A New Piece

[liszt_ani_rach]

I can play La Campanella perfectly
(for some reason heroic polonaise is too hard for me)
I've also learned pathetique sonata 3rd mvt, chopin grand valse op 18, fantasie impromptu, liszt sonata and b minor (1st mvt Lento assai- Allegro energico)..

that's my piano skill level

please suggest a good beautiful piece either by Liszt, Chopin or Rachmaninoff.

(no baroque composers pls)

[pianovlad1996]

I can say it's not enough what you wrote. There are very much 'pianists' that play for about 2 years and they are thinking they could handle La Campanella or other great and demanding works. I need to know if you are an amateur and your pieces are only those ( becuase if you didn't play baroque and czerny, you CAN'T play La Campanella well) or you have played other pieces before like Ana Magdalena by Bach or Op.299, 599 and 740 by Czerny. Also I want to know if you played an easier sonata like Mozart k545, not Pathetique as your first. I am not trying to discourage you but if those are your only pieces (I play piano since I was 3(5) years-long story- and now I'm 16 and I can't handle Liszt's B minor sonata), you need to 'restart' your piano experience with some easy pieces. If you are a professional, playing for about 10 yeas or more, I believe you can play the pieces mentioned (but it's still freaky you can play Liszt's Sonata in B minor and can't play Heroique Polonaise by Chopin, hope you didn't lie becuase I feel something it's stinky here ) and I'll give you this list:
1.Rachmaninoff any of the op.33 or op.39 etudes probably excepting op.39 no.1,3,5,6 if you said you can't play Heroique Polonaise.
2.Rachmaninoff any of the preludes, probably escepting Op.23 No.9 because it's Feux Follet's(Liszt's etude transcendentale) evil brother.
3.Rachmaninoff Morceaux de fantasie. Really EASY technical, VERY HARD musical.
4.Liszt Etudes Transcendentales, excepting Feux Follets, Chasse Neige and Mazeppa.
5.Liszt Romances, Ballades(probably too hard),Annes de Pelerinage(Search for Vallee D'Oberman or sonetto del petraca 104), Dante Sonata, Other Paganini Etudes like no.6, Concerti ( I played 1 and was my hardest piece),Hungarian Rhapsodies.
6.Chopin Polonaises, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Nocturnes(try Op.9 No.3 or Op.48 No.1), Etudes (try some easier if you didn't play any of them like Op.10 No.3,5,6,9,11,12 and Op.25 No.1,2,7,9), Ballades, Scherzi, Variations, Concerti, Preludes.
Hope I helped you. 

[liszt_ani_rach]

Any other suggestions?

[liszt_ani_rach]

I can say it's not enough what you wrote. There are very much 'pianists' that play for about 2 years and they are thinking they could handle La Campanella or other great and demanding works. I need to know if you are an amateur and your pieces are only those ( becuase if you didn't play baroque and czerny, you CAN'T play La Campanella well) or you have played other pieces before like Ana Magdalena by Bach or Op.299, 599 and 740 by Czerny. Also I want to know if you played an easier sonata like Mozart k545, not Pathetique as your first. I am not trying to discourage you but if those are your only pieces (I play piano since I was 3(5) years-long story- and now I'm 16 and I can't handle Liszt's B minor sonata), you need to 'restart' your piano experience with some easy pieces. If you are a professional, playing for about 10 yeas or more, I believe you can play the pieces mentioned (but it's still freaky you can play Liszt's Sonata in B minor and can't play Heroique Polonaise by Chopin, hope you didn't lie becuase I feel something it's stinky here ) and I'll give you this list:
1.Rachmaninoff any of the op.33 or op.39 etudes probably excepting op.39 no.1,3,5,6 if you said you can't play Heroique Polonaise.
2.Rachmaninoff any of the preludes, probably escepting Op.23 No.9 because it's Feux Follet's(Liszt's etude transcendentale) evil brother.
3.Rachmaninoff Morceaux de fantasie. Really EASY technical, VERY HARD musical.
4.Liszt Etudes Transcendentales, excepting Feux Follets, Chasse Neige and Mazeppa.
5.Liszt Romances, Ballades(probably too hard),Annes de Pelerinage(Search for Vallee D'Oberman or sonetto del petraca 104), Dante Sonata, Other Paganini Etudes like no.6, Concerti ( I played 1 and was my hardest piece),Hungarian Rhapsodies.
6.Chopin Polonaises, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Nocturnes(try Op.9 No.3 or Op.48 No.1), Etudes (try some easier if you didn't play any of them like Op.10 No.3,5,6,9,11,12 and Op.25 No.1,2,7,9), Ballades, Scherzi, Variations, Concerti, Preludes.
Hope I helped you. 

