Molto agitato makes me molto agitato...(Bernhard?)

[yooniefied]

Well, not really, considering I love the piece more than life itself...but..anyways.

I've been trying to learn this piece (Liszt's Transcendental Etude, no. 10) over the past few days and although some parts are easier than I intentionally thought, the hand stretches and some of the faster passages leave me in utter frustration.
Is this piece really too difficult for any college-level student to play? Should I just give up on it?

Could it be that my hands are just too small for this piece? Even though I can physically reach, it's difficult, and un-even sounding.

The left hand is what seems to be giving me most of the trouble throughout the piece, as well as the "overlapping" of the hands at times.

What specific aspects of technique could I improve on to learn this piece more easily? Should I learn some other pieces first?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[mike_lang]

The leaps are large in the arpeggiations, of course, and you must use a great deal of rotation.  It is possible that your hands are too small, but it is unlikely.

Do you practice slowly?  Do you block notes together of the arpeggiations in order to find the positions?  Some reaches of a 10th or more can be broken if you cannot reach them.  I've read that Liszt could "barely reach the 10th at the end of Hammerklavier to play it quietly."

I would not say this is too difficult for a college-level student to play.  Giving up is not the way to learn this etude.

[yooniefied]

Thanks for your helpful response, michael_langlois.

I am not good at practicing slowly..and seeing as I memorize the piece almost immediately, I tend to ingrain bad habits veryvery quickly.
Some parts are easier than others..the slower ones being the simplest for me.

I also have no idea about fingering, which seems crucial for this piece.

Can anyone think of any pieces which would help better prepare me for the technique in this piece?
I definately need to work on rotation, and arpeggiations, and whatnot..also, repeated octaves..

What about you, Bernhard? Any ideas?