I have my first Grade 8 pupil sitting the exam soon with the old pieces.

She is playing the Scarlatti Sonata in D, the Mozart Allegro moderato and Arensky Impromptu.
She is pretty capable, although lacks some of the musicality of my other pupil.She is extremely intelligent, gaining a place at Oxford at 16 and is pretty confident, and has achieved distinctions in all but one previous grades.
I have really guided her through this as she works well independently , but I also feel a little less confident myself with the higher grades.
Although I know that there are no notes printed on the pieces I did read in an earlier thread(which I have not been able to now find) that there were notes published in one of the music magazines.

Does anyone have these notes and or could give me some advice on the performance of the pieces.
I am particularly interested in dynamic ideas and speed for the Scarlatti and speed and use of pedal with the Mozart.

Also could you suggest a good speed for scales for Grade 8.

Many thanks

Which Scarlatti ? The one in D major or D minor ?

Not sure how helpful this will be, but I didn't use any pedal in the Mozart as I was afraid of losing some of the clarity. It's sometimes tempting to rush this piece, but you might lose a lot of the subtlety, and I was quite moderate with the tempo.

The Scarlatti... I like to play very quickly The difficulty here was not letting my fingers run away with the piece, so although it should move along swiftly, it must be controlled. I don't have any specific dynamic ideas at the minute as I can't remember what I did with it on the day... I think it changed every time I played it!

I'd agree with the previous poster, no pedal for the Mozart, it's really not necessary. Think carefully about the first page turnand where you will do it. The important word for this piece (as well as clarity) is elegance. The elegant style is very crucial to the correct sound. The ornaments must be light and effortless (as much as possible) with rounded fingers used. The fortes must be gentle and be achieved by finger, not hand, pressure. Hope this is useful.

Scales at Grade 8 are minim = 80 (with the scales as quavers) for octave aparts. Its fast, especially for staccato so as soon as its secure finger-wise you have to start cranking it up with the metronome. Its difficult to start at the right speed as well. The thirds and sixths apart are minim = 63 I think. This should all be in the scale book which really is worth getting as a reference point. The metronome markings are a minimum requirement. I didn't do them any faster than that and I got quite a good mark in my scales ( this is me speaking as a converted scale-phobe!).

Just for the record, I did pedal the Mozart, but only on selected chords/ legato sections. If you need any further details on that just ask me - it's long-winded for me to explain this in this post. It's Important, like everyone else said that the ornaments are very graceful and the piece doesn't rush. I had a particular problem with phrasing - not bumping endings etc... I did at grade 7 too - It's not one of my strongest points, I find it comes more naturally to me on the clarinet. Can't advise on the Scarlatti sorry - I put myself through the Shostakovitch!

The scale book has minim=88 for octave apart scales.

Hi,

My teacher has suggested the following ideas with pedalling the Mozart. Subtle use in the development section particularly on the first page. Also selected bars to enhance sf's, e.g. b34,b38 and corresponding repeat.

Hope this helps!

Scarlatti D major: paraphrased - "offers scope for extrovert performance" Start f, do optional echo in bars 7 - 8, p at 12, 18, 27, 31 and f at 17, 24, 28 and 34 - similarly later. Notice LH 3rds on strong fingers in bars 28 - 33, mischievously switching to weak fingers in 58 - 63.

Mozart: there are no references at all to the use of pedal - it is a very longwinded note about this piece.

Hope this is helpful. The booklet comes with Music teacher magazine. Some of the comments are helpful, but sometimes quite long.

I think I would agree with comment about the Scarlatti - a pupil of mine played it, and the examiner's comment was much along the lines of "make more of the dynamics and enjoy playing it", although he gave a reasonable mark for the piece. (My pupil didn't do either of your other pieces)