The Difference Between Playing Mozart And Chopin

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I'm Robert Estrin with a really fascinating subject, the difference between playing Mozart and Chopin.

They are great composers, lived in different eras and there's some substantial differences to how to approach playing these composers stylistically with integrity that makes sense for the period styles as well as the instruments that they composed for. So we're going to start now with a little bit of Mozart and this is actually the second woman from his famous Alla Turca Sonata, of course the Alla Turca Sonata you all know.

That's the famous last woman but what I'm going to play for you is a little bit of the second movement and what you're going to hear is something in 3 -4 time and then I'm going to shift gears and play something of Chopin in 3 -4 time. I tried to find as similar compositions as possible to show you the stylistic difference then it will explain why these composers are played differently. What is it about the crafting of these works and the period styles that lends itself to different performance practices. You're going to learn that all here today. So let's listen to a little bit of this Mozart, this minuet.

So that gives you a little flavor of Mozart. I'm going to shift right over now to just a little bit of a Chopin waltz, so waltz in A flat and listen you'll notice a difference right away and I'm going to explain what I'm doing and how to approach playing these styles so you can have integrity and are faithful to what these composers intended basically even though there's room for interpretation you still want to stay within the confines of what this music was really about.

So you notice completely different sound now why is that? Think about this you know that the piano at the time Mozart was alive was nothing like the modern piano. Do you know that even in Chopin's time the piano wasn't a fully developed instrument that we know and love today but it was way closer it didn't have 88 keys but it had close to 88 keys whereas during Mozart's time it only had about five octaves of keys. The action was a primitive mechanism so it was only so much you could do to get different tonalities not only that but the whole sound of the instrument was more percussive didn't have the same sustain and importantly it didn't have any pedals so there was a certain amount you can impart with a lever operated with the knee in order to do what a sustained pedal does but there's more to it than that.

The pedaling of course makes a big difference in the sound but you notice the fluidity of tempo in Chopin there's a give and take it's never gaining or losing time but it kind of goes around the beat this is called Roboto. Roboto is really a romantic era expressive nuance that you can impart in your music which is stylistically inappropriate for Mozart. Mozart in the whole classical era was all about form and structure if you listen to more of this movement you'd hear the different sections very well delineated and contrasting with one another with definite repeats. Now there's some of that in Chopin and Waltz but now Waltz like his Mazurkas, his Polynesians and so much of his music were based on dance forms. Now Mozart did also have music based on dance forms but naturally they were different dances and so there's a structure to Mozart's music, the clarity of line, the clarity of purpose that everything is really in its exact place and there's an architecture and that's the beauty of Mozart the beautiful way everything holds together whereas Chopin is more about the expressive line and the nuance of expression there's more room for expression in Mozart, pardon me in Chopin, whereas in Mozart there's definitely room for expression but it's within the structure of the music so you the expression is within the service of the music where Chopin you listen to different performances of this Waltz or just about any Chopin and you can't even believe the variety of the interpretations that lends itself to Chopin much more so than Mozart.

So what else do we have I'm going to also show something else another couple of works I'm going to start with Mozart his Sonata in F major at K 332 the second movement and this is a beautifully lyrical piece of music then I'm going to play also a lyrical piece of Chopin and the F sharp nocturne and listen how even though they're both beautiful and expressive the Mozart everything is very straightforward the lines everything is clear it's not muddied with too much pedal since there was no pedals on the piano at that time and this is the kind of sound you would expect to hear out of a beautiful this is the K 332 F major Sonata a little bit of the second movement for you and now for a little bit of Chopin the beginning of his F sharp nocturne so naturally you're huge differences and in order to demonstrate this for you I'm going to attempt to play the Mozart in a Chopin style with Roboto a liberal use of pedaling very over overtly expressive playing and listen what happens to the Mozart it doesn't really lend itself to this music I'm warning you right now let's see what happens and spoiler alert I have not tried this yet I have no idea what's going to come out so there's gonna be adventure for both of us you you you you know it gets too syrupy sweet doesn't it that instead of that nice beautiful architecture in the simple line where every single note is right in place now let's flip it I'm gonna try to play this I haven't done this before this I figured it would be great to just surprise myself so we but we stay engaged in the process I'm gonna try to play this Chopin nocturne as if it's Mozart let's see what the heck this will sound like you you talk about losing the whole meaning of the music isn't amazing how it doesn't work very well at all it doesn't sound it doesn't have that beauty and that flowing freedom that you need in Chopin so once again to capsulate the difference between playing Mozart and playing Chopin remember first of all the period style of the classical era of Mozart is all about form and structure there's a perfection to the composition you want to highlight with the beautiful placement of each note precisely without too much freedom trying to place everything exactly where it should be to give you a feeling of like a jewel like perfection also the fact that there were no pedals on the piano and the instrument itself had a more percussive sound a more you know kind of an aggressive sound so the whole character of the music is different even when played on a modern piano to contrast that with Chopin the piano was much more developed you have the pedals to work with you could have a lot of expressive possibilities with give and take of tempo the rubato the liberal use of pedaling the overt expression never losing the time or gaining time but having a little bit of flow with the music bringing the listener with you so that's what you want to think about when playing these period styles to get your authenticity more than that it really just works better I think I demonstrated that for you by trying to play Mozart like Chopin and Chopin like Mozart I'm really interested in the comments if any of you prefer the stylistic flipping that I did here what are your impressions Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com we are your online piano resource see you next time

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/the-difference-between-playing-mozart-and-chopin/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---