Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Brahms 76/4 intermezzo

Yesssssssssssssssssssssss!! I did it!

Just managed to really play the ending. Those last 4 bars have defeated me for a very. Long. Time. No matter what I did, I could not manage to do all the things I wanted with the sound (on the rare occasion I hit all the right notes).

I had to leap onto PW immediately and post. If you have any tips on how you managed to get this codetta reliable I am very interested! I have tried many things and will do some more work on it tonight, but new approaches are very welcome. You see, once is a happy accident although I will check shortly to see if can play it a second time.

Does anyone play this? As I learnt it I found more and more to be amazed about. It's my first Brahms and it's a Revelation. I would love to hear from anyone who has experienced this piece. Is not the harmony/voice leading mind-boggling? Perhaps all Brahms is like this and many PWers have been through this discovery.

PS this is one of the 2 pieces I will play for the little masterclass tomorrow. Thank you for reading and happy practising to you all - May all your codas fly

Woo hoo!!! well done!!
I have not worked on it though it's on my list of pieces to work on over the next three months. So I'm looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

Good luck for tomorrow Enjoy it!!

I have not played this, but I imagine what you're trying to get is accurate notes and smoothness of both the connected notes and the jumps - I'm assuming your fingering for the RH is (13)-(25)-(13)-(25), or something similar?

Here is how I would practice the RH
1. Relax and expect progress!
2.Play full chords for each hand position, so play B-flat,E-flat,G-flat,B-flat together, then shift to the next octave. Practice this shift accurately and slowly until it is comfortable and then speed up. Practice this shift for both of the octaves.
3. For the notes you can connect by legato, play (13)-(25)-(13)-(25)-(13)-(25) on the same octave in a triplet rhythm until this feels comfortable and sounds smooth.

Hope this helps!

It's a wonderful piece, always reminds me of Mendelssohn with its lightness and freshness. In the coda, my suggestion is to try and keep your right hand low. The more it moves, the more problems you'll have keeping it under control. If it stays low and just glides to the top, you'll find it much easier.

Yes.....I remember my teacher asking me to practice the entire section at one dynamic level: Softly, up to tempo, with no 'bumps' in the sound, as she put it - or rather, dynamically even without placing any kind of emphasis, however slight, on any of the notes.

After doing that, she then felt that I was able to incorporate the subtle dynamic shifts and the stringendo.........

(But then, I had such a clumsy thumb back then.)

Wonderful piece. Someday I'll revisit all of op76. It's been way to darn long.........

Thank you all for your useful responses. As I predicted my next try was a mess again. Arrggh - I hadn't actually thought to try your number 2 obvious as it seems now (so I'll try that). Number 3 I had to think about before I knew what you meant - hadn't thought of that either so I'll try that as well.

Gerard12, I was doing one dynamic level last night but I used all loud and accented. I can see that alternating between that and perfectly even piano would really help. "No bumps at all" yes, well, I would love to manage that. What I heard yesterday was the sweep, the speed the cresc, dim and rit etc but I think that I still had a zigzag of dynamic in the notes.

jeffrey, I'm pretty sure I've been trying to raise the RH, maybe that's been my problem. Thanks for the idea.

LF, be sure to post when you begin the piece. I have some lovely fingering worked out. Well I'm sure you'd prefer your own but since I've spent lots of time getting into this piece I would enjoy discussion with someone going through the process. Oh, and I can tell you where your memory can take a wrong turn in the most subtle way and spit you out near the beginning again. It's not like a sonata wrong turn where there is a sign-post at least!

Although I do think that this intermezzo is in sonata form. I wonder if the other op76 are? It was quite a surprise to discover this!

A little thank you

I have played the end of this piece consistently and beautifully ever since the practise I did harnessing the advice in this thread, including in my exam You people are brilliant! Thanks again, from the bottom of my piano.