Franck sonata movement 4 mm 143-150 and 161-168 hand collisions

[ardith]

In mm. 143-150 of the piano part of movement 4 of César Franck's violin sonata, there are half note octave chords in the left hand in the second half of each measure that collide with the right-hand part if the chords are held for a half note as written.  How is this actually played?  Are those LH octave chords not held for the entire half note?  If held, there needs to be a choice between right hand over left hand or left and over right hand - which is better?  (An image of the first two measures is attached-- it's a 6-sharp key signature in this passage.)  [And sorry I got the measure #s wrong the first time I posted, but I've corrected it.]

[pianoplayer002]

Actually I think the quoted passage has five flats.

Another thing is - none of the half note octaves actually collide with the right hand 8th notes in that passage. And if you are wondering how to hold the left hand octaves, then how the heck are you doing the right hand ones at the start of the measures??

The answer to your question is - he is implying that you use pedal here to glue everything together.

I don't wanna be that guy, but if you have to ask this question I'm not sure if you are ready to play this piece. It is very difficult, even for professional pianists.

[ardith]

The International Edition I have definitely shows mm 143-148 with 6 sharps.  It switches to 5 flats after that in m 149.  I realize other editions may show it differently.  But the picture snip I took is from a Russian edition from IMSLP that also shows 6 sharps in mm 143-148.

[marik1]

In mm. 278-285 of the piano part of movement 4 of César Franck's violin sonata, there are half note octave chords in the left hand in the second half of each measure that collide with the right-hand part if the chords are held for a half note as written.  How is this actually played?  Are those LH octave chords not held for the entire half note?  If held, there needs to be a choice between right hand over left hand or left and over right hand - which is better?  (An image of the first two measures is attached-- it's a 6-sharp key signature in this passage.)

It's been awhile since I played this Sonata (about 30 years). From memory, the LH goes high wrist over low wrist RH. You don't want to hold half notes--because of large leaps in both hands it is much more important here to be "on the next octave" in time without any rush, so you rather sustain it with pedal and get this bell like effect with broad hand movements.

Best, M

[ardith]

Thanks for this. I was watching Jeremy Denk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GfR-GAs9Q and sometimes his right hand is over the left, and sometimes the other way around.