Piano Forum

Just curious how many people might be here with similar concerns, had them or thought of them:

Couple months ago i learned another recital program, fairly heavy material but it got done. Personal life intervened so i never performed it. But the learning process was very valuable.

I move on, set new goals, so one life pursuit of mine is Rachmaninov Op.39, i decided to learn the whole thing and possibly perform it.

What kind of a monster was this written for? I have confidence in my ability but this really shakes me up. After spending some time with it i insist on remapping my learning process to deal with the demands. None of them are technical, but it's a mountain of notes and my brain just doesn't feel up to the demands.

I learned nr.1 i c minor and recorded it a couple years ago, felt very good about it. But approaching the whole cycle really brings into relief how much a muscle man's task learning this is.

It has been a couple weeks, i'm working on nr.5 in e flat no problems there, nr.6 in a what a miserable tangle of notes and nr.8 in d which is an ocean of double notes and feels very impractical despite its soothing character.

So like i said, no technical concerns but learning something that demands a mind of elephantine proportions. I'm going to carry through with it, but maybe someone around here has experiences that are similar.