Brahms Concerto in D Minor, Op. 15

[gapoc459]

For some inexplicable reason, I had not listened to this piece until about three weeks ago. I immediately fell in love. So ridiculously amazing. Obviously, I really really want to play it.

I got a score, and I've been reading bits and pieces here and there. It is certainly not easy, but I am wondering if there is anything that is (perhaps deceptively) really really hard? So far, the phrasing of the piano entrance seems more difficult than anything else that follows. Either way, I do not want to put a lot of work into this piece only to hit a wall...

I'm only thinking about playing the first movement for now; so no need to discuss the others.

Basically what I would love is if people could write up a semi-comprehensive list of all the greatest challenges that this piece has to offer?

[orangesodaking]

It's my all-time favorite piece of music

It is horizontally very difficult, and there are lots of voices in the piano writing, from the very beginning. So hard to make them all individual and working together, legato, not vertical sounding, etc.

Virtuosity is also a concern: The octaves are quite awkward, the arpeggios in the coda are also kind of awkward.

[perfect_pitch]

It's my all-time favorite piece of music

It is horizontally very difficult, and there are lots of voices in the piano writing, from the very beginning. So hard to make them all individual and working together, legato, not vertical sounding, etc.

Virtuosity is also a concern: The octaves are quite awkward, the arpeggios in the coda are also kind of awkward.

Tell me about it... I can barely reach a 10th and those legato octave passages are a B!TCH!!!

[birba]

Times are a-changing.  Last year that last word would have become "pregnant dog"...

[p2u_]

Times are a-changing.  Last year that last word would have become "pregnant dog"...

Software of this kind is rather easy to bypass. perfect_pitch did not actually write the word that is in the software's database. Look a little closer at how he wrote the "I"...

Paul

[birba]

     LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

[g_s_223]

For the first movement, I find the coda very tricky. There is also a contrapuntal passage in the development section in independant LH/RH octaves (b minor IIRC) which is a bit of a stinker. Slow practice required for these areas!