Scriabin Etude op.42 no.5

[dough_mouse]

The tension I get in my hands when playing this piece is KILLING me. Starting with the repetition of the theme including the extra sixteenths on the right, the tension in my wrists/hands starts building, and as much as I try to stay loose, by the time I'm halfway the piece through my hands are so tense it affects my playing. Any advice on how to stay loose?

[imbetter]

I'm currently learning Rachmaninoff op.39 no.3 and I was feeling the same thing. The problem is it's flexing certain muscles that aren't that built up yet. What I did to overcome it was make sure I stay loose and repeat it and practice the technique slowly and build up to a comfortable speed.

[nanabush]

Slow = great advice.

I have a book of his etudes, and I looked through this one.  I got pretty comfortable with the last page (it's my favorite part; the dramatic climax there is crazy!).  Make sure you are getting all the notes at a slow speed, and move it up bit by bit.  Don't go too quick into things, you may be shortcutting some notes, and leaving out some of those repeated bits.

The second page is psycho though... definitely go slow.

[lontano]

I'm certain this won't help your tension, but listen to Horowitz play this and what he does with the 2nd iteration of the theme where he plays it all non-legato, to great effect. How this differs from all other performance practices, I don't know. 

Good luck.