what exactly is so hard about la campanella?

[gee]

is it just the jumping around? I'm starting this song soon, so could anybody tell me what aspects of this song i should be weary of. Basically, a brief overview of this song would be nice.

thanks in advance!

[chev_bigblock]

I am just a beginner myself (and am nowhere near being able to play it), but I  would assume that for anybody still calling pieces songs it would be waaaayyyy over their head.   


J/K

[mikeyg]

I am just a beginner myself (and am nowhere near being able to play it), but I  would assume that for anybody still calling pieces songs it would be waaaayyyy over their head.   


J/K

OH BURN!!!

Anyway, the large leaps in the beginning are difficult as well as sme of the runs in the middle, and of course the end.  And let us not forget the repeated notes.  and also carrying on the trill and the melody in the right hand.

[gee]

my bad  not very big on the correct terminology

[nanabush]

Have you seen the sheet music, every variation of the main theme of this piece have an extreme difficulty... You're fingers will have to be sooo accurate, and be able to squeeze through the black keys all over the place... If you think that this'll be easy to learn...go ahead

[gee]

thanks, just what i wanted to know. If that is the hardest part of la campanella, then it shouldn't be too much trouble to learn. Yes, i've taken a look at the sheetmusic, and would not consider it a easy piece. I just wanted people to share their feelings about this piece, to help me point out anything else that is hard about this piece, that i overlooked. I usually like to get down the technicalities of a piece before i start it. So i can get to concentrating on the musical aspects faster.

[JP]

My initial thoughts after reading your (gee) post were similar to chev_bigblock..

Its a piece that’s pretty easy to read and can be learnt in a short amount of time..  However, mastering the technical difficulties can be quiet challenging.  Furthermore, getting to sound (musically) how it should is even more challenging..

I had first learnt the piece while I was in grade 10 (music).  I was able to play it fairly clean and with level of musicality that I thought was satisfactory..  Now, half a decade later viewing those videos of me playing the Campanella in comparison to how it sounds currently sounds reminds me of how, though in I was in grade 10, I barely knew anything about musicality..  And I still have a very long way to go..

What I'm saying is that if you really like the piece, then wait till you are experienced enough to play it..  You'll end up saving time on the long run.

[JP]

For how long have you been taking classes? And more importantly what does your repertoire consist of?

[musicsdarkangel]

I'll tell you what's hard about La Campanella.


pages:

1.  Jumps
2.  Jumps and in Busoni edition (i play Busoni), octaves
3.  Jumps + 32nd note beginnings
4.  Rapid chords
5.  Right hand octave jumped D's, in 16th notes, covering a total of 2 octaves
6.  Right hand tremelo which changes notes followed by a rapid chord run
7.  Repeated notes in the right hand, trilling in the right hand, thumb changes notes
8.  Trill in right hand while pinky plays notes
9.  Blazing chromatics
10.Blazing chromatics, part 2
11.Trill in right hand pinky and ring, while thumb plays
12.Crazy jump trills
13.Fast runs
14.Jumping chords all over the place
15.Jumping octaves, left hand pinky stays down while thumb moves. More octaves
16.Octave runs
17.Left hand jumping octaves, both hands jump around like hell in Busoni, and finally, a huge leap in both hands to end the piece.

[musicsdarkangel]

by the way, the first page is, IMO, the easiest.

[rachmaninoff_969]

Easy to learn the notes...yes...but whether any of you can actually play it well is the real question...regardless, good luck...cause you'll need it if you don't want to murder the piece

[laurenlynnette]

As said before, the jumps. 

[gee]

JP i've been playing since i was four, and now am eighteen. So that will be 14yrs of classes. As for my repertoire. Chopin: etudes; opus10 1,4,12, opus 25 7,8,10,11,12. The g minor ballade. Beethoven: pathetique sonata. Prokofiev: Tocatta. Liszt: Mephisto waltz

These are currently what I can play at performance level.

[gee]

Thanks musicdarkangel, i'll review that along with my score.

[ralessi]

NO BACH?!?!??!  You might wanna get on that before La Campanella!!!!!!

