Piano Forum

my **very amateur** opinion is that you are correct…but “keeping it in tempo” is difficult to do with both precision and accuracy especially considering that both hands are making large jumps in opposite directions. also the passage is marked “sempre stringendo” (always getting faster) and it’s one of the most climactic parts of the piece; most pros that i’ve heard take this section pretty fast. i (female) have hands on the smaller side of average (i can reach an octave, a ninth if absolutely necessary, and to say that reaching a tenth would be a stretch…would be a stretch lol). thus, this passage for me is pretty hard when you couple large jumps in contrary motion with small hands… if i play fast, i inevitably sacrifice accuracy, but if i play accurately, i must sacrifice speed and (in my opinion) may risk the section sounding mechanical and expressionless…my best guess is that most people try to bridge the gap between accuracy and speed and just blame the rushing on “rubato” lol. i for one try to keep this section even and fast with reasonable rubato (i do use a metronome when i practice though)—considering what i mentioned before about accuracy, it’s still not as fast as i’d like it to be... idk, if anyone has different opinions, please share