Brahms Op. 117 No. 3 C# Minor - Split between hands

[conserv]

hello all,

so in this piece i had a quick question - in bars 6 - 9 the music is written in such a way that it seems that the left hand is intended to jump up every 2 sixteenth notes and then back down. Looking at videos on youtube, i see that some pianists indeed honor this "split" - however some other pianists, and my teacher when i see him play, put those sixteenth notes in the right hand, with the intent of making the octaves more legato

is this acceptable? or one step further, is it in fact what Brahms most likely intended, but writing it in the upper stave would have been messy?

thanks

[visitor]

my professors always told me that you work to adapt your physical approach to the keyboard in order to get the sound and quality of sound you intend/want/need.

makes little different if you leave it only in LH, actually, it makes it harder than it needs to and will get in the way of playing a smooth line. Especially with Brahms, he writes in a more 'orchestral' texture, it is super awkward, especially in the later/mature works which these shorts are a part of. They are lovely but deceptively difficult for this reason the style is not very 'pianistic' or piano friendly as other composers. 

I take these things and split them between the hands and redistribute/allocate voices all the time. Figure out what works for you and go with that.

[conserv]

Thanks , that helps a lot ! So I will keep it all in the right hand as octaves to keep the line smoother and less awkward pianistically

[brogers70]

I love that piece. I've always played it as written, honoring the split, as you say. In the late Brahms there are a fair number of places in which he seems to have intended a fingering that might not seem like the most obvious or easiest, like this passage, or several with interlocking hands, and I think he was aiming for a specific effect, so I stick with what he seems to have wanted. Still, he wrote for his hands, not yours, and if you get the sound you want, why not adjust the fingering.