Scarlatti K29 Sonata, To cross hands or not?I have started learning Scarlatti K29 sonata fro Options

[porilo]

there maybe other advantages to doing it the hard way though...
I'm reading a book by Charles Rosen at the moment called "Piano Notes - the hidden world of the pianist".

In the first chapter he talks about how the physical effort of playing is linked to the expression and the sound. He particularly talks about the effect of doing it the difficult way. He talks specifically about the leap at the opening of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata and how some are tempted to play it with two hands rather than one, as written. He writes:

"played as the composer wrote it, it both sounds and looks like a grand and daring leap, and the sense of courage and excitement is communicated aurally and visually. Played with two hands it looks easy, and is easy - and consequentially it sounds easy too."

I'm not a good enough pianist to decide whether I agree or not, but interesting point of view.

Charles Rosen is very knowledgable, and a far better pianist than I shall ever be, but amongst his revelatory insights he peddles a fair bit of nonsense too ... and this is some of it.

His argument is logical, and probably applies to many situations. The trouble is that he has not chosen very good examples. The leap of the LH in the opening of the Hammerklavier is not "dangerous" (that is to say, likely to land on the wrong notes) to anyone that is a good enough pianist to actually play the Hammerklavier.

His other example, of "safe v. "dangerous" fingering in Mozart's sonata K576 is similarly flawed. Neither of the fingerings" he proposes is dangerous to the advanced pianist.

I don't really agree with Charles Rosen's comment. After all, if you are just listening to it played on CD, is it really possible to tell how it is played? And how do we actually know that we are making the sound that composer intended? There are so many recordings and they are all different. We do not have an actually recording of Beethoven playing it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[VH2]

And how do we actually know that we are making the sound that composer intended? There are so many recordings and they are all different. We do not have an actually recording of Beethoven playing it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

And is this even what we should be aiming for?

There is often more in a work than the composer consciously put there, and a great interpreter can do things with a composition that are better than the composer ever imagined. In fact by the time a pianist has memorized a major work, and worked out a convincing interpretation, and made it secure, they could easily have spent more time with the piece and know it better than the composer.

[ansatz496]

And how do we actually know that we are making the sound that composer intended? There are so many recordings and they are all different. We do not have an actually recording of Beethoven playing it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

And is this even what we should be aiming for?

There is often more in a work than the composer conbsciously put there, and a great interpreter can do things with a composition that are better than the composer ever imagined. In fact by the time a pianist has memorized a major work, and worked out a convincing interpretation, and made it secure, they could easily have spent more time with the piece and know it better than the composer.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

If the "ideal" interpretation were that of the composer, everyone would interpret things in the same way (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)