Cheers!
Ricky

[gee]

Well, i had played a few pieces by him awhile ago, but have not practised his pieces for quite some time now.

[thierry13]

Well, i had played a few pieces by him awhile ago, but have not practised his pieces for quite some time now.

Bach is not my favorite one for building repertoire... but you definately need baroque music in your repertoire, may it be Scarlatti or Bach.

[keys]

A lot of pieces have difficult jumps, but usually just one of the notes is important so you can fake your way through if you're having an off day. La campanella isn't like that. No worries though, It's not as scary as some say it is.

Best of luck!

[nanabush]

So you're eighteen and you can play some of his most difficult etudes, mephy waltz, prok toccata at performance level?  Were you by any chance a child prodigy?

[gee]

I'm not suggesting anything of the sort. I've played since i was 4 yrs old, and for 14yrs. Why would you think of me as a prodigy? The etudes aren't the most diffcult Chopin etudes. They are difficult, but once you work on each one for 20 minutes to half an hour a day, it doesn't become difficult at all. The child of a friend of my family can play the mephisto waltz quite well, and only the age of 15.
I'm sure alot of other people my age, can play just as good or better than me, as well as having a larger, and more difficult repetoire. Being able to play a couple of hard pieces doesn't make me a prodigy.

[gee]

Thierry, what might you suggest for a good baroque piece?

[JP]

I see.. The fact that you said « song » in your 1st post thru me off.  If you really are able to play the pieces you listed at performance level you should be fine.  Though everyone is saying the jumps are what will give you the hardest time, I think it’ll depend very much on the pianist.  Once the motion is mastered, they wont be harder to execute than the trills, runs, etc.  And mastering the jumps comes pretty fast.   As I mentioned previously, I had first learnt it when I was 16, at which point the mechanical elements of the piece were well done.

However, the outlining of the melody and accenting weren’t too impressive.. 
Read : musicality.


For Baroque, I’m not a big fan of Bach. Scarlatti on the other hand wrote beautiful music, he even wrote a few in lyric form.  You’ll surely find something interesting among the 500 some sonatas he wrote.

[etudes]

if u practise it for a few moments you will get used to that jumps and feel it isnt that difficult.....for a technical problem but for the musical it is another problem
another difficult for me is repeated notes becoz u will never know that what piano u gonna play this piece
sometime u have to play this piece with the piano u never try before  and then it is going to be a problem with the repeated note section
the trills section with the thumbs move in RH is quite difficult and tricky try more thinking about LH it helps
then the difficult with the trills in 1 and 2 finger (or 2 1) and with the melody in top voice also quite tricky
then we go to the chromatic running with is very difficult to play in tempo and make it flowing
then go to the trills in top voice with thumb (well. i use 3 5) can be help with arm moving think about music in LH
and the theme with 32th notes run that is one of most tricky for me to think and make the same music with thumb and let the run flow and even (of course FAST) and end with chromatic and running passage (with i cheat finger with some helps of LH)
then go to piu mosso section with jumping of both hands
try practise HS until u feel very sure dont rush try to make a voicing of pinky in RH as a phrase
and then all the problem with octave section and octave jumping in the end
Bravoooooooo.....
keep going

[masman]

crazy jumps, you have to have long fingers to be able to call some thing like this easy

[etudes]

crazy jumps, you have to have long fingers to be able to call some thing like this easy

if u mean the jumping part in the begin of the piece it isnt easy of course ...but not that hard compare with any of technical difficult in that piece
i can reach 11th (very hard) but does it matter???

[gee]

Not really, sure it'd be alot more helpful, but if you do something like a waving technique with your hands, it really becomes alot easier.

[paris]

by the way, the first page is, IMO, the easiest.

agree. first page is nothing compared to section with 32th repetitions...and octaves aren't as hard as chromatics...

[6ft 4]

has anyone ever played this piece without any mistakes up to speed?

it IS impossible.

[BoliverAllmon]

has anyone ever played this piece without any mistakes up to speed?

it IS impossible.

I don't know about people from this board, but I am sure professionals have done it.

[musicsdarkangel]

The only perfect recording of La Campanella belongs to Kissin.


