My piano professor at Eastman, Maria Louisa Faini, taught me to study the music of a composer’s ‘best’ genre in order to understand that composer’s piano works. For instance, she encouraged me to study Beethoven’s symphonies…his voicing of chorales and use of dynamics, for example….in order to have a deeper understanding of how to approach a Beethoven piano sonata.
I listen to Brahms symphonies while studying either of his Clarinet Sonatas. Studying and listening to how he orchestrates is very helpful in understanding which voice to bring out in the piano score of the sonatas.
What about Mozart? What genre might you study in conjunction with his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622? Choral? String chamber? Orchestral? His operas?
CLARINET DIVAS 