Carl Czerny - 101 Exercises, Op.261 (part 5 of 5) (nos.81 - 101)

#85 - in the final bars of this piece, I was playing as soft as is physically possible. As also stated earlier, the balance of the volumes doesn't accurately transfer the dynamics of the performance throughout.

#87 - a perfect miniature in the key of F. Pianists familar with Czerny will be well aware of Czerny's tasteful use of this key, especially in 3/4 time (much in the same way as Liszt uses the key of Ab for certain situations).

#89 - note the lack of crescendo in this edition. However, the piece sounds great for it.

#94 - I have chosen to play only the melody 'f', with the other voices at varying dynamic levels, all quieter than the main 'f' meody line. With this piece, as with a few others in this set, i'm silently changing the fingers in order to produce a true legato - fingering which isn't indicated on the score.

#96 - to get such a differentiation in volume between the trill and the melody will feel, to begin with, almost impossible. If you can manage to play 'ff' and 'pp' simutaneously in the same hand, then this piece shoudn't be a problem. There are numerous exercises for this. Especially of use to the pianist will be the literature concentrating on the Leschetizsky 'method' (yet we all know how much he loathed having a 'method' ascribed to him!)

#97 - on certain runs I have specific notes on specific beats, rather than a purely even distribution of the notes across the beats (as one finds in, for example, certain Chopin nocturnes) - this is simply homage to common practise of the time.

#98 - excuse the jump in the RH at bars 5-6 - this is the downside of the escapement setup I have!! Truly unforgiving.

#101 - I have played the final piece at a speed that would be very tiring, if not painful, if Czerny's indication to use the wrist for the staccato was ignored (i'm sure in the modern editon the staccato isn't even indicated). However, a performance just from the wrist also has its' own dangers. Reading on the methods of Deppe and Breithaupt will help considerably in the execution of a piece such as this.

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