Rach 2 third movement

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Alright so...

uuh...

Ah there it is!  Rehearsal 33 says I gotta play it at 120 BPM.  Bruh...  Does it have to be THAT fast?  cause right now my peak without losing control for the first system of octaves in A flat major is around 110 MAYBE 112, and the second system in f minor is coming along but it's still quite not there yet.  Is it still socially acceptable to play it at that tempo?  Or even slower than that?  I'd like to play it as slow as I can get away with. 

Also what fingering do you use for the f minor one in the second system?  I do 124 but I don't know if it's better to do it with 125.

Thanks yo

[diomedes]

Does look fun. The f minor, looks like i'd use 4 on the a flat but 5 wants to go to b flat, the rest is 5.

Meh, either you can do it, or may a fine show of killing yourself while trying. It's hard to tell how difficult something like that is out of context, but to me 120 doesn't seem impractical. I look forward to the day when i deal with this beast. Keep at it.

[michael_c]

Don't get obsessed with the tempo. Concentrate on efficient technique: everything as elastic as possible, no unnecessary tensions, an economical hand choreography...  Keep it leggiero. Speed will come.

I don't know what speed you will end up at, but I can tell you this: it will sound better played with lightness, sparkle and precision at 110 than it will if it's pushed relentlessly to 120.

As for the fingering, you have to find what suits your hand and your technique. I played 1-2-3 (that's what I wrote in my score), but that was a long time ago. I think if I did this now I'd use 1-3-4 because I'm not keen on the stretch of a fifth between 1 and 2.

To finger a passage like this, you need to find a solution that (1) minimises stretching for each individual chord and (2) allows for an efficient choreography of the hand when you play the chords in quick succession. It's not always easy to find the right compromise.

[j_ol]

If you can reach, 123 in f-minor, 4th on b-flat and then 5.
And in the left hand I use 5-4-2 on the chord in last beat.