Phil's Conservatory Audition Program

[phil13]

Now that I have decided (most likely) what selection of music I intend to play, I (as always) wish to share it with the forum and wish for you to critique it. I did this last year, with a more juvenile selection of pieces, but I do believe I am better prepared as I am picking this 7 months ahead of schedule (it came down  to the wire last year, and I wasn't fully prepared)

So, with that in mind, here is my selection:

Baroque: Bach Prelude and Fugue No.17 in A-flat major, Book I WTC

Classical: Beethoven Sonata in D major Op.28 'Pastoral'

Romantic: Medtner Fairy Tale in B-flat minor Op.20 No.1

Modern/20th Cent.: Barber Interlude I in E-flat minor 'Adagio for Jeanne'

Virtuosic Etude: Scriabin Etude in D-sharp minor Op.8 No.12

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Thank you.

Phil

[jre58591]

that program looks great to me, to simply put.

[pianote]

great sonata for auditions

[Kassaa]

great sonata for auditions

Beginning is easy to screw up. But when you're through the absolutely horrible first two bars, it's ok.

[ramseytheii]

Those are nice pieces, and I think one doesn't have to think too hard generally to come up with music for an audition, though I may suggest lightly a more brilliant Classical choice than Pastorale, but probably it is too late.  I would practice playing all the pieces in different orders, in order to practice going back and forth from one style and one mood to another in extreme, and not get exhausted.


Walter Ramsey

[dbrainiak914]

Where are you planning on auditioning?

[phil13]

Where are you planning on auditioning?

Well, so far, my list is as follows:

Northwestern University (US)
Oberlin Conservatory (US)
Royal Conservatory of Music- Glenn Gould School (Can.)
Royal College of Music (UK)

And I've got a deferment from this year's auditions (past) for another small college in case none of these accept me. However, I am also applying to each one in composition, so I hope something will click right- I'd especially love the R.C.M. in London.

Beginning is easy to screw up. But when you're through the absolutely horrible first two bars, it's ok.

What is tricky about the first 2 bars??? You're referring to the 1st movement, right?

I spoke just this afternoon to my teacher about this and he says the repeated notes need to sound like a pedal point, a pulse upon which the rest of the music is built. Is that what you mean?

Phil

[Kassaa]

Well, so far, my list is as follows:

Northwestern University (US)
Oberlin Conservatory (US)
Royal Conservatory of Music- Glenn Gould School (Can.)
Royal College of Music (UK)

And I've got a deferment from this year's auditions (past) for another small college in case none of these accept me. However, I am also applying to each one in composition, so I hope something will click right- I'd especially love the R.C.M. in London.

What is tricky about the first 2 bars??? You're referring to the 1st movement, right?

I spoke just this afternoon to my teacher about this and he says the repeated notes need to sound like a pedal point, a pulse upon which the rest of the music is built. Is that what you mean?

Phil

Playing the melody finger-legato and having a line from the first chord to the last third. Also, playing the melody without accents was rather difficult for me, and keeping the left hand even.

[phil13]

Playing the melody finger-legato and having a line from the first chord to the last third. Also, playing the melody without accents was rather difficult for me, and keeping the left hand even.

You're quite right. I just tried it. Fingering isn't so bad, because I have the Schenker edition, and the fingering they give seems to work pretty well, but keeping it free of accents is tricksy.

Will these pieces work well together for auditioning, especially at the more prestigious ones on my list?

Phil

[westley]

sounds like a great program to me.  I really like that prelude and fugue - and its not too overplayed.

Outside of Juillard or Curtis I wouldn't think the level of difficulty would hold you back, As long as you have no technical problems within the pieces.

[phil13]

*bump*

sounds like a great program to me.  I really like that prelude and fugue - and its not too overplayed.

Outside of Juillard or Curtis I wouldn't think the level of difficulty would hold you back, As long as you have no technical problems within the pieces.

I sort of nervous about the RCMs (both of them) since one of them takes only about 180 students and the other 610. Very small and exclusive.

Anybody else?

Phil

[kitty on the keys]

Phil, I like your program! By looking over your list of choosen pieces, is think I can say you are a more lyrical player than a technical show-off. But, I think if you add something a little more cut and dry Bartok----Suite, Op. 14. choose a movement, or the Allegro Barbaro, or one of the Scarcasms of Prokovief. Just a suggestion.

