Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No 2

[thehkchik]

Hey all,

I'm a piano major working on this Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 2.
Very fun piece... but so difficult to play!
Anyone have any advice on playing his runs evenly?
Or just any other specific advice that was very helpful to you?
I'm open to anything.

=)

[dnephi]

I really like alternating Rythms and accents practicing for that sort of thing.  I hope it helps.  Also, my teacher recommends groupings, although exactly how those should be practiced needs to be shown by a teacher to prevent accents or pauses that don't belong.

[ollymuxworthy]

Well, of course, apart from practise, practise, practise, the one thing you must remember is that when you get to the Friska you must enjoy it. In a similar way to feeling the emotion in the 'Largo' part of Fantaisie Impromptu, if you don't enjoy it, it'll never work (sorry if that sounds cheesy).

[tyler_johnson]

Good point ollymuxworthy...also what I would recommend is listening to as many people play it as possible to get a feeling for the song, and the way different performers phrase different sections.

Sure it's fast, but it's not a HARD piece.  Once you get the runs down, you begin to learn how smoothly the run flow as the way Liszt intended them to be.

You have to play Liszt with your heart.  Yes there is much technicality involved as well, but with no feeling, the song is dead.  Pour as much technique into it as you want, but the song will die and people will get bored if you don't play this one with some emotion.

But as far as the fast runs go, just practice.  Most of the Hungarian Rhapsodies have recurring runs/grace note patterns.  There are a few that are common between all of them.

Imagine your hands are an orchestra playing the song, not a piano.

[anda]

pretty difficult work... the lassan is difficult to get right under the line of corny and the friska is a good aerobic class 
this is my favourite recording, have a look:

best luck