Les collines d'Anacapri

[mrudall]

Have you played this piece? What did you find most difficult about it, and what did you find most pleasurable in learning it?

[chicoscalco]

I have not studied it thoroughly, but I have sight read it a few times. I absolutely love it. It is not very difficult mechanically... The hardest issue, as in all of Debussy's music I believe, is tonal control. Don't get me wrong, this is no easy piece. But there are not pyrotechnics of any sort.

[nanabush]

This is an easy piece to make sound 'mushy'.  I played it in my first year in University (along with Ce q'ua vu le Vent d'Ouest, and le Vent dans la Plaine).  I found this one much tricker than Vent dans la Plaine, but about the same difficulty as le Vent d'Ouest.

In terms of pure technical awkwardness, the most difficult part for me was on the second last page, when the left hand takes the sixteenth passagework and the right hand has the main theme overtop... that was really hard at first, keeping the left hand active enough to bust that out when until then it's mostly accompanying the fast RH passages.  I spent a good deal of time working that out.  I played l'Isle Joyeuse for my graduating recital, and the RH stuff in that piece was a horrible flashback to the 6-7 bars of LH madness in Collines d'Anacapri.

It's good though!  It has some very explosive moments, and the kind of 'tango' sounding middle section is very expressive.  It's just a really nice short piece, and lots of fun if you couple it with another prelude, or play a group of them.

If you have any other questions, I kind of gave a very quick description of it, but I remember fondly practicing this and enjoying the hell out of it