Many a year ago, I used to be able to play this one and it took me about a year or so to learn it, play it at tempo, and play it all without dying halfway through. There are sixteenth notes in the left-hand throughout the entire piece and at a tempo marking of Allegro con fuoco (fast with fire = loud and fast), it really tires you out quickly if played at tempo. And though it took me a long time to work my way up to tempo, I eventually did manage to do it, albeit kind of sloppily. But alas, I performed it for my ARCT exam and it was good enough. Unfortunately and very much stupidly, I didn’t keep practicing it, so now when I play it, I’m done around halfway (or else if I go on, I miss about 80% of the notes and there’s only so much murdering of Chopin I can handle).
Although it’s just under 3 minutes in length, it can be an extremely painful 3 minutes. But performed right — like in the case of Alan Schiller in the youtube video at the bottom here, who plays most similar to how I used to play it — and it’s a dazzling spectacle of technique, rhythm, and virtuosity.
aaron's random musings 