Rachmaninoff "Liebesfreud"

[rhysish]

I'm assuming we are all familiar with Liebesleid and there are tons of comments on the difficulty of that. And although I love it, I don't think I'm mature enough to play that. Liebefreud's "Love's Joy" however is often overlooked. I was mainly just curious, what difficulty is this piece in relation to others or maybe on a meter of difficulty like henle? I would really love to play this.

[bwl_13]

Here's one guy's opinion: https://www.pianolibrary.org/composers/rachmaninoff/kreisler-liebesfreud/

I'm not familiar with this piece but if the person who runs this website is to be trusted (I often agree with the difficulty ratings) then it's even harder than Liebesleid.

[hmoll53]

Hi, Rachmaninoff's two transcriptions of Kreisler's works are both fantastic and more or so concert paraphrases than traditional transcriptions
In comparison to Liebesleid, Liebesfreud is almost two times as long and far more virtuosic than the former. The textures are far less pianistic and it's quite dense at the time. Both piece share lush counterpoint and harmonies but Liebesfreud utilizes it to a more dazzling degree. The theme is stated in double notes and the more "grazioso" sections are filled with different sorts of figurations for both hands, something the Liebesleid lacks in comparison.
As for Henle, I would give Liebesleid a 7 and Liebesfreud an 8. I don't particularly like Henle's ratings system because of how narrow it is. (Chopin's Ballade No.4 and Ravel's Scarbo isn't even in the same league but both are in 9 anyways)

[lelle]

I'm assuming we are all familiar with Liebesleid and there are tons of comments on the difficulty of that. And although I love it, I don't think I'm mature enough to play that.

If you are talking about emotional maturity, don't worry about that. Just play what you like. You can come back to it later with a new interpretation when you grow older.