Op. 119, No. 3

[Chris]

I have recently become sort of obsessed with this little piece (you know how you get hooked on a certian piece and it sticks in your mind all day, right?). It seems that every time I walk past the piano, I cannot resist sitting down to play it

How about you guys? Don't you just love it? It's also great for us crappy pianists - it is a great piece to play, but not all that difficult. I don't know - how difficult would you guess it is compared to Beethoven's other bagatelles? Not the easiest, maybe, but pretty easy. It's also short. Now this is a perfect way for a not too advanced student to play some great Beethoven music. But do teachers ever use it? Not that I've ever heard around here!

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited 01-15-2002).]

[Joy]

Your right, Chris, it is a very nice piece to play. I also enjoy Opus 119, No. 9, another not so hard piece to play. Nice and short. Sometimes these are the best kind to learn and not slave over the harder pieces for us amateurs anyway.

Joy

[Michael]

Purely from a listener's point of view, all the bagatelles are magic. My all-time favourites are Opus 119 No. 1 and the very last one of Opus 126 which is worthy to stand alongside the last piano sonatas.
I think it was the writer, Mary Benson, who became obsessed with the fourth bagatelle of Opus 126, the Presto. When she first heard it, she immediately rang the broadcasting station to find out what it was, and she eventually picked it as her single all-time favourite piece of music on Desert Island Discs.
I may have mentioned before that the tenth bagatelle of Opus 119 must rank as the shortest piece of music ever written - nine seconds on my Bishop Kovacevich recording!

Michael

[Peter]

Originally posted by Chris:
How about you guys? Don't you just love it? It's also great for us crappy pianists - it is a great piece to play, but not all that difficult. I don't know - how difficult would you guess it is compared to Beethoven's other bagatelles? Not the easiest, maybe, but pretty easy. It's also short. Now this is a perfect way for a not too advanced student to play some great Beethoven music. But do teachers ever use it? Not that I've ever heard around here!

I've taught it a number of times - it appears quite frequently at music festivals and was set for grade 6 I think a few years back. The most important thing is the rhythm which should have a gentle swing.

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'Man know thyself'