Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No. 1

[tyrk]

Hi Im looking for a new piece to learn:

Is the Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No. 1 too difficult for me a this moment?

The most challenging piece I've played are:
Liszt Orage
Chopin étude 1 and 3 op 10  and 12 op 25
Chopin fantaisie héroique op 53

I will work with a teacher of course so it will be easier but Im looking for you opinion if you've already played this piece.

[symphonicdance]

Yes, I think it's a big leap from where you are.  Better for you to consider to learn another Liszt piece (e.g. concert etudes, ballades, legendes, transcriptions), before tackling this one.

[nanabush]

Read the poem that goes with the piece!  There is a ton of depth to the different sections (devil tuning his fiddle, the dance theme, seduction, birds chirping, EVERYTHING!!)  The technique should be second nature for a piece like this.  A lot of people treat the Mephisto Waltz like an etude, and are mesmerized by the fast passages, but the best part of the piece is conveying the story.

It's been about 4 years now, but I played this piece as part of my second year jury at University, and it took me a few months to really get into a lot of the sections.  The harmonies were too stringent, or I just couldn't get the feel (I'm trying not to fixate on the blatant technical horror-show).

If you want to gauge sheer "difficulty", then try the part where the right hand is leaping in triplets back and forth later in the piece.  Left hand is playing a demented V-I progression (C#+ to F#+) over and over, and the right hand is reiterating the slow seductive theme from earlier in the piece, but it is just now pure bat-sh*t insanity.  Try that section out, the really good recordings make it sound like the bumpers of a pinball machine.  It just jumps all over the place, and if you can play it without mashing every OTHER note than the one you are trying to hit, then you can probably play the piece :PP

There is another technique I personally found really difficult, and it's the quick-grouped 32nd notes (the first one acting as a grace note) - similar passagework is found in the 2nd movement of Beethoven Op78 sonata (which I ended up playing the next year).  That is an incredibly tough technique to do while keeping your hand relaxed.  My right hand kept tending to play both at the same time and would tense up, but you have to almost flick the notes away to get the sparkle you hear from the great recordings.

I want to keep writing about this piece, and have become nostalgic from laughing my ass off telling my friend my teacher suggested the piece to me (It was initially the Ballade in B minor by Liszt, but another girl was already going to play it so he made me switch).  If you actually do end up learning this piece, I have loads and loads of insight on my own process for when I learnt it.  I have a recording around somewhere, if I can find it I might post it.

But ya, do some research on the piece!  It has such an interesting accompanying story; you would really be missing out if you went into this piece blindly.