Piano Forum

Heehee, it seems like a hard piece to 'handel'  

I'm considering playing this etude next year (I need to find 3 contrasting ones as part of my jury), and I've looked through it a few times.

I found the second and third pages (when all of the inner voices intertwine, stretching your hands like crazy) absolutely nuts... that would be a reason I would not perform it for people.  

Maybe try practicing by bringing out different parts?  So I guess at the very beginning, play the first page once listening to the upper notes, and imagining how clear you CAN play them.  Then do the same thing with the left hand, which could easily get very chopped up at the jumps.  Just try to be aware that collectively it is really unified, and you are able to isolate and listen to different parts while playing it.

Obviously you should do that slowly though.

There is plenty of material in this piece that make it an etude for finger independence and balance; make sure each layer is as clear as you can play it.


Also... what other etudes have you played?  The Chopin E major Op 10 #3 has very thick textures, and a lot of attention needs to be paid to musicality.  I'm sure if you played that parallel to the Scriabin, you could find some ideas to carry over (the Chopin is probably a lot easier technically, but it could help clarify the 'voicing' stuff I was mentioning further up).

The Scriabin etude, also in Op 42 (It's f- / Ab+, I forget the #), the left hand has a arpeggiated sixteenth pattern, and the right hand has triplet eighth notes.  That one is a little more concise (in my edition it's a few pages shorter).  Fitting that one hands together is also tricky, but going back to the #5, you'll be thankful there aren't huge polyrhythm issues popping up.