Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-04-02 15:15
Are you referring to Albinoni Op. 9 No. 2? (I think so . . .)
When I learned this, I listened to several different recordings of it. From what I have heard, there appears to be a range of tempi acceptable, from something almost like a scherzo (dancelike?), to a rather more flashy allegro.
My teacher would say, in regard to the many pieces where tempo choices are not set in stone, that you need to look at the note values in the context of the movement. What is the basic note unit? You need to play it so that the smallest typical note unit is musically intelligible -- so, just to make an extreme and silly example, if the piece is inhabited with lots of 32nd notes, you are probably not going to want to play it as quarter = 150.
In this Albinoni, I would think the relative frequency of thirty-second notes should provide the clue.
Teacher would also say, look at the movement in the context of the piece.
In the case of Op. 9 No. 2, there are three movements: Allegro e non presto, Adagio, and Allegro. Presuming that these movements are all meant to evoke a different mood or idea, then I think it is significant to your question that the final movement is "only" an Allegro, and not a Presto or a Vivace. If "Allegro" is where you're going when the horse is headed to the barn door, so to speak, then "Allegro e non presto" I would understand as being slower than that: not as fast as the Allegro, definitely not as slow as the Adagio, but something to contrast with both of these.
As they say, just my .02 -- YMMV.
Susan
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