Chopin Etude op. 10 no. 12

[levisk]

So, after something like 14 years of playing the piano I decided to learn all of Chopin's etudes (I already played his 1st ballade and 2nd scherzo). I began with op. 10, no. 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 12. All of these went quite easily, the number 5, 6 and 9 especially being very easy for my piano skills, while the 1 and 2 are coming up to speed pretty nicely. I was surprised to find the so far hardest 12th etude. Now, I read often that the etude is easy, and I heard many people perform it, but I looked at the facts:

- no pedal used, which calls for superb legato playing, and I often hear many people bluring the left hand with the pedal
- 160 (!) metronome sign, I mean, how many people do play it that fast?

I worked at the piece for a week (I played it several years ago) and got almost all of it to the metronome marking with nice legatissimo playing in left hand. BUT! The middle part, the few bars, 29 to 32 are giving me a headache. No matter how much I practice these, once I increase the speed, my left hand becomes very uneven. I can play it safely at approx 120 speed, but even that takes a lot of concentration. I tried to play it perfectly relaxed, with my concentration on proper wrist and finger movement, but I still have troubles. Especially the first two notes of each of the four quadruples are very uneven and off-rythm (played by 5,4 fingers)

As for fingering, I use the Paderewski edition.

I do not want to come up as a mechanical pianist, the metronome markings are just to describe the speed (I do not use a metronome). Oh, and concerning the difficulty, it's not just the speed and legato, but also the little decrescendos in left hand mixed with crescendos in right hand that are quite hard to do.

Anyone can help and instruct me on what to improve?

[invictious]

Its a bit of a off topic
But wow, they came by easily.

You will never believe all the moaning we have here on PS.