Studies for Liebestraum no 3?

[moszsz]

Hello!

I'm new here, have been lurking for a while but not posted before.  I'd say I am an intermediate level pianist, I took a break and have recently begun playing again.  Without a teacher to monitor, I am worried about bad technique as I practice on my own - so I am here for your gracious help!

  I have been working on Liebestraum no 3 (A few years back, I asked my teacher if she thought this was an appropriate level for me and she said I should go ahead, but I dropped it and am just revisiting now).  At a basic level, I can "play" it - meaning, I can play the notes.  But can't execute it properly.  I don't have a problem bringing the melody out for the most part. --  My biggest challenges are being even in the first cadenza, and in the LH broken chords in the middle dramatic section (this is annoying, not sure why its a problem, its definitely not the worst part of the piece...), and the octave leaps.  Like I said - I can "play" the notes, I am not missing the octaves, but because it feels difficult it is not voiced how I want it to be.

I'm thinking perhaps I put the piece on hold, and go back to the basics to make sure my strength/speed/technique is where it should be, then revisit.  Are there etudes that you would recommend that develop the skills needed for this piece? 


(....or do I just push on, and keep practicing it til it works?  I have been playing it long enough that I'm worried the problem is my basic technique and don't want to reinforce something dangerous by just drilling something)


Thank you for any thoughts!

[edwincurrent]

Paul Barton, on Youtube, has about 4 video tutorials for this piece. Picked up a cool hand over hand method for the end of cadenza 1 as well as better fingering ideas. He also goes over a few good ways to practice, like playing the arpeggiated chords together to help focus on melody and reinforce structure.