Piano Forum

I am learning this beautiful piece. I have a problem with the chord in bars 34, 36 and repeated later as I cannot make the tenth in the LH. It is already a difficult place for such a problem given the exquisite change of tone one must find after the interesting bass in the preceeding bars. Should I simply make the C#/E into a kind of grace note and then play out the rest?

I have played this piece for 40 years, and I think I do okay with it.  The problem that I have is with teachers who think that any one other than an accomplished pianist can possibly understand the nuances associated with this very great work.  Yet, every piano teacher in the U.S. teaches this piece, the result of which is that everyone plays it wrong- very wrong! (including the teacher)

Robert Ottman (at NTSU), who was one of music theory gods in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, taught this piece in his junior level harmonic analysis course.  That is how involved this work is.

Specific to your question, I will state the following:

1)  The eminent musicologist, Bernard Sherman, whose book on the performance practices of Brahms, states:  "Moritz Rosenthal reports (Charles Rosen, his student) that when Brahms played in the 1890's, he rolled most of his chords."

2)  The word "calando," which appears right before these measures, means a diminishing retard.

3)  When, I play this section the first time around, I do a semi-quick roll in the left hand all the way through to the right hand A Major chord in the right hand. 

4)   On its next occurrence, I slow it way down in the preceeding measures and split the third beat just slightly by ending on the "E" in the left hand.

5)  Then, I wait a hairs breath before doing a semi-quick roll on the A Major chord.  After that, I immediately get back to tempo as soon as possible.

In conclusion, I list the link to my video on this subject, with the offer to further advise you on this piece (and its associated thesis) for free, as always: