Islamey

[verywellmister]

What is the youngest age that a non-prodigy (but not bad) student that can play Islamey by Balakirev well?  I have seen some really good people who have played Ondine as high-schoolers, and that is harder than Islamey, I think.

I really want to play it when I am a senior in high school (about 4 years from now) because I find the piece facinating, but I will only learn if I play it well.  I am playing the Ravel Sonatine right now.
Maybe if I don't play Islamey, maybe I can do Beethoven Op.111.  ooooo....

[etudes]

i am not sure about that
but i am sure that op.111 is more difficult than islamey
btw i have heard that Sgourou played it when he was 11 or something like that
i think paul wee (aka e60m5) played it since he was 13 i am not sure

[panic]

I sure hope there are other people around who think that playing 111 as a teenager is pointless. It's an "end-of-one's-life" kind of piece, an old man looking back on his years, not just another great C minor sonata, and IMO you need to have a life to look back on yourself to understand it. I probably won't play that piece or 110 till I'm 45 or more, even if I am able to at 25.

Islamey, the piece has no such weight or meaning so it's more musically accessible to younger folks.

[pianohopper]

I quite agree about Op. 111.  Late Beethoven should be a mystery to any normal young person, rightly so.  The man was going deaf, he had problems to deal with.  There's nothing admirable about trying to play that at 18, it shows more than anything impatience and immaturity, which you cannot have in this field. 

verywellmister, I have a bit of advice: although it is not too soon to think about what you may do for your seniro recital, you have four years.  Don't write in stone that you must play something virtuostic like Islamey.  There are many difficult pieces that you could play better rather than playing Islamey lousy.  You may find a piece you like better, you may find you hate Islamey by that time.  Give it time.  patience. 

[minor9th]

No offense, but Paul Wee makes a mess of it. Fistfuls of wrong notes, very little passion--it's clearly beyond him. He needs to give it another 5-10 years before he plays it in public and offers a video!

[e60m5]

No offense, but Paul Wee makes a mess of it. Fistfuls of wrong notes, very little passion--it's clearly beyond him. He needs to give it another 5-10 years before he plays it in public and offers a video!

 

lol... right.

 

[ted]

I disagree about Op. 111. I am probably a minority of one here in saying this, but I really do not see why either a teenager or an old man should not play anything he wishes in any way he wishes. I think that music is just abstract sound and in itself has no universally intrinsic, communicable meaning at all. It does not communicate objective meaning about objects and ideas via rules of syntax, like ordinary language ; how can it ? Moreover, what meaning a player or listener decides to put on a piece of music need not have the slightest connection with anything outside his own brain.