Performance Pieces

[bslish]

Hey guys, I need some suggestions. I have a contest coming up in about a month, but I don't know what the judges want to hear. Is it better to play an easier song flawlessly, or is it better to play a hard piece. What songs have worked for you guys? Fugues, waltzes, etudes? Thanks, Brent

[danyal]

You need to be more specific. What contest is it? What are the requirements? The level of the other contestants? What? It is very hard to give you an answer to such a broad question. There are many performance pieces in existance. What pieces are you playing at the moment? (To get an idea of your level. Preferably name pieces that you have polished off as opposed to ones that you are still working on.)

Obviously it is better to play an easier piece flawlessly than to play an advanced one badly, or have it sounding mediocre. Judging by that question, you already knew that.

Another thing... isn't it a bit late to start thinking about repertoire to start learning for a competition in a month? Its cutting it rather fine if you want to play well when the time comes. Just a thought.

Anyway

[elevateme]

go for chopin ballade 1
you can learn it in a month, its flashy, shows off musicality & its a good performance piece

[brewtality]

go for chopin ballade 1
you can learn it in a month, its flashy, shows off musicality & its a good performance piece

learn it in a month? I would expect the playing to be simply cringe-worthy.

[bslish]

Yeah, a month for the ballad is crazy. Lol. It's 14 pages long. To be honest, I'm kind of new to classical music, so I don't know how long things should take. I mean is Mozart's K.545 sonata a respectable piece when it comes to diplaying ability? Or Chopin's "Petit Chien" Waltz? I can play those pretty well, as well as some other familiar classical tunes.

[nanabush]

If you got a good solid reach and you can play octaves pretty well, the brahms rhapsody in G minor seems to be a nice show piece, is not overly long (7-9 pages depending on the edition) and is not close to as difficult as the ballade in G minor.  The middle slow section does not take long to learn, but sounds very powerful.