The Natural Piano Blog

In the spring of 1825, after spending the winter with his family, Schubert had found a room to rent, overlooking the city and the countryside, in the apartment of a wine shopkeeper located near the church of St. Charles in Vienna. 

In the life of Franz Schubert, who did not travel the world but who changed his domicile countless times in Vienna, the apartment represented a pleasant and happy harbor, where …

Piano performance etiquette is important and good “piano manners” are much appreciated. 

Taking a bow means to receive and acknowledge audience applause. Whenever there is applause, a pianist should bow. Even between movements, if there is scattered applause, acknowledging the audience with a quick nod should be done. When you finish your performance, the audience clap as their way of saying: “Thank you for playing to us”. The performer needs to take …

As we regress in the past, slower declamation times must be adopted. 

The decision to declaim Shakespeare today involves different times of declamation in relation to the language used. It might be declaimed in modern English, or in nineteenth century English or in eighteenth century English: the language is always English, but it is not the same English. 

This comparison allows us to understand why it is necessary to play slower today: …

Chopin had come to Britain at the invitation of Jane Stirling, a spirited member of an old and wealthy Scottish family, who, with her widowed sister, Katherine Erskine, first met the composer in 1840 in Paris, where Jane became at first a promising pupil of Chopin's, then a devoted friend and patron. 

Her admiration for the composer almost certainly blossomed – on her part at least – into something more, and …

The maturity and originality of concepts found in this Sonata really give birth to a new moment in the piano literature: Schubert puts himself here on a level of universality that transcends gender. 

The Sonata Op. 143 should be placed chronologically between the works Alfonso and Estrella and Fierebras. It is not clear why Schubert composed a Sonata for piano when he was in the middle of two Operas: not because …