Rachamninov pieces?

[artlin02]

Hi! I’m almost finished with Liebestraum (Liszt) and my teacher (new teacher) told me to start thinking of what I want to play next. I would like to play something by Rachmaninov and he proposed his op. 10 no. 5 (Humoresque). My questions then:
1. Is op.10 no.5 harder or easier than liebestraum?
2. What else can I propose from his preludes or études tableaux? (a challenge but don’t want to embarrass myself)

Only Rachmaninov I’ve played before is op 3 no 1 (élégie)

[beethovenfan01]

I think Op. 10 No. 5 is a step up from the Liebestraum, and is about equivalent to an easier Prelude, in my opinion.

For you, I would recommend you stay far, far away from his Etude-Tableaux, as far as I know they are all mature, extremely difficult pieces and are not to be trifled with.

However, many of the Preludes are quite accessible. IOp. 23 No. 1, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, and 10, and Op. 32 No. 2, No. 5, No. 10, No. 11, and No. 12 are more accessible technically (but they are certainly not without their challenges!). If you more ambitious, look at Op. 23 No. 2, No. 3, 7, and 9, and Op. 32 No. 1, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9. These are the more difficult ones.

Op. 23 No. 8, Op. 32 No. 4 and 13 are all very difficult, taxing, and mature music works, about comparable in difficulty to an Etude-Tableaux.

My personal recommendation for you would be Op. 23 No. 1, No. 10, or Op. 32 No. 2, 11 or 12. These ones are the easiest, in my opinion, and you can't really go wrong with these ones.

[visitor]

shame about being limited to etudes and preludes. the nocturne are interesting and ignored by most they are not Rachmaninoff completists

[jinfiesto]

Under no circumstances should you play an Etude Tableaux. They are much more difficult than the Liebestraum. The Humoresque is fine, but it is a bit harder. I would think that some of the Preludes would be accessible as well. I think the famous C# minor is similar in difficulty to the Liebestraum. The famous G minor is not so bad either if you have solid voicing and can play the polyphony in the B section well. The C major prelude is short (and a bit harder than the others,) but is a reasonable stretch on account of it being around a page long. The G# minor is a reasonable piece to try as well. The D major is a trap. It sounds easy, but the voicing and carrying the line well is quite hard. It's easy to play badly and very difficult to play well.

I've spent a considerable amount of time playing Rachmaninoff in general, if you decide to pick up the preludes, I'd highly recommend the Laredo or Hamelin editions depending on if you have small or large hands respectively (they both have good fingerings.) Hamelin is spare with giving out fingerings, as he only bothers to write in what he considers "non-obvious" which is quite a bit different than what most mortals would consider "non-obvious," but along with his critical notes, the edition is very helpful. Schirmer publishes the Ruth Laredo edition and Henle publishes Hamelin. The Henle is obviously somewhat expensive if that's a factor.