Thread: What are you working on right now.

Bach has been has been good to me, but it's time to move on. Not move on from Bach entirely, just shifting the main focus!

I have a bit of a problem with raw exposure and I tend to have trouble with subtle fortes and other dynamics, so for the next month or two I'm going to study the K. 332/300k Mozart Sonata. So far the work is very rewarding and I'm excited to learn to interpret such a sneaky composer..

I'm having trouble deciding a piece to study after the Mozart, but I'm thinking of one of the harder Liszt works, the Copland Passacaglia, Scriabin's 2nd or 5th Sonata (Probably not the 5th, too difficult!), or maybe a more modern piece from Liebermann or another composer. Could anyone help me choose ?

Originally Posted by Sofronitsky

Bach has been has been good to me, but it's time to move on. Not move on from Bach entirely, just shifting the main focus!

I have a bit of a problem with raw exposure and I tend to have trouble with subtle fortes and other dynamics, so for the next month or two I'm going to study the K. 332/300k Mozart Sonata. So far the work is very rewarding and I'm excited to learn to interpret such a sneaky composer..

I'm having trouble deciding a piece to study after the Mozart, but I'm thinking of one of the harder Liszt works, the Copland Passacaglia, Scriabin's 2nd or 5th Sonata (Probably not the 5th, too difficult!), or maybe a more modern piece from Liebermann or another composer. Could anyone help me choose ?

I think Mozart is not easy at all, and often deserves a long time of practicing both musically and technically rather than expected... so, which work by Liszt ?

Originally Posted by Il_Penseroso

I think Mozart is not easy at all, and often deserves a long time of practicing both musically and technically rather than expected... so, which work by Liszt ?

I didn't mean to give the impression that I didn't think that way! I am terrified by Mozart, and like I said his works stress most highly the technical skills which I am weakest in.

For Liszt.. I'm having a hard time deciding. I love the Hungarian Rhapsody no. 11 and would like to play it. I also think the 'Illustration De L'Africain No. 1' (I hope that's right) is a powerful piece that gets almost no attention. I love the majority of the Transcendental Etudes... but I think I might be gearing more towards the Copland/Scriabin/Liebermann Triumvirate. What would you study in my place? Anything really it doesn't have to be something I listed!

That's right, Illustrations de l'opéra L'Africaine...

Ok, here a list of works I could suggest in this case :

Schumann: Piano Studies after Paganini Caprices (No.1 from Op.3)
note: less known than Liszt's, but in some cases even better ...

Schumann: In der Nacht from Op.12 (Fantasiestücke)


Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.7
Liszt: Waldesrauschen (from 2 Concert Studies)
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1

from his trascriptions Polonaise from Eugene Onegin and Isoldes Liebestod

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Balakirev: Toccata (1902, really electrifying !)

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Debussy: Prelude Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest from book I (electrifying too !)

Macdowell: Sonata No.3 (Norse)

Severac: Le retour des muletiers from Cerdana (special for your large hands !)

and if you're into spanish piano music, then give Albeniz Triana (from Iberia) a try ...


P.S. Can't help with Scriabin sonatas, I know only his shorter pieces plus the beautiful piano concerto.

Originally Posted by Sofronitsky

I didn't mean to give the impression that I didn't think that way! I am terrified by Mozart, and like I said his works stress most highly the technical skills which I am weakest in.

For Liszt.. I'm having a hard time deciding. I love the Hungarian Rhapsody no. 11 and would like to play it. I also think the 'Illustration De L'Africain No. 1' (I hope that's right) is a powerful piece that gets almost no attention. I love the majority of the Transcendental Etudes... but I think I might be gearing more towards the Copland/Scriabin/Liebermann Triumvirate. What would you study in my place? Anything really it doesn't have to be something I listed!

In choosing a piece by Liszt, I am very pleased to hear you list the Illustration De L'Africaine No. 1 - a powerful piece indeed!

Some more pieces to look into would be the second Mephisto Waltz (almost never played compared to the 1st, but arguably just as good) the brilliant 8th Hungarian Rhapsody, and if you feel you're up to it, the daredevil Reminiscences de Robert le Diable, Valse Infernale.

Beethoven: all three sets of Bagatelles
Schubert: D major sonata D 850
Tsontakis: Ghost Variations

I am not holding my breath...

For the first time in a while, I'm not working on much of anything. Just keeping up with my repertoire. Mainly, I'm reading some primary sources on Roman history, for example Caesar's accounts of his war with the Gauls. Less time to listen to and play music, because of my studies.

Bach, two part Inventions : I'm still (and will still be, because there's so much depth in this music) on the first (began it in January) and finished learning the two hand together. Two voice polyphony is getting easier, and my head as well as my hands are getting used to the keyboard. I plan on doing at least 2 other Inventions, with at least one which is fast (F major or A minor or D minor). Then I'll try to move to three voice polyphony, but not necessarily Bach - there must be some three part pieces from the Renaissance.
I stopped working on Mikrokosmos volume III. I think I'll do another piece (at the end of the book) and then go to the fourth volume.


Today I'm just working again on the first because I want to play it to my hopefully future piano teacher - I don't have one right now. I hope I'll be able to get lessons and I also hope she'll help me to get to the level I want faster (I want/need to be really comfortable sight reading, to be able to work on P&F from the Well Tempered Clavier, or Haydn sonatas, or such. Intermediate level in other words. All this before September if possible haha).

I'm so enthusiastic. When I'll be able to play guitar as well as I want, to be reasonably competent at the keyboard... [I'll tackle conducting], I'll be able to have so much great music under my fingers and in my head (even without being a virtuoso pianist, that's what's great with the piano repertoire) !

Bach Partita in E minor movement 4

Sofronitsky, have you settled on rep yet? You should do the Copland Passacaglia! Because 1. passacaglias are awesome and 2. that passacaglia is particularly awesome and 3. people need to perform more of Copland's non-nationalist stuff so the world doesn't forget he wrote other music too.

I am in a piano drought right now, because I've gone from having very easy access to pianos at school and at home to this situation here in Philly where I have to walk two miles to get to a piano I'm allowed to play and I can rarely get there before they close since I'm working. I was complaining about this to my cousins last night and my cousin's husband offered to let me borrow his keyboard. So now there is a keyboard in my room. It is not a weighted keyboard and does not feel like a piano, which will take some getting used to, but at least it has a sustain pedal. You take what you can get. I'm working on the second movement of Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 3 sonata and the G major fugue from volume 2 of the WTC - my first fugue! And I am working on learning guitar and progressing quickly. I have my clarinet here as well, but don't play it often. It is my ensemble instrument, and I seldom feel like practicing it when I'm not going to be playing with other people.

Thanks for all the interesting suggestions! I'm probably going to go with the Copland.. just because that piece deserves to be performed more often.

Also, unless the Mephistopheles Waltzes' difficulty is greatly exaggerated, I don't think I'll be playing those any time soon!

Originally Posted by Sofronitsky

Thanks for all the interesting suggestions! I'm probably going to go with the Copland.. just because that piece deserves to be performed more often.

Also, unless the Mephistopheles Waltzes' difficulty is greatly exaggerated, I don't think I'll be playing those any time soon!

I'm not quite sure by how much, but I would say they are. Liszt is probably the most pianistic composer ever - he simply knew how to write for the instrument. Now there are some sections that are immensely difficult - like those leaps in the right hand near the end of the first waltz - but Liszt, while very difficult, is often a fair bit easier to play than he sounds/looks.

Rachmaninov prelude op. 3 no. 2
It's taking me forever to read that...

Originally Posted by Jan

Rachmaninov prelude op. 3 no. 2
It's taking me forever to read that...

My advice to you would be to keep at it, and sight read constantly. Go to your local music store and (if you have some money for music)find a compilation of easy classical or other type of piano music. Alfred has some good ones. I did that when I was developing my reading. It worked very well for me, and I was studying that same piece around that time!

Cheers and happy practicing

And it's off. Recital the 26th of june. Brahms, Chopin, Poulenc, three months, nothing else to do.