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Topic: Am I ready for Rach 2? (Read 3997 times)

rocky99

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 5

School starts in a few weeks, and I am in the process of looking for repertoire to play for the spring semester. Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto is my favorite piano piece of all time, and it's my dream to be able to play it, but it sounds (and looks) very intimidating and I don't want to attempt to play it before I'm ready. Some of the pieces I have most recently worked on include Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 (1st movement), The Lark (Glinka/Balakirev), Grieg Piano Concerto No. 1 (1st movement), Rachmaninoff's Prelude No. 10 in B Minor (op. 32), Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (3rd movement), and Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 (2nd movement).

Going off of this list, would it be reasonable to play the Rachmaninoff next? I would like to play all 3 movements, but the 3rd looks devilishly tricky so I would definitely attempt that one last, or maybe not at all for the time being. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

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quantum

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 6260

Re: Am I ready for Rach 2?

Reply #1 on: January 10, 2021, 06:32:45 PM

Sight read through it and see how it feels.

For repertoire of this level, it is often wise to do personal research and small scale tests before committing to the piece for something like school juries or competitions. Pick out small sections you think will be challenging and see how close you can get them to a performance standard. These small scale tests don't have to reach the level of polish as a complete piece, but they will give you a very good idea of how manageable the music is and the amount of work to expect.

This is good practice in general, as it will give you the ability to plan for performances and design a workflows appropriate to your workload.

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Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

diomedes

Sr. Member
Posts: 477

Re: Am I ready for Rach 2?

Reply #2 on: January 11, 2021, 01:02:04 AM

I just finished learning the first movement, having heard this music for.... 25 years and now at last learning it I'm totally stunned how it's not nearly as difficult as I thought. Mind you I muscled through most rachmaninov preludes and op. 39 entirely. So it's a tier below those at least. Except for the last movement I think, which is pretty brutish. The second movement is more demanding than usual but I have not looked at it yet.

Try the un poco piu mosso after the first theme before theme 2, and the second page of the theme 2 (where the triplet eigths show up). If you can fight those off after 2 weeks then the rest of the movement is a memory exercise. I didn't enjoy memorizing the arpeggios for the first four pages..... Very tedious

Based on the repertoire you've done you might be ok

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Beethoven-Alkan, concerto 3
Faure barcarolle 10
Mozart-Stradal, symphony 40

chrismaninoff

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 42

Re: Am I ready for Rach 2?

Reply #3 on: January 15, 2021, 02:58:10 PM

I'd say you are totally ready for it! It's really not that bad, especially the first and second movements. The third would harder than anything on your list though.

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Accompanist and private piano teacher, poetry hobbyist, aspiring gourmet porridge chef.

www.christopherknopppianist.com

peterkandra6

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 3

Re: Am I ready for Rach 2?

Reply #4 on: January 20, 2021, 05:14:51 PM

You’re ready. I’m in high school and I’m half way through it right now. It’s also my first concerto. You got it!

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