Thoughts on Chopin Scherzo No. 3 Op. 39?

[azbroolah]

I'm interested in taking a shot at this piece. About a year ago I spent a long time learning the Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, and eventually was able to play it at least reasonably well (I'm primarily a casual pianist). I'm wondering about how the Scherzo no. 3 compares to it. I took a cursory look at it and it seems to be similarly difficult, but I know it's played blisteringly fast. Just wondering what thoughts others have!

[ewalker1]

Hello!

It's a great piece that I thoroughly enjoyed learning.
I found the main difficulties to be in the middle section, but then I always seem to have less problems with octaves and jumps, over arpeggios. Don't worry about the speed, that will come with time.
I much prefer it to number two, probably because I am sick to death of number two being played so often!

[chopinlover01]

It's my favorite of the 4, personally.
The middle section's primary difficulty is creating contrast between the chords which must be powerful and have a lot of tone at the same time, then have the arpeggios ridiculously light.

[pencilart3]

It's my favorite of the 4, personally.

It's my least favorite of the 4, personally.

[diomedes]

I found that when I was dealing with it, I overestimated some areas, and then underestimated others.

The descending arpeggio waves require breadth of mind to keep them together in terms of ensemble and it doesn't help that they're constantly transposed. It makes that area similar to demands of an etude, but the musical conception and chorale demand great imagination.

Careful with the the tough polyphonic section in quarter notes of the main part. In all, I'd say the difficulties are more significant than 2, but if you're very serious in your approach it should be ok.

[tritone_player]

Overall, I found the third scherzo to be about the same difficulty as the second. I don't think it necessarily has to be blisteringly fast; as a matter of fact, I think the octaves will sound better if they are played at a moderately fast tempo with a full sound than if they are played as fast as possible with a thinner/wimpier tone.

The coda is not as hard as it seems. The most difficult parts of the piece are the descending arpeggio-things in the middle section, because the hands have to play in time together and match up accurately. I found that my left hand initially lagged behind my right when playing these runs, and the only real solution is very slow practice, alternating between each hand separately and with both hands together.

The Horowitz 1957 recording is dope.

[ganymedger]

I think this Scherzo is not more difficault than the second one, it just requires different aspects of technique. I often read that the meno mosso part is very difficault. For me that is the easiest part of the piece. If you have practiced scales, arpeggios and brokes chords thorougly in all keys, you will manage this part.

The part were the you have to play staccato with your thumb and index finger  and and legato with the 4th and 5th finger is very  tricky. To play this musically convincing will take a lot of practice for me.
This part reminded me of the third Nouvelle Etudes in d-flat major. Maybe chopin composed  this etude was designed for the third Scherzo.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

Unlike others, I think the 3rd scherzo is MUCH more difficult than the second. It's almost as difficult as the fourth scherzo, one of Chopin's hardest pieces. The first section forces you to go rage octave and play them really fast. The D-Flat/E Major sections has notes that are two times faster than the first. I think you should tackle the first scherzo, my favorite of the bunch. It's difficult, but half of the time, you're repeating passages that you've played, like, twice. The second scherzo is a good one to start, but you should master the first then go to this one.

And btw, the 4th scherzo is almost as hard as the 4th ballade, so you probably have to be Rubenstein level to play it.

[symphonicdance]

Identify your most comfortable and efficient fingering.  Practice slowly, really slowly, at the beginning.  Do not rely on pedal but practice with finger legato at the beginning, too.  Increase speed progressively.  Try to find the right sound / sound colours at various spots, incl. adding pedal.

Have fun and good luck!

[chopinlover01]

Identify your most comfortable and efficient fingering.  Practice slowly, really slowly, at the beginning.  Do not rely on pedal but practice with finger legato at the beginning, too.  Increase speed progressively.  Try to find the right sound / sound colours at various spots, incl. adding pedal.

Have fun and good luck!

This advice is so general it could be applied to virtually any piano music of any genre..

[rob47]

This advice is so general it could be applied to virtually any piano music of any genre..

it's the best advice for these:



especially the legato part, speed shows up later if you can play those legato as possible for the sake of being legato as possible

[chopinlover01]

Yes, I'm sure it helps with that passage, as it would help with any other