Schumann"Soaring", Liszt Cons.#3, Rach Paganini ?

[lani]

My daughter asked me to post if anyone has played Schumann's Soaring piece.  Her teacher is recommending it as her next piece, and we have only heard very fast renditions of it on classical music archives.net, although her teacher played it slower than those on the site for her when they were selecting her music.  Are there any favorite (pianists) renditions of it that others could suggest we listen to ?It would be great to listen to an mp3 or midi file if available.  She has just completed Mendolsohnn's Song w/out Words and a Scarlatti Sonata (k.201).  Thanks, Lani  
P.S. She also wants to play Rach Rhapsody Paganini Theme and Liszt Consolation No. 3, and would like to know what the levels of these peices are as well as what to expect in regards to technical challenges for each of these pieces.

[JK]

The Schumann is a great piece to get a good idea of Schumanns style and piano wrting. The recording on classical archieves is fast, its important to remember that you should play it at the speed that you feel most comfortable with, speed will come later if needed, but it is not neccesary to play it so fast. I haven't heard many recordings of this piece but you could look for a recording by Wilhelm Kempff I think he recorded it and his other recordings of Schumann are legendary.

As for the Rachmaninoff pagannini rhapsody, it is a very tricky piece to play well. There is a very wide range of technical difficulties to over come, it is especially tricky if you don't have very large hands as there are a lot of big stretches at times. There is also a lot of physical strength needed at times. However a lot of it is quite managable.

[Nightscape]

Well, I'm not completely familiar with Soaring, although I've heard it before.  The Consolation has some 3 against 2 rhythms, big LH arpeggios, and it's easy to make the piece seem bogged down if you don't get the phrasing just right.  The Rhapsody by Rachmaninoff is a work for piano and orchestra, and the piano part is extremely difficult, much harder than these other two pieces.  But if your talking just about an arrangement of the 18th variation for solo piano, that's about at the same level as the Consolation.

[lani]

Yes, it is the Variation No. 18 originally for paino and orchestra, but for this score is for solo piano.  Approximately what grade level would these pieces be, please?  Thanks for both of your replies. Regards, Lani

[BuyBuy]

Well, depending on the student's capability and will to work, I would say that on average, the Liszt Consolation and Schumman's Soaring are manageable on a 4th or 5th year of piano playing.

I would'nt give the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody to anyone that has less than 8 years of training (of course, that's just an average). And I don't believe the solo version of the piece is easier than the full piano-orchestra one (unless we're talking here about an arrangement for easy piano, which was not made by Rachmaninoff).