Score Reading, this unknown thing

Personal experience, it can be useful to reduce [reliance] by moving away from sheet music... you take entire passages, analyze them and write them down... then you try to play them.

Progressively, you should increasingly detach yourself from the sheet music

Do you do the traditional course or the three-year degrees?

Anyway, listening to the orchestral version and then researching what should be heard most helps always... tendentially bass and melody are not sacrificable, the rest depends on finger availability

Curiosity, which symphony?

If you are really starting from scratch, I would start with the Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven quartets to master reading strings and particularly the viola ... you'll see that when you add transposing instruments, you won't have this difficulty either.

As for the rest, I find the suggestions already expressed to be adequate; always dedicate some time to sight-reading.

AbateFaria wrote:

Personal experience, it can be useful to reduce [reliance] by moving away from paper... you take entire passages, you analyze them and you write them down... then you try to play them.

Progressively, you should increasingly detach yourself from the paper.

Thank you very much for the advice, AbateFaria! So transcribe every phrase and play it, then connect everything.... but will I eventually be able to sight-read a score bit by bit?

Oracolo wrote:

Are you doing the traditional course or the three-year degree?

Anyway, listening to the orchestral version and then researching what needs to be heard most helps always... tendentially bass and melody are not sacrificable, the rest depends on finger availability

Curiosity, which symphony?

The second. Basically, when Beethoven introduces an important melody at a thematic level that you absolutely must play, I find difficulty (in fact, I eventually consider it impossible) playing the woodwinds that support everything with chords...

Gerardo wrote:

If you are truly stuck, I would start with the Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven quartets to master reading strings and particularly the viola ... you'll see that when you add the transposing instruments, you won't have this difficulty either.

As for the rest, I find the suggestions already expressed to be adequate; always dedicate some time to sight-reading.

Eh, it is precisely in sight-reading that I have difficulty.... I tend to freeze up and read...

On IMSLP there are several transcriptions of many symphonies, maybe there is something for Beethoven's second as well... if I am not mistaken, several are also made by Liszt

AbateFaria wrote:

it can be useful to reduce by moving from paper...

Without abusing it, however, because it makes one lazy...I completely agree regarding intricate passages, but if it is done too systematically and throughout the entire piece, the risk is relying more on memory than on reading.

Feldman wrote:

The second one. Basically, when Beethoven introduces an important melody at a thematic level that you absolutely must perform, I find it difficult (in fact, I eventually consider it impossible) to play the winds that support everything with chords...

It is a matter of priority; if a melodic fragment is fundamental... it cannot be sacrificed, just like the bass.

However, one can also make use of octave transpositions above or below as needed, without distorting the sense of a passage too much.

Furthermore, if you do the triennials, you essentially have all the time to analyze and highlight the important parts during the performance.

Zazza wrote:

On IMSLP there are several transcriptions of many symphonies, maybe there is something for Beethoven's second as well... if I am not mistaken, several were also made by Liszt

mmhm, the ones I have seen for the accompaniment follow slightly different criteria from those required in the exam for the subject indicated by Feldman.

... following those reductions, although interesting, might not be healthy for the exam. At most, one can take some inspiration regarding pianism.