Kapustin Concert Etude Op. 40 No. 6 - practice tips

[sdengu]

Hello,

I decided to start practicing this fascinating etude - I've been playing advanced classical repertoire, but this one is quite different from what I've been working on and seems challenging with tricky rhythms and accents (especially left hand). Other than practicing slow and speeding up, are there any good prep exercises or tutorials for this piece?

Would appreciate any tips. 

[lelle]

I don't have any good general tips, I just wanted to reply since nobody has done so yet  Personally I sometimes feel it's hard to come up with practise tricks for repertoire that's this advanced, since it requires so much overall technic ability anyways. Are there any particular passages you are having trouble with?

It's a really cool piece.

[visitor]

I am working through opus 40 (all 8 eventually) as a long term project   , I wont hit 6 till probably first half 2022 but  I'll give some of what I've found helpful and suggest with my work on 1 2 4 and 3 so far ( 5 is amazing but probably the hardest one ,railery , I'll likely hit it last )
 
Heres the thing w the Kap,. Understand and read about him , he didn't consider himself a jazzer per say ,he set out to learn and do it as a necessity for his composing
As such ,dont fall into the trap of having to approach  this like jazz players play, sort of , ie swing and imrov like etc
Everything you need to execute is in the score
However ,familiarity with the idiom and playing. Other pieces with jazz elements or realized transcription  is super helpful
So don't over romanticize it with regards to rubato and pedal etc. Either

Ok practical stuff w quick/high return on investment
1 memorize it as soon as possible, these etudes are very difficult to get a handle on if you're still reading the score , the harmonic language is less than traditional and super hard to read at first, it gets easier as you get comfy w the style of notating w so many accidentals and the idiom demands so much you really need to free up brain power to use and guide your ear
I really hope you're not trying gn to work off the old russian edition / pirated online pdf scores ,support his estate and publishers he just passed away last July (RIP!) ,. The recent updated edition from Schott is a must I love That thing and  have a rare japanese edition for 1 2 and 3 that I use and prefer but if  I didn't have that I'd be only in the Schott,and I'll switch to it fro? No 4 thru 8,

The page layout makes way better sense ,has some good fingering solution or it's notated in a way that lets figuring out optimal fingering possible easier, typset is much clearer and easier to read

This drill is a goody for other stuff too but a former russian teacher of mine was fond of humbling frill
Play the left hand on the piano as written
Play the right hand on the music desk/rest  thennswtich this will iron out places where you are telling on another hand to help the mechanics to

Be careful of listening to much of just a few high views youtube videos, honestly I think thr best new talent for Kap is Korean  pianist Sun Hee You, she gets it in a rare way ,her stuff is benchmark good  , the album and singles are on YouTube to stream, it ais a good one to buy ,her variations is one of the best I've heard,ever

Get it memorized and controlled slow asap

Again not required but making it  a point to ready thru lots and lots of jazzy transcriptions etc daily will help overall with gettign comfortable with the styles,

What do I mean by jazzy transcription? Stuff like this I worked this as a sort of on my own get comfy w reading tough notated jazz realized score etc so find pieces you like and use those as prep or supplements

[sdengu]

Thank you for the replies, lelle and visitor. I'm trying to adjust with that tricky 16-beat rhythm of left hand - very tricky. I'll try the suggested tips. And yes, I do have the Schott edition. :-)

I really like this rendition of #6 by Ben Kim:

[lelle]

I think I enjoy that one more than Kapustin's own recording, haha. Do keep us posted on your progress, perhaps in the Audition Room later?

[sdengu]

I hope I can post a decent version within 10 years

[jacobs]

I'm finally playing them all! In learning them all a big thing that helps is as above, memorize asap. Then play with Kapustins own recordings at 50% then 75%. Slowing down recordings will sound aweful but use it. This will show you what he is emphasizing which makes it about 100x easier to play and sounds right.
You need every single note to be perfect. To get it up to speed you have to analyze where you're not able to play at speed and figure out why your movement works at slow but not fast. For me as an example with no 1 it's marked at 140, I was pretty comfortable around 120 but 140 was out of reach for the cadenza like section. I really had to take it apart and make it as efficient as possible.

Make sure you place your hands before playing. Exactly like Kapustin. Only way to get the big jumps is to practice the jumps by quickly moving to the keys, place your hands, don't play. Jump left then right. You have to memorized those leaps.

It takes time to let it sit. So for example learn no 1 up to ~110 and then let it sit. Move on to no 6. Get that up to 75. Let it sit. Get no 3 etc.

Practice each slow and let them sit. Play them at the most comfortable speed. Get every single note right.  You need time to get the notes all right. It's a huge coordination thing. It takes me about Nx longer to get a Kapustin down as compared to say a Rachmaninoff.

Analyzing will help but mostly comparing it to some classical counterpart.