Did composers have to practice their own music?

[allchopin]

i think the title pretty much explains the question... Did like liszt and chopin have to study their OWN etudes of did this skill just come to them? I always wonder about the skill of the composers in relation to their own music... did they ever mess up their own pieces? could they ever NOt be able to play their own music? curious...

[ravel]

hiii
well i am sure composers like lizst and chopin were able to play their own peaces par excellence, however there have been others like ravel for example , who tried his best to feature as the pianist in the premiere of his own piano concerto  ( he practised chopins and lizsts etudes for very long hours , just to be able to play his own concerto) , but in the end he decided he coudlnt play it the way he wanted. Then theres tchaikovsky , i doubt he would be able to play his own concerto like the octaves and stuff, in his first concerto are pretty hard to play and he was no virtuoso as every one knows , ofcourse it is a mystery as to how composers are able to compose music much harder than what they can play, maybe its just that they , are able to play those pieces slowly and then able to imagine how it would be if it was fast, or maybe they can pay the pieces hands separately or maybe in short fragments and not in one go , but i think it is their imagination with which they are able to compose such highly complicated pieces which they can not play, i mean ravels, toccata or gaspard de la nuit would fool any one to thik taht he ws a virtuouso , but the truth is that he was  a good but not a great pianist. well that ws what i think ,
byeeeeeeee
this is a relaly interesting topic

[RiskyP]

If I remember correctly, Schubert couldn't perform some of his own pieces - like one (or more) of his impromtus. Interesting question.  

[chopiszte]

Ravel, some  musicians would not play music they composed until it was finished.  Mozart was one of these.  Therefore, they don't need to hear music played to understand how it sounds, and they can hear it in their minds.  Thus their minds can do things their hands might not.

[rachfan]

Rachmaninoff was certainly a viruoso, in his time rivaled only by Hofmann.  Rachmaninoff often featured his own preludes and etudes in recital.  Many of his pieces are very complex and technically demanding--to the point that it didn't matter that he wrote and knew his own pieces.  He still polished them for for performances.  

[eddie92099]

A well known example of this is Rachmaninov practising his 3rd concerto on a dummy keyboard while on the boat to New York to give the premiere (apparently he hadn't remembered making it so difficult!). Brahms was also known for not being able to play many of his own works, especially the piano concerti.
Ed

[amee]

Speaking of Rachmaninoff, was very insecure about everything.  He once said, "I have chased three hares (meaning composing, conducting, and playing the piano) - have I caught one?"  He was most insecure about being a pianist.  That's why he never played much of any music except his own until after the Russian Revolution.  Afterwards he decided he liked being a concert pianist more than a conductor.

[Mariana]

Wasnt Rach a huge perfectionist?

[amee]

Yes, Mariana, Rachmaninoff was a perfectionist.  He was always complaining because nothing was right or good enough.  Once he recorded his transcription of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo 48 times in the recording studio!  Even though many times it was perfect, he still wasn't happy.  He also once said to Horowitz, "I played seventy concerts and only three of them did I play well."