Bach's Italian Concerto

[NetherMagic]

Hey everyone I'm currently working on Bach's Italian Concerto.  Well I've just started and noticed that its a whooping 19 pages compared to his prelude and fugue, which is 4 pages.  I'm supposed to select either the prelude & fugue or the Italian Concerto for the RCM exam for Performer Level (which I still have maybe 2 years time to get ready since I only did the history 3 exam so far and no others).  Well anyways here's the problem:

For the Italian Concerto, since it's so lengthy, I'm not sure if there's anyway I can memorize it, and no I don't want to be dumb struck with continuous memory lapses at the exam...  I'm not very good with Bach's pieces, a bit too structural and too confusing for my fingers (however I find memorizing Chopin's pieces very easy   ).  So for those of you who play Bach often and enjoy it alot, can you give me some tips on memorizing it?  And Bach isn't my favorite but I actually enjoy this Italian Concerto quite a bit and I dun wanna give it up for the prelude & fugue but it's soo long!  Oops I'm repeating myself but yeah you get the point.  

So please give some tips and also how long did it take you to play the Italian Concerto until the point you can perform it? (that includes it having been memorized)

Aight thx alot everyone  

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

I'm not quite done getting the 3rd movement to performance level yet, but I have the first 2 memorized and the 3rd is pretty close.  I've been working on it for 4 months now...  But I'm also playing about 5 other pieces so I don't get to work on it as much as I should.  

But anyways, I found the 1st movement to irratate the heck outta me...  hehe It's just really hard to find good fingerings and play cleanly.  But then again Bach is that way.   Good thing to memorize is start from the end and work your way back in sections.  Try to split the piece up into a lot of sections...  Feel free to put rehearsal marks all over the place...  I think I have something like A-K on just the first movement.  That way you can work on sections individually and memorize that way.  By the way don't play it too fast, it's unmarked.  Play it faster then the second but slower then the 3rd.  You don't want to make it feel like your rushing to go somewhere.  Just a nice happy tempo.  

The third movement I find so far to be a lot more under the fingers then the first.  I don't know if it's because I have the experience with the first but the 3rd movement is coming along at least twice as quickly as the first did.  

The second is a gorgeous movement.  Don't kill it with playing with massive rubato etc...  It's very core...  Musical...  I dunno how to explain.  Let it breathe...  Think of the right hand as an oboe perhaps...  And the ostinato line as viola and cello and maybe a double bass...  When you play it think of the orchestra and the vibrato, make it come alive.  Make sure your right hand has a very clean tone and don't attack it or you'll kill it.

Anyways that's my 2 cents I'm sure someone else will give better advice.  

[NetherMagic]

thx for you comment musicman

yeah I'm finding the 1st movement kinda irritating too, so typical with Bach   But then that's one reason why I like playing this piece, it's confusing but not too hard  

btw to play Bach, should rubato be implemented at all?  Or should I follow every beat very strictly and disciplined?

[la_carrenio2003]

Hey everyone I'm currently working on Bach's Italian Concerto.  Well I've just started and noticed that its a whooping 19 pages compared to his prelude and fugue, which is 4 pages.  I'm supposed to select either the prelude & fugue or the Italian Concerto for the RCM

Which P&F are you talking about? For giving you a good advice about which of them to take I'd have an idea of how many Bach you played before...

[NetherMagic]

oh yeah forgot about that, my teacher was letting me choose either between the Italian Concerto or Prelude & Fugue no.3

and I haven't played a lot of Bach before  

[la_carrenio2003]

I assume from the Well Tempered Clavier, but in which book? If you didn't play much Bach before, it was better to take the P&F -whatever the book is-, the Italian concerto is not an easy work. Of course, if you want to play the best way you could in your exam. The IC takes time to sound a it was very easy -and it isn't-. If I were you, I took the secure path for giving a good impression... :-/

[NetherMagic]

darn

well my Well-Tempered Clavier is split into 2 books, and the P&F I'm talkin about is the 1st book

I guess I should check with my teacher next class what other pieces are required to play, if there aren't too many, then I'll stick with the Italian Concerto  

[Bosendorfer_214]

Congratulations you are learning a great piece!

- In my opinion there really is no trick to memorizing, all it is is repetition, repetition, repetition...

Best of Luck