Mozart What Real Listening Brings into Performance No.12

Listening is not something we add to playing.

It quietly changes what playing becomes.

Let me write this down.

Because when I put something into words,

it settles so much better.

Something quietly interesting happened

during today’s basic technique class.

We were working on

Mozart’s 12 Variations on “Ah, vous dirai je, maman” K.265,

the second variation.

Among the things we discussed was a familiar situation.

The left hand plays continuous sixteenth notes.

The right hand has dotted sixteenth note figures.

They don’t quite line up when you play it casually.

That familiar, tiny mismatch.

You know the one.

And when those fast moving sixteenth notes

start rushing toward what comes next,

they get even shorter.

If it’s the end of a phrase,

you notice it and think,

“ah, it slipped again.”

But when the phrase continues,

🙋‍♀️

Yes.

That’s me.

The leaning forward type.

So here’s what I tried.

At the note where I knew I would rush,

I stopped.

Tried it a few times.

Something felt off.

So I told myself,

“Slow down.”

Not quite right.

It felt like I was being left behind.

Almost likea pink elephant was about to appear…

And then I heard my teacher, Yoshimi sensei’s voice.

“Listen carefully to the harmony

at the place where you tend to rush.”

Oh.

There was harmony there.

Uh oh.

The African elephant is definitely turning pink now.

So I listened to the harmony.

What is this?

Everything changed.

I couldn’t rush anymore.

Not because I was trying not to rush.

But because

I could hear the harmony.

When the harmony is there,

you simply can’t jump ahead.

You can’t rush.

And then something even more surprising happened.

In this second variation,

I’ve always liked the left hand

moving in a light, steady, percussive flow,

like finely chopping something on a cutting board,

while the right hand plays a melody in quarter notes.

Until now, it felt like:

The left hand keeps moving

while the right hand stretches over it.

But suddenly,

each individual note in the left hand

suddenly connected

with the harmony created by each note in the right hand.

The sound opened up, all at once.

It spread.

So much color.

I had no ideath

is piece was this rich.

Wow.

What on earth.

I really can’t forget this.