Rachmaninov Variations

[martha96]

Hello!   I'm a new member here and I have a few questions that I feel I should discuss with you. I'm currently working on Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations and I have some issues on practicing it. First, it is a massive piece, almost 20 minutes in lenght, which is quite a problem for me. I've never really managed this kind of pieces and unfortunately got only half of them polished, the other part being quite insecure and sloppy, with mistakes and memory slips. Therefore, what would be a good method for getting the piece polished as a whole and still practicing small sections- like a variation/day? Is it efficient to live behind three or four variations for a few days while I'm moving on the next ones and then play them again with the ones I've freshly practiced, or just play each day the variation that I practiced the day before and a new variation? Also, I have some issues on how should I practice Var. VII (the whole thing), Var. X (the chromatic passages), Var.XI and the XIXth Variation. These are the ones I fear the most and are the most difficult for me to polish. It's quite sad I need to ask such silly things, but I need some help as my teacher never played these variations and isn't 100% sure what are the best practice methods for it. Thanks, Martha.