It appears as though some dislike the idea of this thread for certain reasons. As to not contribute to that, I'll just try to be as honest as possible.
The first peice of any dificulity must have been Fan Impromptu - Chopin
as I was so hell bent on playing it because they didn't make a simplified version for anything else but the middle.
Judging by recital times, I must have been 11.
And over the next 3 years, regarding difficult peices I added:
Revolutionary Etude
Polonaise in A flat
Prelude No 24 in D minor
Now a couple of very insignificant points:
Revolutionary.....performed about 85% of the notes in the left hand with more pedal than Mario Andretti
Prelude No 24.......eliminated the 4th bass note of every grouping for every messure, with the exception of the messure containing the descending chromatic scale in the right hand in which I completely stopped.....again staked my claim for pedal king.
Polonaise.....40% of the phrases in the entire peice where I played every note to the chords in both hands. Cut out 1/2 of the first bridge section & cut out the ENTIRE section joining the LH Octave middle with the reprise.
How the hell does that grab ya.
I'm not mentioning this to be funny or pathetic.....I'm mentioning it as a 29yr old as a WARNING to people 1/2 my age....give me your attention for this thread and after, you are on your own....if just 1 person gets something from this, then I would be very satisfied, but I hope that none of you will ever need to get something from this thread
I will say this: I still have the video of the Impromptu, and besides touch and lacking the refinment of phrasing and voicings, it isn't too bad. It was played complete, a mistake here and there, and at proper tempo....thats the result of an 11 yr old who has some commitment to the work but still with too much eagerness and not enough paticence.
As long as I can remember, everyone always told me that there was some emotional aspect of my playing that they loved....those who knew reffered to it as rare, as I could get away with mistakes or faulty technique because I had something of higher value to compansate for it......that's what they said, not what I say. But sometimes talent is dangerous, as is having more than 1 passion. You don't devote the proper time, so you get lazy and cut corners. You find yourself only wanting to play the good/fun/beautiful/difficult parts of peices....."why play this boring part when you could start this new peice?' And still, because most people are cutting parts out of peices, and most people dont even know better, or non musical people even if they know they will focus on their favorite part, the melody, which you have down perfect. So this terrible hypocrasy, this terrible betrail regarding the composer, the work, and against yourself as an artist is being allowed to continue because u are shamelessly leaning on a special talent. And the terrible part is, that you don't know that you are doing it, because you are a good person who just has a hell of a lot of things to do an responsibilities that came along with your life. Then since you don't have a very good teacher, you realize that you have learned everything on your own, so u stop with lessons pre-college and start playing less. It is only 10+ years later when you in your mid-late twenties that you learn to play peices for real. But you can't play your favorites like the Polonaise and Prelude because the damage is so deep that I'm still fixing them (Prelude is close). It's easier for you to learn new peices from scratch then correct a peice learned wrong.
And to highlight the moral of the story. As I said, those 3 peices that I learned wrong, I have still never taken the time to correct them, so I play them wrong, and I have blocks in certain areas that are hard to erase. Now here is the said part, the Fantasy Impromptu was learned correct, and I replayed it at a semi-concert. Now I'm not saying this to be arrogant, on the contrary, I'm saying this dumb I was....how naive. When I havent played the piano in months, the fantasy needs about 1/2 hour to sound decent, and I have no idea how long it takes me to get back to playing that at a master level, but I know its not very long. But that peice, when I am fully practiced, I can honesly say that I play it better than any recordings I've heard, and I don't believe I just said that because I hate 'that guy' but understand that I say that for the people with talent that are 1/2 my age.....dont be me....because I remind myself constantly what would have happened to the Polonaise, Prelude, & Etude if I had given the same effort as the Fantasy, because those are some of my favorites but I still have not kept the promise I made to myself to re learn them......I hope I will someday.
SO I DONT CARE WHAT AGE YOU ARE!!! How true are you to the composer and to yourself, thats what counts, because then you are playing music and you will be playing that music for a long time. Plus with difficult peices all that matters if you can play them at any age....just play them as written
I didn't have time to proof this and I have to run, I'll correct any mistakes later.
Topic: I can play ... as EARLY as ...