path to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2

[yohankwon]

Hey guys, i was thinking about starting hungarian rhapsody no.2 (the famous one), but i dont know what pieces i need to learn in order to start learning it.

but......do i really need to learn any etudes or exercises, etc to learn the hungarian rhapsody?

[j_menz]

How to get to somewhere depends greatly on where you are starting from.  Perhaps you could give some indication of that.

[faulty_damper]

The entire piece is an etude if you want to look at it that way.  Just make sure the action is well-regulated because not all pianos allow the piece to be played.

[asuhayda]

The entire piece is an etude if you want to look at it that way.  Just make sure the action is well-regulated because not all pianos allow the piece to be played.

TOO true. 

Look.. this piece is an absolute beast.  Not recommended for people with an intermediate level of technique.  There is really no piece that I can think of that will prepare you for HR2. 

Some things  you need to be able to do.  5-3 trills, crazy prolonged tremolos that exceed an octave, SUPER fast scale work, poly-rhythms in the Lassan section, stamina, strength, you'll need to have good keyboard geography (things happen so fast that you can barely see what you're doing half the time)..

To be honest, people often claim that they can play this piece, when in fact, there are very few people who can actually play it well.  The physical and technical demands are endless. 

Don't rush to play this piece.  It's a killer.  I played it briefly about 10 years ago, but I don't play it anymore.. it's too much work.

Is it the hardest piece ever written? No, but nevertheless it's CRAZY hard.  One of the hardest pieces I've ever played for sure. 

If you're aching to play a Rhapsody, I'd think about tackling 11 or 13 or the 3 late Rhapsodies.  They are more accessible (and still insanely hard).

Good luck to you!

[pytheamateur]

The best way to prepare for it is to make up your own excercises.
If you are short of ideas on how to do it, I suggest you have a look at Alfred Cortot's edition.

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Rapsodie-Hongroise-No-2/4177782

Approach the piece as if you are the conductor of an orchestra.  If the orchestra is not ready to play together yet, practise the different parts separately.  Simplify the piece, miss out certain voices until the others become familiar.  For example, some passages have the right hand thumb playing a melody line while the other four fingers are involved in some fast embellishment.  Start with leaving out the embellishment, just play the melody with the right hand thumb.  When you practise separate parts like this, it's a good idea to stick with the fingering that you would eventually use when playing the whole thing.

[jy_]

Personally I think you need a rather solid chord technique to tackle the challenges of this piece (esp in the prestissimo)

Practice the chords in Chopin's Op.10 No.10 (they don't necessarily need to be broken up) and triadic octaves (CEGC', C#E#G#C#), chromatic octaves and all scales in the C Major fingering... F# major is not really that tough      It's a bit hard to hit the black keys (at fast speed) but once you get the motion it feels easier than the A major scale (in my case)

Getting that section up to speed w/o jumbling your fingers is a problem though...

On a sidenote, does anyone know whether the dedicatee of HR2 is one of Liszt's close friends or something?

[j_menz]

On a sidenote, does anyone know whether the dedicatee of HR2 is one of Liszt's close friends or something?

Not sure that they were friends at all; Count Laszlo Teleki was a politician and a Hungarian nationalist (which later got him into a fair bit of trouble).  I think the dedication reflects Liszt's political/nationalistic views rather than a personal affection.

[thesixthsensemusic]

I'd recommend you practice, to perfection, and then keep on playing every now and then, all Chopin's etudes till the whole op 10, op 25, and 3 others are in your mind AND your fingers. This allow you to master every single technical difficulty in Romantic piano repertoire, spread out over slightly more bite-size pieces, even though they are often excruciatingly difficult by themselves. That's a very serious thing in its own right, it might take 2-3 years, but from then on you will have a huge advantage in learning ANY new composition.

[j_menz]

This allow you to master every single technical difficulty in Romantic piano repertoire

Rubbish. Not to suggest they aren't worth doing, but there are technical things they do not cover and often other ways to learn the things they do.

[thesixthsensemusic]

Rubbish. Not to suggest they aren't worth doing, but there are technical things they do not cover and often other ways to learn the things they do.

Well. ok, please tell me what technical speciality they do not cover? And possibly, what would be a nice way to study that particular weakness?

[artix]

I can finally play it... 

[j_menz]

Well. ok, please tell me what technical speciality they do not cover?

Double trills, octave glissandi, staccatto and legato in the same hand at the same time, various voicings, leaps of large dense chords, ridiculously fast repeated notes ........

And possibly, what would be a nice way to study that particular weakness?

Vicariously. Or with heavy sedation.

[thesixthsensemusic]

Hmm, most of the stuff you describe there happens in Chopin's Barcarolle too, and that's significantly easier than Rhapsody no.2. I still think that if there's any 'road to Rhapsody no.2' it's learning all different techniques of 19th century bravoura piano playing flawlessly and that the aforementioned etudes offer a good way to do just that.

And having large hands helps ofc.

[pytheamateur]

La Campanella is a good companion piece.