Piano Forum

Hi there franz!

To begin with, this is a very showy piece of music, so it works quite well in concert and in competition. Going by your signature and what you are currently learning, you'll probably find this study will fall pretty easily under your fingers.

The cadenza at the beginning is not terribly difficult, it's a recurring pattern of 3 figures - relax the right hand particularly to get the rotation of the figure. LH fingering fairly straight forward 3-1-2-4-2-1-3-1-2.

The first section (Andantino capriccioso) just requires a light action - (I think it sounds cleaner without any pedal) - most of the brilliance and apparent difficulty comes from the rapid scale passages (which aren't all that hard). Be careful to practise the alternating decending sixths pattern carefully to be clear, and if alternating octaves aren't a difficulty for you, then the entire first section is pretty straight forward.

If anything, the second section (poco piu animato) is probably more difficult because of the relentlessness in the octave passages - most notably the fortissimo section with double octaves in arpeggios through to the recurrance of the opening figure. The big jumps for the octaves need to be addressed with careful practise.

It's a lovely study and is effective because it sounds much harder than it actually is (unlike #3 which is as hard as it sounds...). That is to say, it is certainly not a walk in the park, but it's a relatively quick one to learn if you have a solid technique.

Trust this helps,
Ian