How to do the glissando of Alborada del gracioso

[chatoto]

I am about to work on the miroir. But my teacher sugest that we will ignore the Alborada del gracioso.
Because he thinks that it will damage too much my hands .
Or maybe it is because, we did not have the right method to do the glissando ?
Does anyone who played this piece without hurting too much? Would you mind telling us your secrets?

[chicoscalco]

It's probably not just the glissando... that piece is pretty unforgiving on repeated notes, among other thing.
And about the glissandi, I firmly believe that in some pianos with a heavier keyboard they are impossible to perform with one hand. I already saw a lot of famous pianists "cheat" in that passage.

[chatoto]

I could not agree more that this piece is extremely  difficult in so many ways. But the glissando hurts the hands the most.
I am willing to take a change for other difficulty ,but physical damage is...ehh

[nanabush]

Ohohoho... this piece.

The Glissandi ARE difficult, but there are so many pitfalls in this piece, by the time you get to the section with the Glissandi, they seem like a break.

The repeated notes are the deadliest part of the piece, especially if you are playing on a piano that you don't get much rehearsal on.

As for the Glissandi - there are fingerings, but really try a bunch out.  Play the initial chord with the left hand, and play the RH gliss at your own time, slowly, quicker, quiet, loud, etc.  Find a fingering that doesn't scrape the skin [too much].  I used 2-4 for one of them, 1-3 for most, and I think I ended up using 1-4 for one of them as well.

Don't get too caught up on this part - it's definitely unique in the piano rep; I've not seen more than three or four pieces use double glissandi, and this piece uses it the most extensively.

Be VERY afraid of the repeated notes lol.  And for those as well, don't be afraid to let the LH help out with them; you can trade them off and still have the RH snag the upper melodic notes as well.  There are so many ways to play this section.

The second last page is insane as well... he makes a giant stretto of the entire piece, with all the glittery effects, crammed together - now that part is hard to make coherent.

If you have specific questions, I'd be glad to help out, because I fondly remember this being one of the toughest pieces I played at University haha.

[maitea]

I use 4-2 upwards, and 1-3 downwards.

The upwards combination starts feeling less comfortable until you get used to the palm being quite up. I started playing the first note group and the highest (both with accents) and don't play the glissando as such, but slide the fingers softly on the surface of the keys, your body needs to absorb the distance and the speed. Do this whilst playing the left hand as well, so there are no rhythm issues. Practice the two voices of the glissando separately, and notice that you don't need to apply much weight at all. Don't practice the glissandos too much on a day if you are struggling, bit by bit.

Repeated notes are much harder. Hardest of all is keeping an exact pulse and have a crisp articulation throughout! One of my favourite pieces!!! Enjoy it