# Pathetique sonata, dynamics are hard



## caters

If you don't count the dynamics, I would say the Pathetique sonata is an easy Beethoven sonata(no presto, no 9ths as far as I know). But adding in just 1 part, dynamics, and the difficulty goes way up. I mean just look at this:








That is just 1 difficult part, sudden dynamic changes. I mean the quiet to loud is not so hard but the other way around is. There are crescendos which I tend to either end early as I get to forte faster than I intended to, or go to fortissimo instead of forte. Then there is the sforzando followed by dolce. I tend to play that whole dolce section before the diminuendo forte(obviously not right but it happens). And then there are spots where you have piano followed by sforzando and I tend to crescendo to forte in those spots(which I don't think is right).

Of course that is just in the first movement of which I have the notes down in muscle memory and it took like 4 days to get the whole first movement notes in muscle memory(and yes, I play the 2/2 section as though it were in 4/4 but Allegro at 2/2 is like Prestissimo at 4/4(which is almost impossibly difficult if I don't feel an eighth note rhythm and micromanage beat by beat to get to trill speed(and with a sonata, that would take weeks at least if not months to get to full speed throughout with no mistakes)). So for now at least, I am playing at 4/4 allegro or in 2/2, larghetto(same note speed but with different written tempos because of different time signatures).


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