rachmaninov polka de w.r

[fergal]

 Hello fellow ivory tinklers!

  Have longed to play this piece for quite some time now and only recently have found time to sit down and learn ot.  and by 'eck it's hard. has anyone here already played it?  in particular pg. 5 (Boosey and Hawkes) is a finger bender at high speed.  Another problem may be that the only recording I've heard is that of the Big SERGEI himself and to try and imitate his playing is probably making it worse (our techniques are not 'quite' comparable!)  Does anyone Know of any recordings by other pianists in order to gain an overwiew of how this musical 'titbit' can be played?

[thalbergmad]

Horowtiz recorded it, but i guess it is even harder to imitate his playing.

Never played it myself. Started it then dropped for something else.

Very bad habit.

[liszt1022]

It's a salon-flavored piece, the last thing it should sound is difficult. Play it slow enough where you have control of it and don't worry about having to play it fast.

[brewtality]

Fiorentino recorded it, Hamelin recorded it. I'm sure there's more versions available.

[arensky]

Agustin Anievas' recording is quite good. I'm sure the Hamelin recording is excellent, though I haven't heard it for myself.

[montiverdirocks]

Fun piece- teacher made me play it my senior year of hs. It seems really bad at first, but if you can figure out what's going on it really isn't that bad at all. Oh, and a crowd pleaser to the max (they think it's 'da s**t')!