Piano Performances

Over the weekend, Hannah, Michael and I recorded our recently learned piano pieces. 

Sarah

I played Sonata no 6 by Mozart and Album Leaf by Grieg. Mozart was an Austrian composer, and is considered to be the most creative composers of all times. Together with Haydn, he was the leading composer of the classical style of the late 1700's. Mozart started playing at age 4, composing at age 5, and at age 6 he played for the Austrian empress at her court in Vienna! Leopold, Wolfgang's father, took Wolfgang on concert tours through much of Europe, and Wolfgang gave many public performances in front of a large crowd. He also met many famous musicians, and played the organ in many churches. The piece I played was a fast, rowdy piece with numerous sudden changes in dynamics (e.g. louds and quiets). I had to play with strong fingers throughout the piece, as it had many fast notes. I worked very hard to learn the piece by memory, and to play the rhythm evenly. 

The second piece I played was Album Leaf by Grieg. Grieg was a very famous Norwegian composer that composed music for the piano, chorus and orchestra, and numbers for small instrumental groups during the Romantic period. Most of his music was written in the style of Norwegian folk songs and folk dances. Griegs most famous music includes Album Leaf, the song that I recorded, and Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, a song that I am learning to play now. Album Leaf is a very repetitive song, and at the beginning, it has a steady beat in the left hand, and a melody in the right hand. In the middle, however, it changes up, as the right hand has a steady beat, while the left hand has the melody. The hand with the melody needs to play louder than the hand with the rhythm. which was a bit challenging at first. I hope you enjoy listening to these pieces. 





Hannah

This week my mom recorded me playing two pieces, Sonatina 3 by Clementi and Sweet Dreams by Tchaikovsky.  Clementi started playing in a church at the age of 9 and when he was 14 he was invited to England to study music. Clementi composed during the classical period and was considered the best pianist of his time. He composed over 100 Sonatas! He died at age 80 in the English countryside. The sonata is very fast, and I had to have strong fingers to play this piece. It also had many dynamics, such as louds and quiets. The second piece I learned was Sweet Dreams by Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer in the Romantic period, and his pieces had a lot of melody and emotion. He was known for composing many symphonies, operas, and concertos. Sweet Dreams is part of his Children Album, and it is dedicated to his favorite nephew, Vladimir Davydov. This piece was very slow, and is played with the pedal. I hope you enjoy listening to me play!     

Michael 

I recently recorded a piece called Clowns by Kabalevsky. Kabalevsky was a Russian composer that created music for young people, like me.  He wrote pieces for the orchestra, operas, and many instruments. He also composed pieces for children’s choruses. Dmitry Kabalevsky was born in St. Petersberg on December 30^th 1904 and died on February 10^th, 1987. One of the most important things that he did was try to teach children to like music. He wrote pieces that children would like and set up music programs in schools. The song I played is a fast piece that  has many staccatos. It took a lot of time and practice to learn it because  it was very fast.