First of all, I meant only the First movement of Liszt's Sonata in b minor, not the whole damn thing..Btw, I've studied a lot of czerny exercises, lot of bach preludes, chopin mazurkas, waltzes, preludes, beethoven's moonlight sonata 1st and 2nd mvts, pathethique 3rd mvt.. i've been playing for 8 years.. and nothing stinks..what i say is what i mean.. I dont want to be harsh, but want to let you know i'm not a guy who bluffs. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.. what are the difficulties in feux follets?
It looks very technical..but i gotta knw more about it.

[pianovlad1996]

Sorry. I thought you play the whole 30 minutes 'monster-sonata' . And if you played the pieces you mentioned above, I can assure you can play Heroique Polonaise. But there are many other pieces that are very beautiful and not cliche. If you want to play a cliche, you need to be original in your interpretation to maintain your audience's interest.Anyway, Feux Follets(Will-o-wisp) is Liszt's hardest Transcendental Etude (in my opinion). You need to have a very relaxed poignee and you need stamina as well to perform this etude. It's quite tricky and it's very difficult to play it in tempo. I see very much pianists in my school that try to play Feux Follets in tempo but they fail. And, as my teacher says, if you can't play a piece in tempo, you can't play it at all. If you don't have the patience to play slowly and built up to tempo you need to switch that piece with other. And you need a very delicate touch for Feux Follets because it needs to sound mysterious. You need to play fast chromatic notes, double notes in pianissimo and leggiero and to mantain them in high tempo. If you don't have the required technique, you will play a drunken-dead-o-wisp. And in Liszt's etudes, there are no focused techniques, like in Chopin's Etudes where we have arpeggios (Op.10 No.1,8 and Op.25 No.12), octaves(Op.25 No.9,10), sixths (Op.25 No. 8 ), thirds(Op.25 No.6), double notes(Op.10 No.7), chromatic(Op.10 no.2 ), very fast tempo(Op.10 No.4 and Op.25 No.2),jumps(Op.25 No.4,9),musicality(Op.10 No.3,6 and Op.25 No.1,5,7),rithm(Op.10 No.10, Op.25 No.3,5), rolled chords (Op.10 No.11), left hand only-with a simple right hand-(Op.10 No.9,12) and right hand only-with a simple left hand (Op.10 No.1,2,5,7,8,10 and Op.25 No.2,5,6,9,11). Liszt 'mixed' them so we have probably all in one etude. Feux Follets contains chromatic passages, rolled and broken chords, jumps, double notes, left hand difficult passages, right hand difficulties, very soft scales and arpeggios all in very fast tempo and pp. I advise you to play a Chopin Etude because it will help you for the liszt etude. As you said, you don't know why you can play Heroique Polonaise and you can play La Campanella and Liszt B minor Sonata 1st mov., we have, in our school, a talented and good pianist that can play Feux Follets and can't play Chopin Etude Op.25 No.5(one of the 'easier' etudes technically). It's weird, but every pianist has a lack(or technically, or musically). Playing a Rach etude is also a rewarding experience, for you and your audience.
Hope you will understand what I wrote becuase I'm russian and my english is quite bad.

[liszt_ani_rach]

Thanks man. No problem about your English, I respect your nationality. I like Russian Pianists  .
Anyway, my piano teacher asked me to learn La Chasse, (paganini etude 5). It is not too technical and sounds very good. I tried Heroic Polonaise, the only problems I have are from bar 1-16. I don't seem to have problem with the main theme of the Polonaise.

