The character of the whole piece is very relaxed, unhurried and unstressed. Don’t take the first section too slowly. Make sure you have plenty of room to slow it down markedly for the più lento sections.
There should be a good contrast between sections marked with pedal and those sections marked without. The second occurrence theme (bars 16-20) should be richer and warmer than the first. I’ve indicated in bar 11 that you should use the sostenuto pedal. This is the middle pedal, which is occasionally found on a grand piano and almost never found on an upright. The aim is to sustain the repeated b-flat without the full effect of the normal pedal. If you don’t have a sostenuto pedal you can substitute a short damper pedal here – this also applies to the corresponding passage at bar 49.
The più lento sections have pedal markings that are designed to blur the harmonies together. Every piano is different and these sections may take some careful listening to get right on your instrument. If you feel they’re getting too muddy try slowing them down a little and playing as quietly as possible to let the sound fade a bit more between the different harmonies, but be careful not to lose the flow of the melody. If this still doesn’t work, you can introduce some extra half pedalling to clean it up a bit.
Because the section starts ppp at bar 23, the piano at bar 38 should sound quite a bit louder than the preceding passage.
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Read more Performance Notes:
1. Bedtime
2. Midnight Snack
3. The Silver Moon
4. Raindrops
5. Lullaby
