Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 -- arggg!

After playing a few years, I decided to tackle the hungarian rhapsody. Technically, I don't see that the piece is all that difficult. Like many of his pieces, some of the sections remind me of the hanon exercises -- trills, double octaves, thirds, etc. But I start having some technical issues in the Friska section (surprise surprise), after the piu mosso part where the melody is played alternating with c#s, the part where fourth,fifths(?) have to be played in the right hand. I can't seem to play it up to speed, which might mean that I'm not using the correct technique. Any suggestions, tips, advice from those who have conquered this piece, or that part of the piece. I would just hate to put the piece away only because I'm confounded with that section. Specifically, does it take more years of piano practice to build the facility in the hand to play that part -- or is there a method of practice to overcome that difficulty.

One more thing, to clarify, the part I am talking of is not the ascending fifths. Rather, the part involves the trill sounding fourth/fifths, with the left hand playing the melody containing grace notes.

alex s :

My initial reaction - without hearing you play and without seeing your technique in action - is that this piece indeed might be beyond your technical grasp at the moment when I hear you compare this technical tour de force to Hanon exercises.

There is nothing that reaps greater benefits in practicing a piece such as this one as slow practice without the use of the sustain pedal. Both hands in the Friska section have some pretty big leaps in spots, and it is absolutely essential that your accuracy be spot-on; nothing will show up a poor attempt at this piece as missed/wrong notes. It has to be crisp and clean, ranging from delicate to powerful.

It would help to know what other pieces you have really mastered most recently before going into detailed "tips" on how to master this piece. What have you already mastered?

Regards,

The biggest difficulty with this section is to be able to keep the wrist absolutely loose; any tension in the wrist will slow you down and prevent you from working up to speed. This is further complicated by the stretches of up to a tenth in the RH; such stretches make one tend to tense up. Relaxation is the key here.

Regards,

Thanks for the reply! I'm not so sure if I'm up to the level where I can play the piece correctly, giving it some justice. I agree there is nothing worse than tackling a piece beyond one skill level. But, it might be in my range. I can always come back to it later down the road.

On the subject of repetoire that I have mastered, that might be relevantly close to the technical demands inherent in this warhorse, would be the fantasie-impromptu, liszt's liebestraume, transcendental etudes no.1 and 11, and few more, but those have been the more technically taxing ones.

Also in this section where the bottom half of the RH has two-note chords with the thumb moving alternately from B to C# and A# to C#, make sure the thumb, with the hand stretched, does not tense up as it moves from note to note.

Regards,

First of all let me just agree....arrrggg! indeed :p

I might suggest trying to loosen up your hand for this, it's quite a stretch and has to be played lightly, try taking some exercises for this purpose, hope it helps

For that particular section my fingering is 1+2 and 1+3 when you switch to A# and C# with pinky on the repeating C# of course.