The pieces I've completed successfully:
Fantasie Impromptu, Minute Waltz, waltz op 64 c sharp minor, nocturne op 9 no 2, rach prelude op 3 no 2 c# minor, la campanella, nuagis gris, valse oublie 1, pathetique 3rd mvt, moonlight sonata 1,2 mvts, chopin etude op 10 no 1, mozart sonata in c major (the popular one, sry  i dnt knw the "k") .

Pieces that I tried, but stopped abruptly:

Hungarian Rhapsody no 2, liebestraume  no 3, mephisto waltz no 1, moonlight sonata mvt 3, chopin etude op 25 no 6..

Pieces currently working on:

La campanella (still striving for perfection, the last 2 pages), La chasse, scarlatti sonata k27 b minor.

I have few more questions..

since you said feux follets is the hardest transcendental etude,

1.which is the easiest one?
2. Which is easier of the two ,chasse neige or mazeppa?

[pianovlad1996]

Hi again. 
Well, the easiest will be No.1 (Preludio) or No.3 (paysage) but I can say that no.3 is harder than preludio because it requires a good control of nuances. The tempo is slower but, as in Chopin Etudes Op.10 No.3,6 and Op.25 No.7, you need to highlight the sopran, tenor and bass voices. In Preludio, which is less than 2 pages, the only problem is to bring to tempo and to choose the right fingerings.
From Chasse Neige and Mazzepa, I will say that Chasse Neige is harder because of the subtle nuances used. You need to play the tremolos very soft and it's hard to play them without accents because of the jumps. Mazzepa is probably harder technically than Chasse Neige. Some people say that Mazzepa is the hardest etude, but I say Feux Follets is the hardest followed by Chasse Neige because of the touch, jumps,....... all in high tempo. Also No.8 is one of the easier. If you want to play an Liszt Etude, I'll give you this list, with the 12 etudes in order of difficulty.
Easiest: 1,3,8,6,7,9,11,10,2,4,12,5. 
Hope it will help you. 

[liszt_ani_rach]

Hi again. 
Well, the easiest will be No.1 (Preludio) or No.3 (paysage) but I can say that no.3 is harder than preludio because it requires a good control of nuances. The tempo is slower but, as in Chopin Etudes Op.10 No.3,6 and Op.25 No.7, you need to highlight the sopran, tenor and bass voices. In Preludio, which is less than 2 pages, the only problem is to bring to tempo and to choose the right fingerings.
From Chasse Neige and Mazzepa, I will say that Chasse Neige is harder because of the subtle nuances used. You need to play the tremolos very soft and it's hard to play them without accents because of the jumps. Mazzepa is probably harder technically than Chasse Neige. Some people say that Mazzepa is the hardest etude, but I say Feux Follets is the hardest followed by Chasse Neige because of the touch, jumps,....... all in high tempo. Also No.8 is one of the easier. If you want to play an Liszt Etude, I'll give you this list, with the 12 etudes in order of difficulty.
Easiest: 1,3,8,6,7,9,11,10,2,4,12,5. 
Hope it will help you. 

Thanks for your help! Can you add people as friends on Piano street? Btw, you said that you are Russian, right, I'm Indian !

[pianovlad1996]

I don't know if it's possible to add friends. And how's India?

[liszt_ani_rach]

India is very different from other countries (lol). Hows Russia?

[pianovlad1996]

Beautiful. I am from Saint Petersburg and I love my city (sometimes it's a bit boring). A, and my name is Vladimir Solovyov (but you can call me Vlad).  What's your name? 

[liszt_ani_rach]

Nice meeting you Vlad. My name is Aniruddh Immaneni, but you can call me Ani!

[point of grace]

I can play La Campanella perfectly
(for some reason heroic polonaise is too hard for me)
I've also learned pathetique sonata 3rd mvt, chopin grand valse op 18, fantasie impromptu, liszt sonata and b minor (1st mvt Lento assai- Allegro energico)..

that's my piano skill level

please suggest a good beautiful piece either by Liszt, Chopin or Rachmaninoff.

(no baroque composers pls)

you can play it perfectly?? wawwww!!
i suggest rach op. 16 no. 4 and 6 (good wirsts and strenghts needed)
chopin polonaise op. 44 or prelude op. 28 no. 24
and liszt un sospiro or ET no. 8
and of course, good luck