Robert Estrin - piano expert

What is the difference between Mozart and Beethoven

Put your ear and musical knowledge to the test.

In this video, Robert talks about the most important differences found in the music compositions by Mozart and Beethoven, with practical, performance examples taken from their respective piano repertoire.

Released on May 20, 2015

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

Welcome to LivingPianos .com, Robert Estrin here with a really interesting listening test.

Can you hear the difference between Mozart and Beethoven? I have a video, the difference between Mozart and Beethoven, that you can check out in the description and if you like you can watch that video first to give you some pointers as to how you might be able to tell the difference between Mozart and Beethoven. Now many of you might think, oh my gosh, of course I can tell the difference between Mozart and Beethoven. Well can you? Well if you are already familiar with the works that I've chosen, you'll understand the significance of this question and the interesting listening test that I'm presenting for you. These two sonata movements, I have excerpts from each of them, are both in the key of C minor to kind of make the test kind of fair, having two sonata movement excerpts in the same key. I'm going to play for you in a moment the excerpt one followed then by the excerpt two and then you can decide before I reveal which one is Mozart and which one is Beethoven and in the comments below I'd like you to all comment if you are not familiar with either of these pieces and see if you chose correctly or not. This will be a very interesting test and you can leave comments here at LivingPianos.com as well as YouTube. So here we go, this is the sample number one for you.

[music]

So that was sample one and now we're going to have example number two for you.

[music]

So they're both very dramatic pieces of music, aren't they? Well, I hope all of you have decided which one you think is Mozart number one and which one you think is Beethoven number one or number two for Mozart or Beethoven. If you haven't decided yet, stop playing the video so you can make the decision before I reveal it, all right? And then be honest in the comments, which one you chose. I'm very interested in this. Now, first of all, I'm going to tell you why I chose these two works, because they are both in the minor key.

And Mozart in the minor key has a lot of fire that is typical of what you think of as Beethoven. If I had chosen one of his sonatas in the major key, it might have been easier to tell, like for example, his C major, K 330. This is Mozart here.

I would not be mistaken for Beethoven, would it? And of course, Beethoven, there's any number of sonatas that really are very dramatic and would not be confused with Mozart.

So many of them are so famous, though, like the Appassionata, the Pathétique, are very robust emotional works. So getting back to these two sonatas, first of all, what they are, the Mozart sonata I played is K 457 in C minor, of course. And by the way, it's got a companion fantasy that is really a gorgeous piece that's very experimental with its harmonies and such, that is a companion in the same opus.

And the Beethoven sonata is opus 10, number one, also in C minor. And I chose excerpts that highlight things to try to trick you as much as I possibly could with this. So the reveal, the first excerpt was indeed Mozart. That's right, that is the Mozart sonata, K 457 in C minor. And the second one indeed was the Beethoven opus 10, number one.

I played the Mozart, the recapitulation of the first movement, because it goes into the minor key for the second subject, which I thought was more dramatic and more Beethoven -esque. Whereas in the Beethoven, I did exactly the opposite. I took the exposition of the Beethoven because it goes into the major in the second subject. So that I was really trying to trick you in this, all right? I was not taking typical examples. So if you got it wrong, don't feel badly and go watch the difference between Mozart and Beethoven. So you get some clues as to some of the differences in their composition, both great composers with a wide range of music as you can hear today. I hope this is interesting for you. If you like videos like this, let me know. Shoot it in the comments here at livingpianos.com, your online piano resource. Thanks again for all you subscribers. We'll see you next time.
Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

Graeme Costin * VSM MEMBER * on March 15, 2018 @5:27 pm PST
Thank you for a very informative explanation of Mozart and Beethoven differences. The "subito piano" style is something I have also heard from concert organists on theatre organ: the melodic phrase crescendoes but the final, high note of the melodic phrase is soft and on a different registration from the buildup. I have not mastered this - it requires extremely precise timing of the soft piston combination in order to work properly!
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Robert Estrin - host, on March 17, 2018 @1:28 pm PST
This is such an effective technique in music because it draws in the listener. Achieving a subito piano you must sometimes allow a little extra time particularly when you are in a reverberant room. Otherwise the first piano notes will be lost.
Eva Durance * VSM MEMBER * on March 14, 2018 @9:06 am PST
The illustrated explanation of one aspec of Mozart vs Beethoven in the sonata form was most informative.
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Robert Estrin - host, on March 14, 2018 @12:02 pm PST
It's so interesting looking back upon the lineage of development of musical forms in a historical context. It is a fascinating development of a form that is still relevant in music being written today!
G.MAGESH on June 13, 2015 @6:53 am PST
Sir, It is really amazing to hear from you such an beautiful explanation. Your explanation is more beautiful than the original composition itself. I have a question for you. Please explain me counterpoint in detail. I would like to hear from you. Please allocate sufficient time for explanation because music lovers like me like to hear from you. Thank u.
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Robert Estrin on June 14, 2015 @12:40 pm PST
I am humbled by your comments. Here is a description and video on the subject of counterpoint:

http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/experts/robert/counterpoint/
LUIZ SETTE * VSM MEMBER * on May 28, 2015 @4:12 pm PST
Wonderful video! I would add some differences in technical aspects. Mozart requires the so called perlè articulation, the notes must sound like pearls falling on the floor. This requires a particular type of strong and yet smooth finger technique whereas Beethoven demands a more wrist- shoulder work in order to get some expressive effects. Interesting notice that pianists with huge hands may experiment dificulties in playing Mozart. Sviatoslav Richter with his giant hands had this problem. Lili Kraus, one the most prominent Mozart's interpreter had medium to small size hands. What do you think , Bob ?
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Robert - host, on May 30, 2015 @12:05 pm PST
There is no doubt that some hands are better suited to different period styles of music which match the technical demands of the instruments of different eras. However, it is possible to adjust your playing to achieve the sound you are after. For example, my father Morton Estrin has huge hands! His recordings of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin are a testament to how he leveraged his biology in service of the music. Growing up with that sound, I worked very hard to get a big sound playing Liszt, Scriabin and others with my extremely small hands.

My father's big hands don't allow for playing between black keys, so it is harder for him to play fast and light. But, he achieves that quality by playing detached articulation of the notes in a Schubert Impromptu or Mozart Sonata to great effect.
Mark Kugman on May 21, 2015 @3:07 pm PST
Was Beethoven the first composer to use Subito piano? It's surprising that he must have loved it because it appears do often in his music. He also reveloutionized the use of the trill particularly in his later piano works.
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Robert - host, on May 21, 2015 @4:26 pm PST
I'm sure composers prior to Beethoven utilized subito piano occasionally. Baroque composers such as Gabrielli used echo effect in his writing. But Beethoven exploited the element of surprise with the building up of volume just before coming down to surprise and delight the listener as a trademark in his compositions.
Fulvia Boerman * VSM MEMBER * on May 20, 2015 @1:54 pm PST
Thank you for a great video and lesson!
Jan McDonald * VSM MEMBER * on May 20, 2015 @10:43 am PST
Excellent. Thank you.
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