starting to think there is some very subtle difficulty in his pieces with regards to the rhythm. All those 16th notes, then changing to eighth notes, then back again. I don't have this problem with most of the Chopin I'm playing, even though it's "supposed" to be considerably more difficult. Then, you have the additional problem of playing all those 16th notes smoothly!

Not for me.

You got three great answers there.
I've been working on K545 for 3 months, and it's the easy sonata for beginners. I must say though that I bet most of Mozarts students for whom he wrote it play it more like I do than like Horowitz would.

Steve

I will add only this: Mozart's piano music IS simple. Simple to play very, very badly. It is one of the marks of a developed musician to be able to play Mozart with the finesse required to produce a believable performance.

Unlike lots of later piano music, there's nowhere to hide one's insufficient technique when playing works in such a transparent idiom. You either have it or you (really obviously) don't!

As Arthur Schnabel said:

"Children play Mozart because of the small quantity of the notes. Professionals never play Mozart because of the high quality of the notes."

ha...thanks for everyone's reply,so may I ask
you guys which work do you think is the easiest and which one is the hardest?

PS Do you think the japanese pianist Uchida Mitsuko is the best Mozart interpreter of Mozart piano works?

Thanks for your attention

Brendel is the best bar none. At least of those I've heard so far.

Steve

[ February 22, 2002: Message edited by: SR ]

Thanks Brendan,

for the quote. That explains why Schnabel still remains a highly respected Mozart player. Here's two more saying:

de Larrocha: Mozart is too easy for students, too difficult for artists.

Richter: It wasn't until the fourth time I publicly recitaled the great Mozart a minor sonata that I played to my satisfaction.

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True Brendel is a reknown Mozart player. There are many others. Brendel's Mozart Concerto cycle under Philips is wellknown but we have other matching sets. The likes of Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Schiff, Pires, Uchika and above all, Anda. Adwin Fischer's Mozart concerti recordings were widely accepted as Alpine readings. How about those by Haebler and Haskil? Those made by Casadesus are cherished for very good reasons. Before I forget I have to mention Lily Kraus and Walter Klien. Please listen to the Mozart playing of these two...

I agree with what everyone else has said. I have been working on the a minor sonata and it only took me about a week or 2 to get all the notes right but it is so difficult to make mozart sound good. He wrote so many little details that most people don't pick up on right away. When I play Mozart, I always want to have a few things different from what i've heard anyone else play so that I stand out playing it.

i recently bought the complete mozart sonatas recorded by christoph eschenbach and i highly recommend it. i think he is wonderful.

and i agree with all the other comments about the challenges of playing mozart well. very well said.

So for a beginner what pieces should be played to learn Mozart?

there are collections of easy mozart pieces for the beginner. i really like this collection, which has lots of easy mozart pieces, mostly minuets, as well as some really nice ones from other composers:

Leichte Klavierstucke
Des Klassischen und Romantischen Zeitalters
Band I
Ausgewahlt von Walter Georgii

it's published by G. Henle Verlag