Pedal And Legato

if i am using the sustain pedal should i really even bother producing legato at the fingers? is there really a point in tieing a note thats going to sustain into the next tnote anyway? i ask this because the piece that i am learning requires that i use a left hand 1, 2, 1 fingering and there is no way i can legato 2->1 because i only have one thumb. it cant hold and move ar the same time. to be fair i am instructed to use pedal.

A very fine question, one that cuts right to the heart of the matter very quickly. I have two opposing answers. I hope you'll see why I deign to contradict myself. 1) If you play a true legato with notes that are on the pedal anyway, it will have a huge positive affect on your sound. The fact is, without the structural connection of a true physical legato, you don't have nearly as much control over the attack of each subsequent note. The standing finger gives you a physical reference point. You know exactly where you are, you can exactly where you are, and the subsequent attack need not be approximate in any way. Lose the connection of your body to the piano through the standing finger and you are immediatly more at sea for your next attack. When you find this structural connection, your notes have more tone, more beef, more beauty, more subtlety, but NO more harshness. Too often we use the pedal to hide deficiencies in our ability to truly join. The aural result is bland, undefined... a cluttered sonic mess! 2) Once you have mastered the art of exact attacks for clearly defined tonal levels and differentiations, there comes a point where holding on to the keyboard, which empowered you, paradoxically now begins to hinder you! At this point, joining notes on the pedal while separating them in your fingerwork (to get a freer, more open tone) becomes an option. However, don't lie to yourself. Don't go to stage two unless you can say with absolute certainty that you have mastered step 1... AFF