La Campanella or HR Nr. 2

[shadow88]

Hi
I'm a big Liszt Fan and as next piece I want to play La Campanella or the Hungarian Rhapsody Nr. 2 (Not the Horowitz Arangement).
Which piece is harder to play? Or are both same difficulty?

[point of grace]

i think the campanella is heavier (=P) because it is thought as an etude and has more technicall difficulties

sorry for this bad english! =S

=)

[pianowolfi]

If I would have to choose I would go for Campanella, because it is so much more beautiful, imo.

[shadow88]

thanks but i like both same .. i just want to know which is harder to play.. where i have to practise more.

[dana_minmin]

Difficulty varies from one person to another, but in general La Campanella is harder in quite a few ways. Tempo, the jumps, etc. makes it harder than HR2 I believe. I can play HR2 but not la campanella, too hard for me  Both pieces are not easy at all.

[ahkow]

HR2 is harder for me..

[swim4ever_22]

As has been said, it all depends upon you.

Are jumps easy for you? Can you trill extremely well with your 4-5 fingers? If so, choose La Campanella. Are scale runs, octaves, and playing fast easy for you? If so, choose HR2.

[ahkow]

Chords are hard for me especially in the tempo giusto - vivace part and at the part which requires the rotation of the wrist after those chords.
Jumps are easier

[mjin1]

I'm almost done with HR2 and I agree that difficulty in piano really has to do with the player.

I'd say roughly that la campanella is harder for me because it involves alot of obscure techniques to me.. Such as trills with 4 and 5, the jumps aren't easy, not so much the length at times but which finger you are having to land on..

Hungarian Rhapsody in my opinion involves techniques that many people are familiar with, that you'd probably expect from a higher level piece - your rapid octaves, your fast scales, large jumps that aren't too massive, though, there are some tricky ones.. And at the beginning of the friska there is a very nasty demanding repeated note part, in my opinion probably the hardest part of the entire piece, not so much for execution, but for the extreme performance speed and the consistency of playing it fast, and correctly.

As for how each piece is played musically, they both are relatively difficult here but I'd think hungarian rhapsody is ..a little easier, but not by much. La Campanella really hits me as a soft and super-controlled song, where an error is going to be very VERY very obvious. The best recording i've heard of it really presents it as a gentle song, yet it sounds like 2 people are playing at one time.. meaning that's alot of control over some very advanced techniques. What makes Hungarian Rhapsody a challenge is it has alot of very fast quiet parts over a rather large range, meaning again, you have to have alot of control over the given technique. I just think Hungarian Rhapsody is a bit more forgiving.... It's not going to be as obvious if you miss 1 c# out of 20 something repeating c#'s in a given section.

Regardless, like alot of higher up liszt pieces, you're really picking your poison here. both of them are going to require alot of practice, and if you're a relatively advanced player, these pieces will do wonders for your technique. A couple of months into hungarian rhapsody I have noticed much more control over ranges, and I can play easily twice, maybe 3 times as fast as I could've before.

[shadow88]

i do the trills in la campanella with 3,5 my hand is big enough and thats easier for me.
but after all what you said i think i'll play hr 2. i dont think that i can play these peaces perfectly so the hr2 is the better choice.
i started play them both, and i would say the hardest part for me are the sixths scales with the jumps in the left hand. but i think i can make that with a little time
thanks for advice

[ahkow]

I also do the trills in La Campanella with 3,5.
La Campanells's leaps are not that hard because you always leap back to the same note - D#.
It's unlike Chopin Op.25 No.4 (LH). That's hard.

[nango]

La Campanella is much harder of course
while the 2nd veries in the combination of notes and velocity, etc.

[cath_08]

i do the trills in la campanella with 3,5 my hand is big enough and thats easier for me.
but after all what you said i think i'll play hr 2. i dont think that i can play these peaces perfectly so the hr2 is the better choice.
i started play them both, and i would say the hardest part for me are the sixths scales with the jumps in the left hand. but i think i can make that with a little time
thanks for advice

yeah, if u have a big hand la campanella can be easy for u... but for a girl like me it makes me frustrating sometime because it's so hard to move my hands that far and that fast... i just learn this piece, and it's so hard... lol... i think it's too much for such an amateur like me... i only have play beethoven's moonlight sonata and now still learning chopin's tristesse.... actually now i confuse to choose learn playing la campanella or chopin's fantasie improptu??? which one is easier??

P.S. i'm totally an amateur, i even can't read notes (pathetic right... -.-) but i really want to learn....