Scriabin Op. 22, No. 1

[jcmusic]

Hi,

I've been struggling with this piece forever, and just can't get it.  It looks so easy at first glance, but making the left hand legato, and with the crossovers, I'm having a very hard time.  It should be within my grasp, though.

I tried arpeggiating the left hand, but the intervals are too wide.  My arpeggio technique I'm sure is really lacking.

I just tried fingering the LH such that notes are replaced with another finger.  For example 5th finger on a low not, thumb on octave above, replace thumb with 5th which frees up the thumb, etc.   But this a a lot of finger replacing.

The crossovers get hard, too.  But I'd like to start with at least some semblance of legato in the LH.

I'm attaching a version with some of my fingering ideas.  I have another version where I put the fingerings all the way through.  But as I say, I'm not happy with it.  (at least I hope I've attached it, as I'm having trouble figuring out how the attachment function works)

Any and all thoughts would be most welcome!

John

 

[carl_h]

Hello,
I've looked at this piece before and I had the same 'problem'. The intervals in this piece are too big for your usual physical legato (at least for my hands). Have you considered moving the hand? for example in the first measure to take the D# with the 5 immediately instead? It is harder to control the sound that way and I like the idea of swapping fingers more as is your current fingering (not always possible ofcourse).
Whatever you decide, play the left hand with both hands and try to make it sound like that with just the left.

Grts,
Carl

[jcmusic]

Thanks Carl,

So glad to hear I'm not completely alone in this!  I've thought about playing with both hands, but wander if something is lost doing that, as he didn't indicate it. I will try, but wonder if I'll be even more confused.  Wander why he wrote it this way?

Not sure what you mean by the 5th finger on the D#.  In the first ms., did you mean the 5th on the D#, and also the G# (next note)?

Thanks again for responding.  Beautiful piece, but deceptively hard, at least for me.

John