liszt transcendental study no 10 (restlessness) help

[matt haley]

Hi all,

im relatively new to the forum,im 19 and begin playing at 15...im self taught(spent many years practicing and reading theory books) ive played through a lot of pieces but recently ive attempted a few pieces where it stands otu that ive not great technique..

i began this etude and immediately had trouble with the begginning of this... i found the fingering really hard and are having many difficulty's with this peice....

is this etude out of my reach or should i spend a lot of time on it.....

your help would be greatly appreciated

    thank you so much                  Matt Haley


  repertoire =   chopin   eflat major nocturne,waltz in csharp minor,militray polonaise
                                       movement 3 from sonata op58 largo, ballade in gminor

                        liszt   leibestraum... hungarian rhapsody no12 (not complete)

                        beethoven     monlight sonata,  3rd movement of tempest
                                               1st movement of op 101 and 109
                                               




  this is just some of my rep.....would you say im ready for this piece 


and anyone who has played this piece...do you have any tips

          thanks so much
 
 

[musicsdarkangel]

I am very pro-challenge.

I always take on music that's quite difficult for me, but always eventually reachable.

Last year, La Campanella was a huge difficulty for me because it contained all of my weaknesses (using wrist, trills, octaves), but I conquered it and now I am 10 times the pianist that I was.


HOWEVER, I had done 10 Chopin etudes before this.

If you haven't done at least 5 Chopin etudes, I wouldn't recommend tackling a Liszt etude.

Those Chopin etudes are jems; master the crap out of them, they'll help you so much more.

But, if you decide to continue the Appassionata etude, realize that you must practice it as slowly as you need to so that you feel comfortable, even, and without any tension.

Very gradually speed it up.

How many Chopin etudes have you done?

[edouard]

Hello everyone,
after a years interruption Im back onto the forum for some fun

concerning Nr 10.
Firstly, I suspect that any title has not been given by Liszt as the editions I have merely state Nr 10.
Second, it is up to you whether you think you are at the right level to tackle this one.

Personally, I do not think that one has to go for all the Chopin ones before attempting the Liszt ones. Actually, it is preferable to do some Chopin before though. Different pianists have different techniques, different hands, etc... for example, I find it easier to play the Eroica etude (nr. 7) than Chopin's Op 10n12. Its also a matter of temperament and style. Liszt often annoys me (at times) but can also be hugely effective live (and you can really feel that the pieces have been tried and tested before an audience and calculated to that effect!). And the nr 10 has a lot of beautiful melodies too and feeling.

My argument is that you learn much faster if you work incrementally, that is learn a lot of music that you can play more easily because it will teach you a lot, rather than aiming too high from the start. (and "the start" can last quite a long time!). The other thing you find is that the more you go in depth in one particular composer"s works the easier it is to learn his other pieces because you become familiar with his language.(so the more of one composer you learn, the quicker you learn him too)
 For example I have fixed myself the task of learning all of Grieg's Lyric pieces and all of Debussy preludes. Once I had learnt the easier ones, it was so much easier to get to Feux d'Artifice for example. This also works between composers of course. Often I will sight read or read through a score of some composer I have never heard of / do not know / have never played, and every time its a completely different language. The point is that if you aim too high and you dont speak that language you can waste a lot of effort for a single result when you could achieve many smaller victories and have a better chance at that "end" victory.

Same with Liszt. You say that you have trouble with the opening figuration. I guess (but I may be wrong) that this is the overlapping hands bit. Well, I can say that several years ago, I saw Cziffra playing it (on DVD) and of course went out to try it myself and had never seen a similar passage and was taken aback. Well I returned to the piece two days ago and solved every problem that I had come accross in literally two hours (Im not saying I learnt it, but I fingered it and could play individual bits at speed). Why this change? Because I kept seeing familiar elements which I had come accross in other pieces I have learnt by Liszt, but also Chopin etc etc...for example the overlapping hands thing is also found towards the end of the Totentanz (if one adopts this fingering instead of splitting the hands).

As far as the fingering goes, I disagree with my editors notes in part  when he/she indicates using the thumb in the second or third chord for the left hand. I feel that it is more in line with the musical intention to use 245 and keep the left very far into the keyboard and this avoids any awkward movement (for me).

Also, I find that with these fiery pieces it can help to sit back and try to play the difficult bit as softly and as legato as possible. If not anything else, at least it calms me down and allows me to think a bit!

hope this helps,

edouard