Kitty

[tompilk]

good choice with the medtner.... in fact that's what id choose.
Tom

[phil13]

Sorry to dig up my own thread, but I have another question to ask:

Northwestern University (US)
Oberlin Conservatory (US)
Royal Conservatory of Music- Glenn Gould School (Can.)
Royal College of Music (UK)

Does anybody have a past experience with auditions at any of these conservatories and music schools? I've never auditioned at a conservatory before, and somehow I believe it might differ from auditions in a music school at a normal uni.

Also, I made two changes to the program- First, I've decided to perform a prelude and fugue which I know much better and feel more comfortable playing, No.12 in F minor from Book I. Second, I recently discovered that the Medtner Bbm fairy tale is too short to be considered a "major" Romantic work, so for those schools that require it, I am going to substitute that with the Grieg Sonata in Em, Op.7.

If I learn it in time, I might swap the Barber Interlude with the Barber Ballade, since it's a more 20c-oriented piece.

Phil

[dnephi]

Does the Medtner have any fury?    What kind of piece is it? I have never heaRD A fairy tale.

[phil13]

Does the Medtner have any fury?    What kind of piece is it? I have never heaRD A fairy tale.

Actually, yes. 

Best climax in any 3-minute piece ever.

Phil

[kempff1234]

Sorry to dig up my own thread, but I have another question to ask:

Does anybody have a past experience with auditions at any of these conservatories and music schools? I've never auditioned at a conservatory before, and somehow I believe it might differ from auditions in a music school at a normal uni.


Phil

A close family friend of mine recently got accepted into R.C.M. his program was really interesting, although a bit long:

Baroque- Handel Chaconne in G major HWV 435
Classical- Beethoven sonata Op.10/3
Romantic- Schumann Symphonic etudes
20th century- Dohnanyi four rhapsodies op.11
Virtuosic etude- Cahbrier Bouree fantastique

Let me tell you, he had many many many technical difficulties with the Schumann and from what I've heard, it turned out to be his worst piece that day ( frequent memory lapses and stuff) but he was lucky and got in.

[phil13]

How did he manage to do so much? The time limit at the R.C.M. is 15 minutes. 

Phil

[dnephi]

Actually, yes. 

Best climax in any 3-minute piece ever.

Phil

I will examine with great expectations.  Thanks.  And good luck!  I hope that you get into Northwestern University, because it's the greatest place on earth except for BYU and the temple  .

(P.S. what do you think is the best climax in a "virtuosic etude?" )

(P.P.S. Do you have a favorite climax?  (In piano...))

[phil13]

I will examine with great expectations.  Thanks.  And good luck!  I hope that you get into Northwestern University, because it's the greatest place on earth except for BYU and the temple  .

Do you/ did you go there? What's the conservatory like? What did you play to get in?

         

(P.S. what do you think is the best climax in a "virtuosic etude?" )

Actually, I love the climax in the etude that I'm doing, Scriabin 8/12. I suppose some of the Liszt etudes would make that list, too.

           
(P.P.S. Do you have a favorite climax? 

  this an obvious one.

(In piano...))

Aww. In that case, I'm not sure. There are orchestral pieces which chill me down to the bone, like the brass fugato in Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra", but I don't know a lot of piano works that do the same thing. The climax in the Medtner is amazing, though.

P.S. I overlooked this:

What kind of piece is it? I have never heaRD A fairy tale.

Medtner wrote 38 of these little works. In Russian, they're actually called skazki (singular skazka) and that is the term I prefer using now over 'fairy tale' (I posted this thread almost 3 months ago) Medtner actually preferred the English translation 'Folktales' but when it was translated to English, I believe his wife oversaw it and preferred 'fairy tales' for some reason. Most of them are 3-5 minutes in length.

Phil

[jre58591]

Does the Medtner have any fury?    What kind of piece is it? I have never heaRD A fairy tale.

medtner has a ton of fury. not so much in teh fairy tales, which are a bit more on the lyrical side, althogh the one phil cose is one of the more furious and climactic ones. for medtner's fury, check out the piano sonatas or concertos.

[kempff1234]

How did he manage to do so much? The time limit at the R.C.M. is 15 minutes. 

Phil

I know that. And it is interesting to mention that they DID not set a time limit for him

[dnephi]

Do you/ did you go there? What's the conservatory like? What did you play to get in?


Phil

Thanks.

