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

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.

rsl12

pianoloverus I don't play much classical these days but if I run across an example of a two-note portato I'll try to remember this thread (but they are not uncommon... it shouldn't be hard to find)

twocats

pianoloverus portato is hardly uncommon and is standard notation.

Here's from the first page of Beethoven Pathétique:

Here are two examples from Chopin Étude Opus 10 No 3:

pianoloverus

twocats Well, at least I played those passages correctly when I studied those pieces ages ago even though I had no idea about this portato notation. I played the first one at my audition as the only non adult member of the Plainfield Music Club.

twocats

pianoloverus maybe you learned it from listening to recordings or your teachers told you and you just forgot 🙂

pianoloverus

twocats
Neither.

plop_symphony

twocats I'm more used to seeing portato denoted by having both staccato and tenuto markings.

Sophia

With all this talk about portato, suddenly a song keeps popping up into my head...

"You say potato, I say portato, potato, portato, let's call the whole thing off" 🎼🎵🎶

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