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Hey everyone,

I decided that i'd give La Campanella a shot for fun. I'll practice it after i've got all my important stuff done...

So, i really don't know how to take on this piece. I'm sure you're all familiar with it, its a complete beast

The big 2 octave leaps in the melody are crazy, should i just practice them slow over and over again? The piece is just totally overwhelming when you try to sight read it. All i'm looking for is some tips from those who have played the piece...

Thanks a lot!

-ASB

Well, I've been working on this for 2 or 3 weeks now myself, and am nearly done (I've only got about 3 pages to go). First of all, let me point out that the jumps will be the least of your worries after you get past page 3 or 4 (somewhere around there). In order to assure control on these, though, what I would do is a variation of rythms. For instance, you might play the bottom melodic note VERY quickly and then as quickly as possible, fly up to the top D#. Hold that for a bit, and then race down to the next note and back up to the D#...continue like that. Next, hold the melodic note and then soar up the the D#, and back down as quickly as possible. Another thing I did (warning: this one is kind of insane and gets tiring pretty quick) is doubling the length of the jump. If it's an octave jump, for instance, make it two...do that for the full introduction and i assure you, when you go back to the original octave jumps, it will seem a lot less straining.
But, believe me, you will face many other problems later on. You'd better make sure you have your repated notes down, or be prepared to work VERY hard on those (for me, the hardest variation of the theme is where you must repeat the bottom note with 2 and 1 and then jump up and octave with your 5 finger..it's heck). Also, the chromatic scales will seriously test your wrist relaxation, as will the 4-5 trills after that. Just remember: your wrist MUST be completely relaxed otherwise you will not only ruin the preformance, you may ruin your hand. Finally, after the trills it seems relatively easy, at least for me. Other people i know can do the trills easily, and not the rapidly repeated octaves, but I'm the opposite.
When you get farther along, feel free to ask more questions, and I'm sure there are others here who can help you out perhaps more than I can...
All of that said, I wish you the best of luck in learning La Campanella..it is a terrific piece. I plan to play it as an encore in my next recital. However, it WILL take you a while to learn, so don't plan to be doing it "on the side"...well, get back to us on how it works out!

Wow, I'm really jealous of you guys (that can attack this piece with confidence). I've got the music and, in my defense, haven't *really* attacked it but know that it's way beyond my meager skills. My wrists are tired at the end of the Rach G min prelude so I would never physically get through it. Additionally a nuisance for me is that I can only reach a 9th (there are a lot of 10ths right of the bat in LC ...).

It's an interesting phenomena with me; I always like the pieces that are just (or way) beyond my reach! The Liszt etudes are another case in point.

Regards,

Gary.

Well, I think I can give you many tips. I havent the notes with me now, but I can bring them with me tomorrow and go more into detail in fingering.
By the way. The first page is probably the easiest one! Play it slowly in th beginning. In the beginning you can play both hands separate. It is important to learn the right hand without using notes so you can consentrate on hiting the right notes. In the second page there is some tricks you can use to help your right hand by playing some notes with your left. I can give you the details probably tomorrow. I saw that Goldberg said it was quite difficult with the 2-1-5,2-1-5 place. Just play scales and such things with the same tecnic. That helps (it helped me, and now I dont have problems with that part) The part before where you are jumping up and down I use 1-5-1-2-1 osv. I think it is more easy than 1-3-5-3-1.
On page five there is also some difficult stuff, that you can help your right with using your left. (the 4-repetition notes)
I recommend playing the cromatic not only with 1, 2 and 3 finger but also using the 4 finger, making it more easy to play fast and legato.
I play the trills with 2-4 / 3-5 and the next page I trills with 3-5 instead of 4-5 (it is not so good to trills with those fingers...)
After that you come to a place where it is also good to help with your left hand. By the way. The last 2 and half page is the meost difficult ones. (probably the last page is more easy than the second last page).
I can give you more details tomorrow, when I have the notes. Then I can give you the bars with fingering!

Here are some tips for those who are going to play/are playing La_Campanella...

Bar 23:
Play both F#`s with left hand!
Bar 24:
Play H-D# and the H one octave higher with your left hand!
Bar 25:
Play both A#`s with left hand!
Bar 26:
Play D#-F# and the D# one octave higher with your left hand!
Bar 27:
Play both C#`s with the left hand!
Bar 35:
Play the low C# (nr.9 of the 12 sixt) and the H (nr.11 of the 12 sixt) with your left hand!
Bar 37:
Play the low C# (nr.9 of the 12 sixt) and the H (nr.11 of the 12 sixt) with your left hand!
Bar 63: (This is an important place!)
Play the F# (nr.5) with your left hand, and the next 3 higher F# (r.h.) with fingering 2-1-2, then 1-5-2-1, the C# (nr.13) with l.h., and the next 3 higher C# (r.h.) with fingering 2-1-2, then 1-5-2-1...1 - and the last two is easy...
Same procedure for bar 65 and bar 67!
Bar 83:
I prefer tr. with 2-4 or 3-5...
Bar 84-88:
I prefer tr. with 3-5 (high D# and E)
Bar 89-91:
Same as 84-88, I prefer using 3th and 5th finger when going up and down instead of 3-4/4-5...
Bar 92:
Play the low D# (nr.9 and nr.13) with your l.h.
Bar 95:
Play the H (nr.5), the A# (nr.9) and the F## (G) (nr.17) and the G# (nr.21) with your l.h.
Bar 96:
Play some of the D# with your l.h. to help your right hand resting!!
Bar 98:
Play C# (nr.5), D# (nr.9), E (nr.13), D# (nr.17) and C# (nr.21) with l.h. (here you must play broken accords with l.h.) (this is also to help the r.h. resting!!)

I have some more tips, for the last two and half page, but they are not so important :-)

By the way, I think the most difficult place is the 6 bar after Piû mosso...

If you play it Piû Mosso!

I think it is only a good idea to play this piece when you have a great amount of experience. You will just do yourself harm if you overstretch yourself for no reason, especially in a physically demanding piece such as this. A good teacher should help you get there, and as much as you have heard this before, it really is true- you have to go through other pieces before you can play something more difficult!

This is a work one should take some care with - especially if you are "reaching" a bit. It is the kind of work that one can learn -- and then must take some time to perfect. At the same time, it is a very rewarding piece. I think it is a great workout for the hands. Liszt judges about the time the hand is fatiguing and then moves you on to another area of the hand to work to fatigue. Backhaus like to use this piece to test his technique -- played it nearly every day according to accounts I've read.

you can even just take parts of this work to use as warm ups or even for technique work. I think that's a very helpful strategy - taking some of the challenging portions and just polish them till they glow. Different folks will have different challenges. I was never happy with my 4th page -- a few lines past the repeated note variation -- grr....

Ken