[Rasa]

Just curious which pieces everyone's learning.

For me it is:

Brahms, 2nd Rhapsody
Chopin, étude op. 25n2
Bach, WTC1 P&F 23 in G sharp minor
Bartok, Allegro Barbaro


The Allegro Barbaro is pretty epic win. It's easier then it sounds/looks, until you get to the good tempi. then its a fun game to practice the displacements.

 

[Air]

Bach WTC1 P&F 18 - much, much harder than it sounds
Beethoven piano sonata No. 32 - one of his best, impossible runs w/wild mood-swings
Schumann Klavierkonzert - The gem of the romantic piano repertoire
Liszt Rigoletto-Paraphrase (after Verdi) - the technical giant of this mix
Liebermann noct. No. 4 - A technical beast with a heartbreakingly beautiful melody (and a 5-voice fugue in stretto)

I love my entire repertoire, but if I had to pick one, it would go to the Klavierkonzert in a. It'll be SO exciting to play with an orchestra!

 

[Rasa]

I'll be doing a Klavierkonzert next year for my exam, can't wait either (even though it's probably not going to be with orchestra).

Preludes and fugues are always much harder then they sound. The work you do in those are infinite. This sunday I heard Pierre-Alain Volondat play a chromatic fanatasia and fugue, and suddenly was ashamed of my own dabblings in my fugue.

Say, looks like not a lot of people are working the piano

 

[PostMinimalist]

By Giovanni Bottesini,

Allergretto Capriccio,
Elegy in D,
Romanza Dramatica,
Gavotte in G,
Fantasy on Themes from Sonnambula,
Bolero,
Variations on Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento,

By Reinhold Gliere
Intermezzo Op 9 no 1
Prelude Op. 32 no 1

By Derek Bourgeois
Romance Op 64

By Bach
3rd suite for unaccompanied cello

Also Faure - Apres un Reve
and Rachmaninof - Vocalise

All for solo double bass and piano (except for the Bach of course).

Good luck with your recital.
FC

 

[R-F]

Invention if F- Bach. Deceptively tricky, seeing as you only usually have one note in each hand!
The Simpsons Theme- Danny Elfman. Sure, it's pretty empty music, but it's a lot of fun and actually really good for practicing syncopated rythms.
Montagues and Capulets (Dance of the Knights)- Prokofiev. This is probably the hardest piece I'm learning. Forte a large amount of the time, lots of octaves, leaps too. With my current ability I don't think I could get this up to concert standard, but it's a great piece to learn at home.
A Scottish Poem- Edward Macdowell. I didn't know this piece, but found it in a book. It's a wonderful piece I think!

 

[JSK]

Piano:
Beethoven - Concerto #4 (1st movement)
Chopin - Ballade in G minor
Prokofiev - Sonata #2 (Scherzo, maybe more movements eventually)
Barber - Nocturne

Violin:
Bloch - Baal Shem Suite (1st movement)
Handel - Sonata in G minor
Hopefully soon the 1st movement of the Khachaturian concerto.

 

[Praine]

Just playing it simple-ish with some Erik Satie. Learning his Sarabandes right now.

 

[Air]

Piano:
Beethoven - Concerto #4 (1st movement)
Chopin - Ballade in G minor
Prokofiev - Sonata #2 (Scherzo, maybe more movements eventually)
Barber - Nocturne

Very, very nice program. Some of my favorite composers of the piano. But where, may I ask, is the Bach?

 

[JSK]

I will either be starting a Bach P+F or the D minor Toccata or a Haydn Sonata soon.

 

[Rasa]

Bach - Hayden. Not even a contest.

 

[Rasa]

I'm so sick of this étude. And the exams only in three weeks so I have to keep at it still.

 

[Aramis]

Rage Over the Lost Penny by guess-who.

 

[trazom]

Errr...I feel like I'm the only one here that is NOT performing at the concert pianist level. I'm only just starting my first serious piece of the classical repertoire: Sonata #8 "Pathetique" by Beethoven. Mozart's actually my favorite but I don't feel confident enough about my technique to perform his more serious works just yet.

 

[Air]

Bach - Hayden. Not even a contest.

Can you clarify, please? I don't get it.

I'm so sick of this étude. And the exams only in three weeks so I have to keep at it still.

I know the feeling.

Rage Over the Lost Penny by guess-who.

Uggh... those left hand chords.

