Opinions: Rach's moments musicaux, 16:4, Em

[veri]

For any of you that have studied/learned this piece, what general comments might you have about it?  I've had the sheet music to it for a long, long time, but have yet to sit down and actually attempt the work.

[pokeythepenguin]

No. 4 is great ^^  I'm glad to see someone else deciding to learn it.  It isn't really particularly difficult beyond the fact that it is quite fast.  The fast passages are quite repetitious, therefor it's not a particularly complicated or in-depth piece to learn or memorize;  No tricky rhythms or akward chord progressions or anything nasty like that.  It does require a good deal of accuracy but mainly.... just fast ^^  Also it's a GREAT piece for a general audience, not saying it isn't a good piece for a competition too though.

[Waldszenen]

Once you've mastered the LH figurations in the first couple of bars, you've basically gotten the gist of the whole piece, give or take a few extra techniques.

[exigence]

Thanks for pitching in, you two.

Anyone else?  (I'm the original poster, btw - just re-auth'd my earlier account.)

[ravelmaniac]

Well I just had an absolutely amazing masterclass with Dr. Jerome Lowenthal of Julliard two weeks ago on this piece  .  The main things I learned were to bring out more sound on the melodic bass lines throughout the piece and to REALLY REALLY pay attention to the melody in the right hand, I know this is obvious, but once you perform the piece many times, there is a danger of not paying enough attention to it in the midst of the swirling left hand.  Before, I was playing it melodically, but in a stunted manner; make sure to pay attention to the big phrases as much as possible. Also, in the two note slur section with right hand and left and answering each other back, it is easy to listen to the right hand and answer back with a weaker phrase from the left; make sure to equalize the sound of the phrases in both hands.  I'll post more later...

[Waldszenen]

Thanks for pitching in, you two.

Anyone else?  (I'm the original poster, btw - just re-auth'd my earlier account.)

Heh, good luck learning it - remember, there's no piece you can't learn if you just sit there and tackle it one step at a time, as slowly as you want to.

And don't pass by the opportunity to play this demon in a performance - it kills the audience, I tell ya.