Pianophilia

Second „spot“ (no double t!):

RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 2
1st movement B
alfor fingered™
P.S. You can of course mix the „normal“ and the „alternative“ fingering.
...and don't trouble your head about using the thumb in the second bar of page 24,
left hand, 7th quaver, releasing the g one quaver earlier than written - - - nobody will be able to notice it!

Thanks, Alfred for the inspirational fingerings. That is something different on bar 24 that I've never tried before.

alfor wrote:Second „spot“ (no double t!):

RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 2
1st movement B
alfor fingered™

Rach 2,1B fgd.pdf

P.S. You can of course mix the „normal“ and the „alternative“ fingering.
...and don't trouble your head about using the thumb in the second bar of page 24,
left hand, 7th quaver, releasing the g one quaver earlier than written - - - nobody will be able to notice it!

Thank you Alfred for your excellent review of Rach 2 so far! I very much appreciate your insight and I also appreciate the commentary surrounding these two amazing concertos (Rach 2 & 3). I feel a bit better knowing that at least some of my concerns in the Rach 2 can be legitimated, even as it is considered the easier of the two.

alfor wrote:Second „spot“ (no double t!):

RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 2
1st movement B
alfor fingered™

Rach 2,1B fgd.pdf

P.S. You can of course mix the „normal“ and the „alternative“ fingering.
...and don't trouble your head about using the thumb in the second bar of page 24,
left hand, 7th quaver, releasing the g one quaver earlier than written - - - nobody will be able to notice it!

I like your solution.... previously (for Page 24, second bar, 5-8 quavers) i used 1-2-3-5 using thumb to play both notes, but i dont quite like my solution.

Dear Alfor.... please keep Rach 2 coming...Thank You.

soh choon wee wrote: I like your solution.... previously (for Page 24, second bar, 5-8 quavers) i used 1-2-3-5 using thumb to play both notes, but i dont quite like my solution.

If using the thumb on both notes, I would release both notes with the D, ie. on the 7th quaver...(!)
As you anyway have to shorten the left hand tied G a bit because of the g in the right hand, I believe
it is justified to use the thumb on the left hand D.

alfor wrote:

soh choon wee wrote: I like your solution.... previously (for Page 24, second bar, 5-8 quavers) i used 1-2-3-5 using thumb to play both notes, but i dont quite like my solution.

If using the thumb on both notes, I would release both notes with the D, ie. on the 7th quaver...(!)
As you anyway have to shorten the left hand tied G a bit because of the g in the right hand, I believe
it is justified to use the thumb on the left hand D.

What a treasure and privilege is this discussion!

Alfred,

I have been looking at this, I have played it with thumb on F and G, 2, 3, and 5 and realize this is technically a bit sloppy, and your fingering cleans this up. Alas for the life of me, I cannot hear the difference at the speed this passage goes, but now that you've pointed it out, it's going to bother me!

If using the thumb on both notes, I would release both notes with the D, ie. on the 7th quaver...(!)
As you anyway have to shorten the left hand tied G a bit because of the g in the right hand, I believe
it is justified to use the thumb on the left hand D.

fleubis wrote:Alfred,

I have been looking at this, I have played it with thumb on F and G, 2, 3, and 5 and realize this is technically a bit sloppy, and your fingering cleans this up. Alas for the life of me, I cannot hear the difference at the speed this passage goes, but now that you've pointed it out, it's going to bother me!

This is not a Bach fugue!! If you use my fingering (i.e. the thumb on the D), you in fact shorten
the upper-voice G by a mere semiquaver!! I don't belive that even the most scrupolous conductor will notice it!!

This is not a general license for „simplifying“ similar spots.
So the most pianistically „correct“ execution would be either to use the 4th finger
(no doubt the composer did so) or to glide with the 3rd finger.

RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 2
3rd movement A
alfor fingered™

Now I know that pages 41 and 42 for many a pianist are the most tricky of the whole piece!

Page 41, bar 7, left hand, 2nd quaver
and
bar 9, right hand, 3rd quaver:

mentally add a diminuendo sign to the respective triplet and a staccato dot to the last note of the triplet.
I am sure, that will make things fairly easy!

There is some evidence that the composer did not have any problems
with this spot, because he may have been able to
play the E flat - C of the left hand with the 5th and 3rd (!) finger,
and the F - A flat - F chord of the right hand with the thumb, 3rd (!) and 5th finger.