So, I really want to play Pictures.

[moose_opus_28]

You know, the Mussorgsky.  How insane is it?  It sounds like it'd be hard as hell, and I've never seen it live.  I've played some big technical stuff, like the Ravel left hand concerto, Scriabin Fantasie Op. 28, Bach-Busoni Chaconne, various 20th century sonatas...but I have a feeling this would be a harder.

Should I bother with it as a freshman in college?  I don't know if I'm biting off too much.  I just love it.

I'm thinking out loud, and would appreciate your thoughts, especially if you know it.

[jlh]

I think only you can answer that question.  You should also ask your teacher what he/she thinks.  Good luck!

[stevie]

youve played harder things, glance through the scores and youll see it shouldnt be too challenging.

[bennom]

It's technically "easier" then some of the pieces you've already played, there aren't many fast passages at all. But:

I've done it a couple of times in concert, and I must say it is the most exhausting piece I've ever played, including the Liszt sonata. It's demanding as hell, if you consider the spiritual power and richness of sound that must emmanate from this awkwardly written piece. It's just a piece that requires all that you've got (and more).

I also wouldn't recommend the pictures if you ain't got very powerful hands. They don't have to be big, but muscular!

BennoM

[moose_opus_28]

Haha...I can play an 11th, so my hands are fine.

And I'm asking my teacher today, I was just wondering if that was a stupid idea.  Thanks for the encouragement.

[tds]

pictures is a great concert work. yes, there are a few technically very difficult spots but the real issue is in "shifting gear"--the work is a display of a great variety of 'characters and personalities'. to be able to present it succesfully, one must poccess vivid imaginations, stamina and musical authoritativeness.

[pianistimo]

that sums it up well, tds.  was dwelling on this very thought myself (actually for the past two years).  i asked my teacher (in second year of grad studies) if i could play it.  actually, i told him i wanted to play it.  he said, 'this is doctorate material.'  clouds of poofy thoughts filled my head.  first i thought 'i don't care what the heck yousay - i'm buying it and practing it.'  so i carried it around with me just to scare him into thinking i wasn't practicing my lessons and only focusing on mussorgsky - which wasn't really true.  i was just sight reading it.  it impresses people when you just carry the music around.  then, i thought, ok...i'm going to do my lessons really well, and when there's a minute or two at the end - i'll glean some thoughts out of him.  there never ended up being that minute or two.  and dawdle as i may - i'd have to tie him up to get some information out of him on this one yet.

so - as it is - am stuck with barry douglas's FANTASTIC rendition of this piece and the 1812 overture (listening to it over and over).  ringing some bells above your head will also work.  you have to hear how the bells ring and make the piano sound like it.  a sort of clanging you want.  maybe hitting some of the notes in the chords louder than others?  i don't know.  barry figured this one out.  perhaps there was some sort of audio tech that helped him on that one.  wha wha wha - of the overtones of the bells  (light sounds, heavy sounds, distant last bell sounds).

bennom, are there any secrets you've gleaned from learning and playing this piece?  maybe letting the sound bang around?  playing really relaxed?  also, there's so much repetition in certain places - you must have to play as an echo here and there.

[bennom]

bennom, are there any secrets you've gleaned from learning and playing this piece?  maybe letting the sound bang around?  playing really relaxed?  also, there's so much repetition in certain places - you must have to play as an echo here and there.

There are no secrets. I found the promenades the most difficult, especially the first has a tendency to sound flat, or to heavy, or not heavy enough. I just tried to play it with simple phrasing yet heavy ringing tone. In the gnomus I added octaves in the left hand, it sounds to more scaring. (stole it from horowitz)
In bydlo I think it's important to keep the crescendo constant and without even the slightest accelerando. In Goldberg and schmyle I played the "schmyle" part quite freely and extremely expressive. In il vecchio castello it's all about finding perfect voice balancing.
The chicken ballet trio I played with rythmical trills in the r.h.
All over , I found it really effective to use extreme pedal, sometimes none, sometimes "too much" to make the sound body expand like ringing church bells. In the end, the bass strings were actually colliding with eachother from over-vibrating, which made a buzzzing noice, haha.
In "the Gate of Kiev" I tried to use different length for the grace notes, some quick and some heavy, to create a mayhem of bell ringing.

...I'm sure there is more I could say, but it's not easy to explain in writing.

BennoM

[pianistimo]

wow!  those are excellent suggestions.  do you sometimes find inspiration when you've been playing it awhile and something just 'comes to you?'  i was thinking about how the church doors open and shut (and how it sounds with the bells continuously ringing) and all - and wondering if it was like that with the great gate of kiev. 

[bennom]

wow!  those are excellent suggestions.  do you sometimes find inspiration when you've been playing it awhile and something just 'comes to you?'  i was thinking about how the church doors open and shut (and how it sounds with the bells continuously ringing) and all - and wondering if it was like that with the great gate of kiev. 

when I worked with the pictures, I played through parts of it to my friends, in a couple of different versions. Then they told me what version they thought was the most appealing, or effective, or shocking. They weren't pianists, which made their input even more valuable, with this kind of piece. (Why? Because it's naive and actually "painting" the pictures. It's not something for "professional" listening. IMO, that is...)

[pianistimo]

very insightful.  tend to agree.  and, yet, you have the nationalistic element, too, that maybe only russian historians could appreciate.  maybe how the gate actually looked and what transpired.  the old imperialistic days  (ringing out the old and in the new).  seems that very little changes there even though regimes do.  there's something to ancient tradition.  and, like china - so many provinces and countries.  they also left their mark so many places (ie alaska) with reminders of russian orthodox churches built on the hillsides left when they were competing with other fur traders and had enough clout to build communities farther away than their mainland.  i've seen an amazing tea set from the 1800's left in alaska and it was really beautiful.  the grandeur of old russia must have been something. 

ps something tells me that the 'gate' was designed but never built.  is that true.  i think i read that somewhere.  anyway - the gate plays a sort of important role in the 'feel' of the piece in terms of regality.  seems to poke fun here and there at the realization of what was going on inside russia.  you have huge contrast of rich/poor.

[bennom]

very insightful.  tend to agree.  and, yet, you have the nationalistic element, too, that maybe only russian historians could appreciate.  maybe how the gate actually looked and what transpired.  the old imperialistic days  (ringing out the old and in the new).  seems that very little changes there even though regimes do.  there's something to ancient tradition.  and, like china - so many provinces and countries.  they also left their mark so many places (ie alaska) with reminders of russian orthodox churches built on the hillsides left when they were competing with other fur traders and had enough clout to build communities farther away than their mainland.  i've seen an amazing tea set from the 1800's left in alaska and it was really beautiful.  the grandeur of old russia must have been something. 

I think the most magnificiently russian piece in the piano repertoire is the Paques (Easter) from the  Fantaisie tableaux for two pianos op 5 by Rachmaninoff. I'm not a great fan of Rach (now I will be executed by the piano street death squad) but this piece...oh my god, the bells, the bells, the bells, the extatic chanting of orthodox and imperial hymns by the celebrating masses, the archangels and cherubs above and the massive tinkle of tiny bells in the heavens... 
Combine this piece with the "les larmes" (the tears) from the very same work, and you have the national virtue of nostalgia, homesickness, the longing for mother russia. Bells and nostalgia, that's the essence of russian music to me.