Errr...I feel like I'm the only one here that is NOT performing at the concert pianist level. I'm only just starting my first serious piece of the classical repertoire: Sonata #8 "Pathetique" by Beethoven.

No pressure.

Hmmm... the "Pathetique"... it's actually quite hard unless you're only playing the second movement...

Mozart's actually my favorite but I don't feel confident enough about my technique to perform his more serious works just yet.

No one ever feels confident enough to play Mozart... you just have to try.

 

[trazom]

Hmmm... the "Pathetique"... it's actually quite hard unless you're only playing the second movement...

Well, I plan on playing the sonata in its entirety. I have the music and it looks only a little challenging, but in a good way. The kind where I know I can actually play it if I work towards it. Not the kind of challenge where you look at a piece in utter disbelief and struggle for hours over the first couple of measures. LOL!

Besides, I cherish the sonata. It's juicy and fits the hands comfortably in the way that only classical pieces can. Unlike the Romantics where you need freakishly large spider hands to easily perform those wide leaps usually for the left hand.

 

[Rasa]

There's no contest for me, because in oversimplification: Bach: interesting, Haydn: Boring. I'm more into the counter-point then into the style galant, although it has it's charms. I think that it's mainly due to the fact I don't have the fingers to play it well: smooth, clear, brilliant.

feel like I'm the only one here that is NOT performing at the concert pianist level.

Everybody has to start somewhere. Besides, not everybody who studies pieces of a (slightly in my case) elevated level is a concert pianist. Me, I used to take lessons as a kid, had a bit of talent so I progressed well. When I was 14 I got fed up with everything, I got stopped at school (had to retake my year), and stopped playing the piano for 2 years. I took it up again when I was 16 (courses at the local academy), but never really studied hard.

In my last year (not even the final year) of academy, my godfather (who used to be a conservatory teacher in accompanyment, and is a brilliant teacher for technical matters) gave me the Sonatine of Katchaturian. I got so obsessed with playing this piece (against the advice of my teacher) that suddenly the idea entered that I wanted to do conservatory, that is was a perfect way out of doing a study that would interest me but not passion me.

so there I went, with a huge disadvantage. I studied all summer to get a programme ready (WTC1 P&F 13, my first ever fugue, The aforementioned Sonatina, 2 technical etudes, and a couple of kinderzehnen. This is a program usually way to light to enter). I got hooked up with a conservatory teacher who told me to come audition and we struck a deal: I would be allowed to enter the class, and fail my first year for piano. I'd do the theory courses as normal, and just spread my first year of instrument over two. So now, I'm in year two and I don't stand out as being a lesser pianist anymore.

All that just to show that progress can be made if you work, and just because you can show of an important looking programme, it doesn't mean you're a concert pianist

 

[Herzeleide]

Rage Over the Lost Penny by guess-who.

Wolfgang van Bachoven.

 

[danae]

A string quartet with Ligeti and Lutoslawski influences, transcriptions of famous orchestral pieces for small ensembles, and finally studying harmony from like 10 different manuals for a student that I can't handle.

 

[Herzeleide]

There's no contest for me, because in oversimplification: Bach: interesting, Haydn: Boring. I'm more into the counter-point then into the style galant, although it has it's charms. I think that it's mainly due to the fact I don't have the fingers to play it well: smooth, clear, brilliant.

Look and listen closely enough, and you'll hear counterpoint in Haydn. Start with opp. 20 and 33.

 

[bdelykleon]

I also am not a concert pianist. I started with 12, but dropped after a few months, the teacher was awful, returned two years ago, with 23, and now I'm pretty happy with the piano, I know I'll never play, say, the Études d'execution transcendentale, but I really prefer to enjoy the pieces I master.

Right now I'm studying:
Valse op. 64 no. 2 Chopin
I began this last year, it took me hard to master it, but now I'm quite happy from what I'm doing right now. When I started it was a very hard piece, and I think it brought me considerable technical improvement.

Impromptu in Ab major op. 142 no. 2 - Schubert
I thought this Impromptu would be harder to master, began it a month a go and it is almost done. It's a very nice piece, with some very interesting harmonic writing and a nice Trio section which forces us to colour the inner voices.

Sonata 61 in D major Hob XVI: 51 - Haydn
Just started this sonata, and I'm still struggling with the large scope (for my skills) of the first movement, it is being difficult to me to mantain the same level throughout. It is not my first classical sonata, but it is surely the most advanced I studied, having done before only some of Beethoven sonatinas, the op. 49 of the same composer and an early Haydn sonata in G.