[Weekly draft 7/3/24] - Rachmaninoff Etude op. 39 no. 5

I want to post on this channel more frequently & make it lower-stakes to do so!
So I’ll start throwing in some low-audio-quality recordings (don’t have a good mic rn D:) of me playing stuff I’m learning. I’ll leave a comment with stuff I want to work on too.
Hope you enjoy, scuffed audio and playing and all!
#rachmaninoff #piano #etude

[@AndrewWuMusic]

This was actually my first time ever playing this completely through - started learning it maybe 5-6 weeks ago & finished up the notes about a week ago. Thoughts:
0:10 - many times this sort of 2-against-3 figure comes up I think I have a tendency to play it a bit too metronomic
0:15 - this trill is randomly so annoying. It usually goes well until like, the last two notes of it? Maybe that means I need to practice playing *through* the trill - maybe there's some mental anticipation it's going to end, so my fingers preemptively respond?
0:24 - I think the bass shouldn't completely drop out here ...
0:40 - I think this entire section needs more difference in "flavor"
0:42 - maybe a bit more time on that new harmony?
0:58 - here I'm playing each iteration of this the same way :|
1:24 - it feels like whenever this is in the LH my RH is following my LH and not the other way around. I generally find this entire section hard / awkward to play, despite how it sounds.
1:45 - the counterpoint starting here needs to feel way more natural. I think A F# A F# can be way less metronomic
1:54 - the RH melody here doesn't have enough curves I think - also tends to follow the LH
2:28 - I think I should play this entire section like 5% faster lol
2:36 - this is where I think the lower whole tone scale should emerge more fully over the theme motif
2:45 - the last twenty seconds is pointing toward this (and later but also this.) I should probably linger for a moment more here? in general this section has a tendency to just Sound Like Noise if not properly directed
2:57 - how do I make these chords sound better LOL
3:07 - I want to figure out how to interpret these big RH chords. Should I be pointing out the high ones more? Feeling the gaps more? Idk
3:11 - i actually usually play this part a lot better in practice ... for real ... ;-;
3:26 - whoops I guess that's a weakness of mine.
3:39 - I've actually been having a lot of trouble with this section the last few days. My LH jumps are not consistent. Need to isolate
3:56 - I'm usually quite consistent here (cheating by playing the sixths with the LH) but I underestimated how tired I'd be after the last four minutes. Isolating didn't give me the full picture here. I think I can generally take some more time before this to mentally reset though.
4:02 - I ... really don't know how to approach this section ...
4:25 - right now it feels like the RH grace notes are bowing to the LH bass notes, and I don't love that effect.
4:39 - how do I make that sudden crescendo into mf sound better?
4:51 - this long broken chord needs to be somewhat quicker I think