Chopin 55-1, Nocturne in F minor...Advice?

[phil13]

I've been struggling with the first half of the last page- the first 8 measures of 'Molto legato e stretto', where the RH plays the crazy triplets and the LH jumps with it. How should I practice this to get it up to speed and mastered within, say, 2 months?

Phil

[westley]

First you should decide on fingering for the RH.  this can be a little tricky in this section because there are a lot of possibilities, but just remember that  itis probably more important at first to pick one and stick with it for awhile, even if its not perfect.  Its not hard to change fingering when you already know a passage.  If you are really stumped i'm sure your teacher could help you. 

As for the LH leaps, they are really not any more difficult than those in the first half of the piece, so i'm guessing your real difficulty is the coordination of the hands.  Once you have a fingering for the right hand (found while playing the RH alone of course) you should play hands together as slowly as is necessary to play it right.  You can always play the left hand alone too which will help you memorize it.  Still, if your problem is coordination of the hands most practicing should be hands together. I doubt that it will take you two months if you practice carefully and correctly.

One last possibility i could think of is that if you refer to the right hand triplets as "crazy" there is a good chance you are trying to play them too fast or with the wrong articulation . . . nothing in the coda should sound crazy, despite the accelerando the piece is really just floating away at this point, so the right hand should be very light and legato.  Thats my interpretation anyway, some (excellent) pianists see it differently.

I hope some of that was helpful . . . Maria Joao Pires made my favorite recording of this nocturne  so you may want to dig that up somewhere.

[phil13]

I already know how to play the RH alone up to spped. You're right, the problem is the co-ordination of the hands.

I refer to them as 'crazy' because they do not follow a very specific pattern and thus were a little more challenging to learn. I'll try the 'floating' technique you mentioned- maybe that'll help.

Phil