ABRSM Piano 2019/20 Grade 8 C3 - MusicOnline UK Teaching Notes

Sonatina - Op. 100.
Nikolay Kapustin.
Grade 8 Piano ABRSM 2019/2020 C3

Teaching Notes

Articulation is paramount in this piece for a good mark and although the tempo is fast, you will need to spend a lot of time with SLOW practice in order to commit all these markings to muscle memory.

In general, remember to separate after the last note of slurred groups. These do not always coincide between the hands. For example in bar 11, watch that the RH staccato notes don't disrupt the legato groups in the LH. Again, in bar 47, the RH lifts on the E as the LH "starts" a slurred pair, which then overlaps the next slurred pair of the RH. There are too many examples to go into here but the above couple serve as an example for the rest of the piece.

Fingering is also very important to establish from the beginning of your slow practice. The ones in the ABRSM book are all very sound, in particular I draw your attention to those in bars 7, 24-25, 41-42, 54, 89, 103-104.

Make the most of dynamic contrasts as in the performance above and in addition to those in the book notice the slight crescendi in bars 4 and 5. At the end it might be tempting to play most of the last line loudly, but the "p sub" is necessary for a dramatic finish.

In the two similar "playful sections" (from upbeats to bars 18 and later 73), a slight easing of the tempo would be stylish. Notice also in bar 60, ONLY the top E is held to the end of the bar.

Be careful that the triplet semiquavers don't become triplet quavers, they need to be fast - almost grace-note like. (Not like this performance HERE)

A couple of slurs are very easy to miss i.e. bar 43, the first two pairs of chords are slurred and similarly in bar 104.