I feel like I am cramming for the final!

[dinosaurtales]

This is one of those times I would REALLY like to hear from Bernhard, but you guys have good ideas, too.  I need help!

I will be attending a festival in Italy in two weeks - relax, I am not one of the fancy recitalists - but still, I don't want to make a fool of myself.  I am taking 3 main pieces - the g minor ballade of Chopin, the first movement of the Mozart K 576, and Suggestion Diabolique - Prokofiev.

The Mozart is ready, and the ballade has a couple of spots that are ready to "pop" so I am not worried about them, but for some reason the Prokofiev just will not either clean up or speed up.  I'll take it at a slower tempo if that's what it takes to play clean, but at this point I am not confident it's going to happen. 

My usual "system" that works includes slow practice, with metronome, cleaning up spots so I can bump the sucker up another notch, etc.  My frustration does tend to build with difficult pieces, but after what seems to be waaaay too long, they do eventually just "pop" all of a sudden.  Well, I can usually sense it coming, but this one just doesn't.

Any practice tips or special hints? This piece is different in that it's not particularly "musical" as much as it's a technical exercise at speed.  I'll try anything at this point!   

[lostinidlewonder]

Prokofiev's Suggestion Diabolique is a very tough piece, so you shouldn't be suprised if things are harder than normal and your progress is erratic.

After the introduction the piece moves into its main idea using the 7 note theme (first seen in bar 29-30 in RH F#A A G# G F# F thrown over all the octaves and even worse in minor 9ths. Heaps of tough runs and even double glissando. The patterns create lots of rhythmic excitement and enhanced with sharp accents and extreme dynamic contrasts. It is very percussive, repeated note playing which can leave you very tired if you don't target efficiency in your playing/practicing.

I would practice each development in the 7 note theme seperately, each one offers its own challenge. Which ones are you finding tough?

[ludwig]

Hi DinosaurTales,

      I picked up this piece a while ago to perform at a function and found the more I tense up the slower I get during the repeated chordal passages...Now one of my students is playing this for a concert, and she's having similar problmes. I think it could be worth a try to change the way you play the piece physically. For example, I always felt that my fingers weren't doing all the work, but the arms and everything else felt overly tired. Try the scraping technique where the fingers contracts and scrapes the keys rather than achieveing those repetitions with wrist or arm movement during the more quieter and linear sections of the piece.

     The other thing is to steal moments of breaks, so you give yourself some resting time and also give the audience some ear-resting time, because this piece can just turn into a jumble of loud and fast notes. I whould suggest in the passages that are extremely chordal, try to just bring out the cross-over LH or the pinky of the right hand (depends on where the melody is) and make everything very soft, until a crescendo occurs or a sforzando. Only increase the volumn at the build ups at the ends of the passages (i.e before the G# minor section) and even then, try not to make everything fff, instead, just bring out the tops or the accented notes. That way there will still be nuances during the loud fast passages.

    Another thing is to share the load between the hands, for example on the 2nd last page (the 9ths in the LH  and little highlights in the RH), you can still shape those phrases even though the dynamic marking is ff. As the shape of the LH melody moves, try to phrase it using small waves of louds and softs, and this can also be helped by the RH (although it should be generally softer than the LH). Make sure you follow through with your hands when playing longer octaves of crotchets to relax them and go right into the piano.

   I suppose the other thing about the piece is that the prestissmo fantastico may pressure one to maintain the intensity throughout the piece, however, there are elements of surprise within, so its not consistently fast and furious, make good use of these moments and give yourself and the ears a rest. These "turning points" or connecting bars are crucial to the overall effect, these include the diabolical "laughs", the the pauses before big chords, (i.e transition from 2/2 to 2/4/ to 2/2, silences can be golden ), the glissandos at the end (take your time on the second one so you're ready for the finale) etc... What I mean by all this is that make time for you to think so it sound cleaner, and you'll be refreshed and ready for the next big section.

   Pedal is an important issue, I think for this piece, clarity is pretty important, so when using a lot of it, make sure the harmonies don't clash when sustained, but still use plenty of it when needed, just change often

    Practicing slowly is a terrific idea! I would break it up into hundreds of bits and pieces and practice slowly. I know it can get a bit boring and tedious, but I think its easier to master say 2 to 4 bars at a time, and then you're more satisfied that you have completely achieved something When doing this, make sure the chords are very tightly played together, bringing out the more important melodic lines, and think of the phrases, so you're not bouncing on each chord, but rather a 7-chord, up and down motif.



    The main thing is don't get tired too soon, precission is the main key, keep it light at times, swirl into the more heavy sections rather than sustaining it for the whole piece and I'm sure you'll do fine, it is a bloody difficult piece, (sorta remind me of the spanish rhapsody... same intensity in chordal passages, my arms fell off a couple of times :p) It sounds like a well balanced  and great choice in pieces, goodluck with it

I'll stop rambbling now. 

[dinosaurtales]

You guys have been extremely helpful!  I'll try lots of these things this afterrnoon when I work on this.  The sections that bug me most are the transition after the opening "theme" into the fff loud bangy chords.  You are right - my teacher wants me to use more pedal on those chords only.  But I get tense because I am just laying for that segway section so I end up playing all the chords louder and harder.  So I'll try your trick of backing off and only playing the pulse beat chord loud and see if that speeds it up a bit.  Also the minor 9ths are problematic because I can't reach it!  Certainly not clean - I have to fat finger something to get to the bottom note.,  I think there's nothing I can really do about that, so I concentrate on the thumb and pray a lot.  I think you are right about volume - I probably gradually play louder and louder as I tense up, so I'll work on that -

I am glad I am not the only one who finds this piece hard.  My teacher hasn't said anything - but all other pieces slowly come together as you work on them and this one isn't for some reason.  the dilemma is, once I get it down (assuming I do) this could end up being one of my favorite pieces to play!  It's soooooooo hot!