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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Has anyone conquered this beast of a piece? I'm lifetimes away from ever playing it, but I'd love to hear people's experiences with this piece, or, better, their recordings!
Personally, I've listened to about 70 different interpretations of this over the years, and this amateur recording is still my favorite. Although Horowitz is my favorite pianist, and one of Rach's best friends, somehow his recordings just don't do it for me!
Beethoven - Op.49 No.1 (sonata 19) Czerny - Op.299 Nos. 5,7 (School of Velocity) Liszt - S.172 No.2 (Consolation No.2)
Dream piece: Rachmaninoff - Sonata 2, movement 2 in E minor
Of all the Rachmaninoff Preludes and Etudes, this E-flat minor Etude is the one I like the least. Before others rush to berate me for my taste, I didn't say that I don't like it, as there are some things in it I do like; it's just my least favourite of the Preludes and Etudes. Fortunately - I guess - I'll never have the technique to debate whether or not I should study it.
Maybe others can say what they admire about this work; I know it has its staunch admirers.
It's a very popular piece, and for good reason. Unfortunately, because of its thick writing and easy appeal it gets banged out mercilessly by young, well-meaning but musically undeveloped aspirants, and that makes many listeners cringe. I've listened to a fair number of competition performances of this Etude, and I often get the feeling that they set out to play it for all the wrong reasons. If you do play it in a more beautiful manner, without sacrificing the character of the unique and effective writing, then the bell effects can be amazing.
Of all the Rachmaninoff Preludes and Etudes, this E-flat minor Etude is the one I like the least. Before others rush to berate me for my taste, I didn't say that I don't like it, as there are some things in it I do like; it's just my least favourite of the Preludes and Etudes. Fortunately - I guess - I'll never have the technique to debate whether or not I should study it.
Maybe others can say what they admire about this work; I know it has its staunch admirers.
Regards,
You are not alone in that opinion, and it is not unwarranted: the accompaniment in the first few phrases has a slightly heavy and awkward quality which is often performed so clangorously that the melody is drowned when it should still be ringing. The forte, allegro appassionato, and molto marcato markings at the opening may have something to do with this. This problem is entirely remedied (to my mind) in all following sections of the piece by way of soft, arpeggiated accompaniments, assignment of the melody to the tenor register, and octave doubling of the melodic line almost everywhere where it is marked mezzo-forte or above.
There are many recordings of it which are less than ideal.
Of all the Rachmaninoff Preludes and Etudes, this E-flat minor Etude is the one I like the least. Before others rush to berate me for my taste, I didn't say that I don't like it, as there are some things in it I do like; it's just my least favourite of the Preludes and Etudes. Fortunately - I guess - I'll never have the technique to debate whether or not I should study it.
Maybe others can say what they admire about this work; I know it has its staunch admirers.
Regards,
You are not alone in that opinion, and it is not unwarranted: the accompaniment in the first few phrases has a slightly heavy and awkward quality which is often performed so clangorously that the melody is drowned when it should still be ringing. The forte, allegro appassionato, and molto marcato markings at the opening may have something to do with this. This problem is entirely remedied (to my mind) in all following sections of the piece by way of soft, arpeggiated accompaniments, assignment of the melody to the tenor register, and octave doubling of the melodic line almost everywhere where it is marked mezzo-forte or above.
There are many recordings of it which are less than ideal.
I also have very mixed feelings about it. I started to learn it a few years ago and got about halfway through it and dropped it. I just didn't love it enough to put in the necessary work to master it. (The only piece my teacher ever let me drop. BTW.)
This video of a very young Nelson Freire it one of my favorite performances of it. He takes a less bombastic approach and also brings out many of the inner voices.
I'm still a Horowitz fan concerning his recording...I like it because he plays around with the transparencies, making it fluctuate between heaviness and transparency.
Not a huge fan of the work though I was humming it on the way to my exam just now - I still like the two D minor etudes the best.
Working on: Chopin - Nocturne op. 48 no.1 Debussy - Images Book II
This video of a very young Nelson Freire it one of my favorite performances of it. He takes a less bombastic approach and also brings out many of the inner voices.
That's one helluva fine performance, and has long been in my YT favourites. I'm also very partial to the young Kissin.
I've always loved this etude with its angst-ridden fiery passion. The perfect accompaniment to a young man's coming of age!
For every good performance of this etude, there are at least a hundred teenage kids and graduate students who butcher it. There are just too many notes for most amateurs to keep under control and bring out the melody.
Look at the huge length of the Rackers fingers ... no wonder we struggle with our reach.
I've downloaded the 39/5 and have presently broken my fingers on the first 4 measures ... the twiddly bit half way through measure 4 takes the cake ... hope I've cottoned on to the right "song" (only kidding ... please no rocks) which is marked at a hectic Appasionato tempo.
I was reading through this piece just the other day, and I was getting this weird "Hollywood epic" vibe from it. Then I remembered that some famous pianist had referred to Rachmaninoff as a Hollywood composer. And I could see that connection being made - but this piece was written before the kind of Hollywood scores I had in mind. The influence must be in the other direction - Hollywood composers were learning from Rachmaninoff's music.
But it is a such an amazingly good fit that it will be a long time, if ever, before I can rid myself of the idea that the piece is really a piano reduction of a score to some epic movie from the 1930s or 1940s.
I find it incredibly interesting that the agreement in this thread is:
'the piece is not technically so hard, but is musically very hard'.
I always thought that the main difficulty was the technique.
I agree that there are lots of notes and that the piece often gets hammered out, but I bet that if people played this piece more slowly, they would bring out the melody better. So rather than saying its main difficulty is musicality, I think it's more true to say that people tend to play it too quickly and so there's a tendency to make the musicality more difficult than it needs to be. This is rather different than saying it's musically difficult in its own right.
Last edited by Dwscamel; 04/19/1309:40 AM.
Beethoven - Op.49 No.1 (sonata 19) Czerny - Op.299 Nos. 5,7 (School of Velocity) Liszt - S.172 No.2 (Consolation No.2)
Dream piece: Rachmaninoff - Sonata 2, movement 2 in E minor
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