Play Haydn's "Divertimento in G Major" Your Way! (PIYW #5, January 2026)

rsl12 · 2025-11-16T17:41:12+00:00

PIYW #5: Play Haydn's "Divertimento in G Major" Your Way Play It Your Way is a quasi-monthly event for beginners, professionals, classical, jazz, or pop pia...

rsl12

I played through the whole thing just now, and this is how I rate the four movements, from easiest to hardest: 2 (Minuet), 4 (Allegro, but it still sounds good played slower--I think this would be fun for beginners), 3 (Andante), 1 (Allegro). I think someone who has played for just a year should be able to perform Movement 2.

Sophia I can't promise anything except I won't be playing THAT version

I'm sorry to say there is only one version! But Movement 2 is WAY easier than the Bossa Canon and if you skip the trills I will not tell anyone.

Though personally I think Movement 4 would suit you best.

keff

rsl12 if you skip the trills.

This is a good suggestion which I will probably adopt just to limit the learning time....and the turns.

rsl12

Ornaments (trills, mordents, appogiaturas, etc) can be interpreted many different ways, but here's a quick guide about how to play them:

https://casfaculty.case.edu/ross-duffin/muhi-ornamentation-i-agrements/muhi-3441-baroque-ornamentation-i-description-introduction/

You can also listen to the example in the top post. I notice that 1) he sometimes adds his own ornaments and 2) often it's on the second repeat of a phrase. I'm intrigued. I knew that the earlier performers improvised their own ornaments, and now I have a chance to try it out for myself. I found a video that I'll probably go through eventually about adding ornaments:

rsl12

These youtube videos spell out one way to to interpret the ornaments in movements 1 and 3:

Sophia

Thanks very much for all those, rsl! Appreciate it 🙂

twocats

Fun! I'll join!

Greta99

I miss PianoJam so much, so I'm really glad we have something similar here.
I learned this sonata at the end of 2021 in order to improve my playing of pieces from the Classical period. I'm not sure if it helped, but I had a lot of fun learning it.
I'm not going to re-record it, but I'm looking forward to listening to your submissions.

rsl12

Greta99 Glad to see another person who did Piano Jams regularly! I hope one of the upcoming PIYWs appeals to you.

rsl12

I had time to work some on the first movement, which is probably the only movement I'll work up. Here's a recording. Some thoughts:

The more I play it, the more I like it!
At first I was holding back a little from the dynamics. For some reason I got Haydn and Handel confused, so I tried to apply a Baroque sensibility. But then it sounds so clearly of the classical period, and like Mozart, full of joy and surprise. (Is this my first time playing Haydn? I can't remember playing another piece by him.)
I think the rhythmic motif, displayed in first three notes, with the accent on the third, is the most important thing to bring out. It unites the entire movement.
Once I play the written notes to my satisfaction, I'm going to look at additional ornaments to add for the repeats. I really enjoyed the YouTube Haydn recordings that have those additions.

Sophia

rsl12 The more I play it, the more I like it!

Same here! Except I’m only two lines in at 🐢 speed 🤭

It’s the movement I like the best too, but I’ll learn it up to the first repeat, and it’s not likely I will be able to manage to get it up to allegro.

It also means my blues lesson is on the back burner again… I’ll never get that done it seems 😊

Sophia

Question! My sheet music (probably ancient) is different from both examples above:

The highlighted part is tied which is how I practised it up to now. But in both examples that rsl linked to, the sheet music doesn't look like that - and both pianists play the left hand almost staccato. Which do you guys think sounds better?

The videos sound very crisp and bouncy, but I also really enjoy the contrast between the slurred LH and almost staccato RH A and later G. So I'm on the fence how to proceed, and would like your opinion 🙂

rsl12

Sophia if you take the repeat, you can do it both ways! I'm playing it legato, but I don't feel strongly that it's the best way.

twocats

Sophia The highlighted part is tied which is how I practised it up to now. But in both examples that rsl linked to, the sheet music doesn't look like that

I suspect your version has the slurs as editorial markings because the performer can choose different ways to play slurs (and in this case the editor has written them in). I like rsl's suggestion of doing the repeat differently!

Sophia

Duh, I never even considered that. Sounds like a good idea 🙂

Sophia

Another question! What does it mean when notes have both a tie AND a dot?

pianoloverus

Sophia That's not a tie because a tie must be between the same notes. Normally I'd say it's a phrase mark, but I think it makes no sense to have a phrase mark on two notes that are played staccato. At least to me it seems like a mistake in notation? I think either the staccato marks or the phrase mark should be omitted.

rsl12

pianoloverus Sophia That's not a tie because a tie must be between the same notes. Normally I'd say it's a phrase mark, but I think it makes no sense to have a phrase mark on two notes that are played staccato. At least to me it seems like a mistake in notation? I think either the staccato marks or the phrase mark should be omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portato

pianoloverus

rsl12 Are you saying that the slur marking with the dots means to play portato In this example?

Sophia

Thank you both 🥰 So much to learn 😅

rsl12

pianoloverus It's the only way I'm aware of of notating portato. And I know of no other way of interpreting a slur + staccato dots. Is there another possible interpretation?

twocats

rsl12 yep it's a portato!

@pianoloverus I'm very surprised that this seems to be the first time you're encountering a portato marking?

pianoloverus

rsl12 It's the only way I'm aware of of notating portato. And I know of no other way of interpreting a slur + staccato dots. Is there another possible interpretation?

I don't recall seeing this in any classical score, and I don't think it's mentioned in the video on portato. But maybe I just didn't look at the scores of pieces I studied carefully enough. None of my teachers ever pointed this out in a piece. Can you give me some examples from classical music where it occurs, preferably for a two note phrase? I also don't recall seeing this notation ever discussed on Piano World in the last 20 years.