Competition programme - any thoughts?

[fnork]

So, this fall I'm (probably) entering a competition in Italy. My teachers whole class (we are 6 pianists now) will go together and stay for about a week - we'll also play in some masterclasses and hopefully see some of Italy too!  But I started to think about the competition programme and here's what I've come up with so far... by the way, the competitions only required pieces are two etudes by different composers and some Bach piece - the rest is free. The finals is a concerto with orchestra.


Concerto finals: Ravel - Concerto for the left hand

Solo:

Alban Berg - Piano sonata op 1
Etudes - Chopin op 10 no 1
not sure about 2nd etude, but possibly Lutoslawskis 2nd etude
Beethoven - either Waldstein first movement, or the whole op 78 in F# major
Ravel - "Ondine" from Gaspard de la nuit
Chopin - Ballade no 3 (or possibly Andante spinato and Grande polonaise which I'm learning at the moment)
Bach - Toccata e minor, or selections from English suite no 2: prelude, allemande and gigue

Any thoughts? I was thinking that maybe I need some more modern piece also, but I'm not sure what I should play.

[amanfang]

From that list...

I like the whole Op. 78 better than 1st of Op. 53.

I also like the Toccata e minor better than the English Suite.

For Modern - what about some Prokofiev?  Sonata #3?

[elevateme_returns]

or kapustin ? you  need some light music in there as most of the stuff you listed is quite intense

[fnork]

sorry but I really dislike Kapustins music... beethoven op 78 is a quite light piece I think, and the grand polonaise if I would decide to do that one. Love that piece.

The problem with the toccata is that I've played it a few times for different teachers and most of them have very different ideas on how it should be played - I might get a problem with that if playing it in competition. The english suite is more "straightforward Bach" perhaps, although probably heard too often in competitions. I might just decide to go for a prelude and fugue instead - was thinking about either Ab major from 2nd book or F# minor, also from 2nd book.

I was thinking about that Prokofiev sonata actually - fun piece, maybe played too often though, but I'll think about that one.

[amelialw]

Beethoven - either Waldstein first movement, or the whole op 78 in F# major

I would prefer the whole of op 78, too many people learn the Waldstein

Chopin - Ballade no 3 (or possibly Andante spinato and Grande polonaise which I'm learning at the moment)\

Andante spinato and Grande polonaise  is a better choice

[fnork]

Thanks for commenting everyone. I see that Andante & grand polonaise beats the 3rd ballade, however, I'll probably do the ballade anyway. Great piece, plus, I've played it a lot while the polonaise is still quite fresh and I can't have TOO MANY recently-learned pieces for the competition, it would be risky. The ravel concerto is something I recently started working on too, and the lutoslawski etude is new - it's better to keep the rest of the pieces old stuff - if I don't get to the finals I still learned a fantastic concerto  ...

[viking]

Which competition is this?

[fnork]

It's organized by one of the two music conservarotys in Rome (not Santa Cecilia, the other one) - I think it's the 2nd or 3rd time the competition is held. They don't have a homepage for it though, so I can't tell you anything more about it because I don't know more than this yet!

[fnork]

heh... I was told by my teacher that there would be a concerto finals, and now when I finally got the broschure from the concerto, it says that they have three rounds, only solopiano. In addition, the amount of repertoire exceeds one hour, so in other words, I've got work to do! So silly, I was focusing on the Ravel concerto for the last couple of weeks, for nothing...

Anyway, I need to add some repertoire now and if anyone has any thoughts on it please let me know. Here's some sketches for a program:

First round - everyone plays 20 minutes - you have to play two studies and one P&F from WTK, and then add something of free choice. What I would play:

Etudes - Chopin op 10 no 1 and Lutoslawski - 2nd etude
Bach - not sure yet, possibly G#minor or G major from book one
Free choice - Alban berg - Piano sonata

That's about 20 minutes of music - I probably skip the repeat in the Berg

2nd round: Everyone plays one beethoven sonata. I would pick op 78 here, only problem is that it's a really short sonata (even with repeats) and maybe doesn't show as much as some other sonatas like Waldstein or something like op 101, so I'm still not sure about this choice. Will have to talk with my teacher about it.

3rd round: A recital of max 45-minutes with free-choice repertoire. Here's what I've thought about playing so far:

Bach - Toccata e minor
Chopin - Ballade no 3
Ravel - "Ondine" from Gaspard de la nuit
Franck - Prelude, choral and fugue

That's about 30 minutes, so I'm still thinking about what more to play - possibly Fallas "Fantasia baetica".
Another option would be to play all of Gaspard and Franck, which would be about 40 minutes of music, but I don't know if I like that program...

[quantum]

Fantasia baetica is a bit of a heavy piece, if you haven't learned it already. 

What about adding these to round 3:

Medtner: 2 Fairy Tales Op. 8
Albeniz: Iberia - Nr. 3 El Corpus en Sevilla

You've already chosen a Bach for a previous round, what about a Bach transcription for the finals?

[fnork]

I learned almost all of the fantasia during the summer (didn't memorize the last pages, that's all), it's not hard to play but difficult to hold together, but that's mostly the composers fault I think - it's just too damn long. That's why I didn't completely finish it - on the other hand, it sounds like the most amazing piece in the world when you hear it for the first time...

the Albeniz is a lovely piece but I would prefer to do "triana" if I would do anything from Iberia. Those Medtner pieces aren't my favourites of his but good that you mentioned him - I was thinking about having a few fairy tales in the competition repertoire. A bach transcription actually sounds like a pretty good idea! I will have to think about that. There are so many options!


I'm pretty sure about what to play already though, here it goes:

1rst round:
*Etudes: Chopin & Lutoslawski
*Bach: P&F in G# minor from WTK I
*Berg: Piano sonata op 1

2nd round:
*Beethoven: Piano sonata op 78

3rd round:
Bach: Toccata e minor / or a bach transcription
Chopin: Ballade no 3 in A flat major
Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit

I've mostly picked old pieces that I've been playing for a while - I've done Berg, the chopin etude & ballade in concerts, used "ondine", the beethoven sonata & the bach toccata for auditions or masterclasses, what I need to do with those pieces is polishing and hopefully performing them a few times prior to the competition. The lutoslawski etude is new though, need to memorize it ASAP, and I actually didn't start learning the rest of Gaspard (le gibet and scarbo) until recently, so I'm devoting most of my time to those pieces now - scarbo isn't going too bad though, I absolutely agree with koji attwood who said that ondine actually is harder to pull off musically than scarbo.