Timbre

Played 1st mvt of Mozart Piano Sonata No.8 in A minor, KV 310 in a masterclass this afternoon. Mozart wrote this piano sonata after his mother's death. He and his father were on a tour at that time and they couldn't go back on time to attend the funeral. Seriously, it is a very difficult piece. I had a hard time in getting into the music. My mother is still alive and at this moment, I can't totally understand the feelings. I tried my best to imagine how I would feel if my mom dies. Actually, I thought a lot about my mom after playing in the class. And I had a tendency to cry but fortunately, I managed to control my emotions.

The masterclass teacher was Carine Gutlerner who was an alumni of my school. She studied with my professor before. My playing was not extremely good but overall, it was fine. Carine's comment was "very sensitive; so refined". I was very surprised that she said "very sensitive" for quite a few times. She worked on the timbre (tone quality) and climaxes of the phrases with me. I really like her suggestions on the different kinds of sounds. What affects the timbre is actually the hand motions. A small difference on the hand movements can make a huge change. Well, I couldn't improve that right after Carine's demonstration. It just takes a long time to explore and master the skills on producing a good tone.

I am going to put the word "timbre" in my mind. I will always remember that.