Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto: Fingering

[pytheamateur]

Does anyone know of an edition of Rach 2 with fingering suggestions?  Unfortunately, even the Schirmer edition does not have them   It would be good if Alfred Masterworks were to publish a study edition on this work.

Thanks.

[scott13]

Does anyone know of an edition of Rach 2 with fingering suggestions?  Unfortunately, even the Schirmer edition does not have them   It would be good if Alfred Masterworks were to publish a study edition on this work.

Thanks.

Sorry if this offends you, but any pianist remotely close to learning this work is more than capable of developing there own fingerings, and the fact you want a completely fingered edition suggests you should not be learning this work.

Also bear in mind, Rachmaninoff could stretch a 13th with one hand, where as V. Askenarzy (My favourite Rachmaninoff interpreter) could only stretch a 9th, yet he plays the concertos better than most others. My point is what worked for Rach with his huge hands, would not work for Askenarzy with his smaller hands. Hence back to my first point, that if you can't devise your own fingerings, you're not ready to learn the work.

[pytheamateur]

No offence taken.  I know Rach 2 is to difficult for me right now.  It's just that it's my favourite concerto and I always get tempted to try a few bars myself.

I see your point about fingering, although I do believe that it is always helpful to see fingering suggestions by experienced editors.  Afterall editors have been rather generous with their suggestions for Chopin and Liszt's music, much of which is no easier than Rachmaninov's music and probably requires large hands as well.  I just do not quite understand why nobody seems to have published study editions for Rachmaninov's concertos (especially when there are such editions for his preludes by Alfred Masterworks and for Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto by Schirmer).

By the way, what sort of level do you think is the Rach 2?  Is it a LRSM or even FRSM?  In case you are not familiar with the ABRSM system, LRSM is equivalent to the level of a final-year conservatoire student and FRSM is post graduate level.

[scott13]

No offence taken.  I know Rach 2 is to difficult for me right now.  It's just that it's my favourite concerto and I always get tempted to try a few bars myself.

I see your point about fingering, although I do believe that it is always helpful to see fingering suggestions by experienced editors.  Afterall editors have been rather generous with their suggestions for Chopin and Liszt's music, much of which is no easier than Rachmaninov's music and probably requires large hands as well.  I just do not quite understand why nobody seems to have published study editions for Rachmaninov's concertos (especially when there are such editions for his preludes by Alfred Masterworks and for Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto by Schirmer).

By the way, what sort of level do you think is the Rach 2?  Is it a LRSM or even FRSM?  In case you are not familiar with the ABRSM system, LRSM is equivalent to the level of a final-year conservatoire student and FRSM is post graduate level.

It is at least FRSM, though most likely higher. Professional level concerto

[werq34ac]

My edition has fingerings... But then again, it's a Chinese edition I stumbled on in a used music store.

And it also is missing several fingerings from important places. I had to figure out the fingering out myself.

And while Scott does present a valid point that if you need someone else to finger this for you you're not ready for it yet, I think it's nice to have a suggestion of a possible fingering so that you don't have to go through the trouble of figuring out one for yourself. But by all means, use a fingering that works for YOU even if you have to change some of the fingerings by an editor or even yourself. 90% of the time your teacher's word is law though..