Hi Allysia - I've been going through your lessons trying to revive my very rusty piano skills, and it's been a blast. I love that you bring in the classical music just about as soon as possible. I am particularly excited about mastering this intro piece! Your explanations are super clear and helpful. Keep doing what you're doing! :)
Hi allysia, the version of the score you are showing at the screen is not the original version published nor the version recognized today by the NMA. It is probably worth mentionning for the sake of accuracy. The score is in common time with triplets not in 6/8. The term Con Pedale was never used by Mozart in any of his autograph nor in published works; in fact the "pedale" was invented after he died and generally speaking Mozart never indicated when to use the equivalent device (knee lever). Also the piano used by Mozart had a significantly faster decay so the piece as it should be played must use a very balanced amount of pedal, typically half raised should be enough so as not to blur the melody too much with the added resonance (significantly increased on modern pianos). Because of the quick decay, in the original score Mozart repeats the Lower D right after the first triplet of each bar. Most player do not repeat this lower D because it breaks the progession and it is not necessary on modern piano. So you are right lining up the notes with full pedal is doable but in effect playing properly this intro with the right effect and touch and proper use of the pedal is in fact quite difficult. Muller completed 10 bars in addition to the 97 composed by Mozart for a total of 107.
It seems to be a Ddim7 aka G#dim7. It’s important to observe the previous four chords: D7 Gmin F Eb. You may now naturally expect a Dmin but that would be boring as you don’t want the song to end here! Instead, you want something to get you to the next bar which is a straight up A major arpeggio (if interested you can look up Tritone Substitution in Jazz, or Augmented 6th Chord in classical music). Mozart is brilliant as always. I believe another way to think about is that he wants to resolve to A major in the next bar. Of course, the most standard way would be to use an E7 chord. This chord (not “dark” at all imho) is functioning like an E7 in first inversion (E7b9 with the root in the right hand). [Someone can correct me if I’m mistaken]. So it all comes together nicely. Not a single note wasted or extra!!
Too slow... my master always said that the intro must be played fast. I played this into a theatre this way... it must to be like a "violent impact" that carry you to the slow central theme.
TheArtOfHands Yes, the intro is marked Andante, and in triplets, whereas the A Theme is marked Adagio. I would not describe it as “violent,” but more “pesante,” (heavy, and ponderous), it is a very dark and dreary piece, much like Beethoven’s early works. She plays it way too slow in the video, as if she was sight-reading it.