Everyone else flubs or messes up somewhere.


Just listen to Andre Watts's last page left hand octave leaps!!! He misses every single one!!


It's tough stuff.  No joke.

[Awakening]

What exactly isn't so hard about La Campanella?  As someone else said, have you looked at the sheet music?  The jumps in the right hand in the main theme are the easy part--you should get the hang of it with a little practice.  It's the variations and overall craziness that happiness throughout the piece that are difficult.  The runs are quite difficult, and this piece is an insane challenge to play at the appropriate speed.  Good luck.

[Awakening]

The only perfect recording of La Campanella belongs to Kissin.

Are you sure about that?  It sounds pretty farfetched to me. 

[paris]

Jeno Jando has quite good performance of la campanella

[BoliverAllmon]

Jeno Jando has quite good performance of la campanella

Jeno Jando has tons of pretty good recordings. Massive repertoire.

[musicsdarkangel]

Are you sure about that?  It sounds pretty farfetched to me. 

As far as I have heard, I will always hear flubs.


OH HELL.

There's one more.

Josef Lhevinne.

However, he has a couple recordings, and the most amazing La Campanella I've heard was on his recording on record (i don't know if it's on CD).

But...yes, pretty much every pianist makes flubs because it's so hard to nail.

The Watts recording is one of the most popular, but he misses a lot of the repeated notes, and the octaves at the end.  It's just a HARD piece to master!

This is why I believe that it is harder than Mephisto.  I think that Mephisto is much easier to master and nail... I have attempted it, and unfortunately had to move to compitition repitoire, but I will resume later and probably still have an easier time than I did with La Campanella....it's no joke.

[etudes]

no one mentioned Cziffra's recording of this piece?

btw live video from yundi li is very great for me
even some mistakes from repeated notes and ending part


and if u need a perfect recording without wrong note
try Alice Sara Ott

[musicsdarkangel]

I can't stand Cziffra's rendition....too much rubato.

[iliketocompose]

I'm not suggesting anything of the sort. I've played since i was 4 yrs old, and for 14yrs. Why would you think of me as a prodigy? The etudes aren't the most diffcult Chopin etudes. They are difficult, but once you work on each one for 20 minutes to half an hour a day, it doesn't become difficult at all. The child of a friend of my family can play the mephisto waltz quite well, and only the age of 15.
I'm sure alot of other people my age, can play just as good or better than me, as well as having a larger, and more difficult repetoire. Being able to play a couple of hard pieces doesn't make me a prodigy.

If you can play Chopin's G minor ballade at age 18, and when I say "play," I mean REALLY play it, you should seriously consider going to Julliard or some other world famous music school and being a professional performer. Last night a student from Shorter Music College in Georgia played that very same piece for me because it's one of my favorites. She played it for her senior recital (she just graduated as a piano performance major) and was complaining about how hard it was. So if you can really play it, props to you.

The only perfect recording of La Campanella belongs to Kissin.

Everyone else flubs or messes up somewhere.

Just listen to Andre Watts's last page left hand octave leaps!!! He misses every single one!!

It's tough stuff. No joke.

I actually heard La Campanella played live by Jean-Christophe Millot (a french pianist) when he played a very small concert in Conyers, GA. It was pretty much the most amazing thing I've ever seen... Millot played those chromatic scales faster (yet while retaining perfect evenness) than I really thought was humanly possible. I didn't hear any flubs at all and this guy was absolutely unreal, so I highly doubt that he did mess up.

Nevertheless, this piece is freakin hard, probably way beyond what I probably will ever play.

[musicsdarkangel]

I wouldn't mind checking out a recordnig of this just for technical prowess!

Yeah, that's what the Lhevinne recording is like.

[gee]

i realized from the beginning that this piece was going to be hard, but still believed it to be manageable. Techniques i find hardest is the fast variation of the theme with the repeated notes, and the ending.
I use Bolet's recording for reference, what do you guys think of his recording?
Oh yeah, and is the gminor ballade hard, i've played it back since i was preparing for arct, one of the few pieces from that time that i kept with me, but by now i think i've done an alrite job with it.