Noctave
The piece
In Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt ventures into the hall of the troll king; Grieg's music for that scene later became the fourth movement of his first orchestral suite, Op. 46. The piano version is by Grieg himself. The idea fits in one sentence: a single theme, Alla marcia e molto marcato, repeated again and again, each time a little louder and a little faster, with the score demanding sempre stretto sin al fine.
Everything rests on staccato and on controlling the acceleration. The left hand plays half the notes, often in octaves (72 octave attacks, against 40 in the right hand), and must stay dry and precise even as the tempo rises. Settle the fingering of the theme at the starting tempo of 138, then practise speeding up gradually without rushing the ends of phrases. The range is wide, from a B at the very bottom of the keyboard up to a high D-sharp, with register changes to anticipate. Finally, hold something back for the closing bars: if everything is loud too early, the sense of build-up is lost.