Starting to learn Liszt's hungarian rhapsody no. 12 and Rach's etude 39/6.

[svenno]

I'm very excited, cause these are amongst my favorite pieces for the piano; or at least, the 12th rhapsody is my favorite Liszt rhapsody and the "Red riding hood" etude is my favorite Rach etude. I'm really happy to be able to start learning them with my teacher, and happy that my teacher actually recommended we start learning them, without me even having to ask her permission to; because not many, I think, would let a 17 year old near this kind of repertoire. Or perhaps they would, I don't know, everyone's different. I have very little technical problems, though... my biggest problem is "bringing the piece together" - a sense of form, making a large-scale piece like a rhapsody sound like it's actually one whole piece, not several small pieces, so that's one reason why we're attempting it.

I would, though, purely out of curiosity, like to know from those who have studied these pieces, (and of course also the general opinions of those who have not) your opinion on them; which sections did you have most trouble with and how did you handle them, and how do you think they would compare in difficulty (both technical and musical) to the other pieces in their set; the 12th rhapsody to the other 18 rhapsodies and the 39/6 etude to the other Rach etudes?

Thanks!