AUG 2, 2012: This method I'm about to describe will work best if you've already learned the piano piece you wish to bring back into your repertoire. It is an interesting alternative to either re-memorizing at a desk or crawling up the metronome notch by notch with each section.
Assuming the piece is not too difficult (a slow movement with few obvious technical problems), start by playing over the opening bar at a comfortable tempo---where you can play all the notes. Play it eight times correctly. As an option, you might try playing that first bar from memory. If you've learned the work before, this should be no problem. Then do the same with the second bar. Then try playing the first and second bar together. No metronome is required for this.
At the third bar, repeat the procedure and play it eight times correctly. Then play the bar before it and the bar you're currently working on together as a unit (this would be bar 2 followed by bar 3), and play those two bars together correctly at least four times. This is to insure that you have those two bars linked in your mind and fingers. Then, start from the first bar and play up to bar 3. Then take bar 4, play it correctly eight times at whatever tempo is comfortable and playable for you, and then link on bar 3--and play bars 3 and 4 correctly four times. Then start from bar 1 and go all the way to bar 4. Then take bar 5 and etc. Keep repeating this procedure until you reach the end. The end of what? The end of a section, the end of an entire piece, whatever you need to go over. Often, it would just be a short passage that you've forgotten. This will bring it back quickly.
I would always suggest, after you get the whole sequence up and running, to then start it at half-tempo on the metronome and take it up notch by notch till you reach the end. That's assuming there's no tempo change in the section or passage you're working on. Somehow, there's always a sort of even and sure touch you get from doing this that is hard to obtain otherwise.
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