Now, I did not apply to Northwestern, although I have been considering applying to them for a Physics Ph.D. Program.  (I am an amateur pianist, and hope to win all the amateur competitions  , and this because I chose to be a physics major.  However, I'm not sure whether to go to Med School or to get physics Ph.D.)  I went to a summer camp for "gifted" children when I was 12, and seeing the campus and the resources was amazing, and I even practiced on the pianos that the college students use.  I know that they are a fantastic university, and I recommend it. 

Good luck, and I hope you make it.

@jre: I will look at this folktale and I will also look at the sonatas.  I have read that the E minor sonata is of prodigious difficulty but rewarding, but the lack of a recording in our library (which is very large!) seemed surprising.  Do you know much about them specifically?

[phil13]

By the E minor Sonata I assume you mean 'Night Wind', which is extraordinarily difficult, but some of that comes from stamina as the piece is 33 minutes long with only one short pause in the middle.

Jre is right, most of the skazki are not real furious. They are, however, almost all fairly difficult.

Phil

P.S. Has anybody had experiences with auditions at Oberlin?

[phil13]

Ummm, anybody?

Phil

[viking]

If you get into the Glenn Gould school, study with Marc Durand.  I studied with him this summer and he is, simply put, one of the best teachers period.  He taught Hamelin, who in turn dedicated his prelude and fugue to him.  Really give this place lots of consideration (plus the renevating should be done soon).

[thierry13]

If you get into the Glenn Gould school, study with Marc Durand.  I studied with him this summer and he is, simply put, one of the best teachers period.  He taught Hamelin, who in turn dedicated his prelude and fugue to him.  Really give this place lots of consideration (plus the renevating should be done soon).

He was my teacher's teacher  But my teacher told me he was teaching at doctoral level at the Montreal University this year ? That's where my teacher studied with him.

[thierry13]

Never mind, I just read about him ... his permanent post is in Montreal, where I probably will be in 2 years  , but he is invited regularly to give classes at the Glenn Gould institute. He studied at Juillard in his youth, my teacher told me, he practiced ALLLLLL day, at his appartment in new york, days, he didn't even dressed up, he just practiced and eated. And his teacher was mad, cause he had allready done what his teacher wanted to see with him in like weeks. HAHA so she made him do all over again with all his pieces. I'm currently learning Mazeppa, wich my teacher studied with Marc Durand in university, and so we're still using his book with all the notes and indication of Marc Durand in it. He uses SOOOO much different colors and indications it's amazing haha.

[viking]

Yes, he is an extremely amazing person.  Likewise, my current teacher was a Doctoral student of Marc Durand.  This summer he accompanied me playing the 2nd mvmt of the Khachaturian Concerto.  It was really amazing.  My advice, seek him out at all costs, whether it be to study with him in university/conservatory, or at summer camps.  He's getting me into Banff next year so I'll be there all summer.  Enough of my ramblings...


Sam

[prongated]

If you get into the Glenn Gould school, study with Marc Durand. I studied with him this summer and he is, simply put, one of the best teachers period.

...the Banff Festival?! My friend was there this year...he had Mark Fitzgerald though...anyway!

Yes I agree Durand is one of the best...he came to the Pan Pacific Music Camp in Sydney last year...the way he teaches sound/tone colour, and his knowledge of body posture/anatomy (!) and the way the actual keyboard works is amazing! But yeah, he's a visiting artist-teacher there. That means you will have him about twice a month for 2 hour-ish each I think...the other times you will have his assistants.

On the other hand, RCM-GG also have John Perry as visiting artist-teacher. He's also very good I think - there's never a (master)class with him (both active and passive) in which I do not learn anything new. Friend of mine has just joined his class at RCM-GG this semester and she's enjoying it!

...well either way, you are sure to have a good teacher if you get into RCM-GG!

...by the way, I thought Medtner composed in the 20th century period? I know his music sounds late romantic, but...?

[viking]

Yeah, the Banff festival sounds pretty amazing.  I went to Orford center of the Arts this summer and Anton Kuerti, John Perry, Andre LaPlante, and Marc Durand were all there, plus many more amazing teachers.  Another great place to be, and what amazing parties!!!

[phil13]

Okay, so here's another question for you all:

What do colleges look for in a 20th century piece? The Barber Interlude was one of his earliest compositions, written in 1933 I think, and it's very Romantic compared to, say, the Ballade or the Sonata.

Once I finish perfecting interpretation, I will be starting the Barber Ballade. Both that and the Interlude are roughly the same outline, same form, same tempi, same length. Which one is a more effective modern showpiece, if I could learn the Ballade on top of everything else I'm doing?

Phil