#UN SOSPIRO BY FRANZ LIZST FULL#

“An amateur pianist with a small hand-like me-can play his music. “Even though Liszt had a huge hand, and his music is most easily played by someone with a large hand, it is not essential,” counsels Joyce Morton, an accomplished amateur pianist. Even worse, “cheating, by using the right hand for those melodic notes, would totally destroy the intent of the Etude,” Ricker concludes.ĭoes a Pianist Need Large Hands to Play Liszt? The pianist may be tempted to instead use fingers 5,2 with the left hand, “which at first seems easier but in the long run makes the execution of the music more awkward,” advises Ricker. In the measures shown below, for example, the melodic notes boxed in red should be played with the left hand crossing over, with fingers 3,2.

Ricker Choi, an award-winning amateur pianist who has founded Music Heals! concerts for charities such as SickKids Foundation, agrees that establishing the correct fingering is crucial. The patterns of recurring notes will often have the same fingerings, and noting these patterns can aid our sense of coherence.” Also, Moriah notes, playing the sea of arpeggios with a light touch can help make it possible to bring out the melody, and not tire out the hands. The fingerings are also good indications of patterns, such as harmonies that are outlined in arpeggios.

#UN SOSPIRO BY FRANZ LIZST FULL#

“Casual fingerings that seem sufficient during slow practice will not work when the piece is played at full speed. “While learning this piece, pay close attention to fingerings that are written in the score,” says Moriah Feiner Trenk, an undergraduate piano performance major studying with Seymour Bernstein at NYU’s Steinhardt School. In the Liszt Un Sospiro, the left hand and the right hand trade off the melody. The challenge in learning the music is to produce a beautiful tone color and shape the melody while successfully handling the arpeggios and hand crossings. I look at the piece from multiple perspectives here, as part of GRAND PIANO PASSION™’s well-regarded Classical Piano Music Amplified™ series. The most striking part of Un Sospiro is its ethereal and poetic qualities, with its rolling arpeggios and flowing melodic line creating an atmospheric mood.

Un sospiro by franz lizst