How to set piano recital concert ?

[dora96]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been to a piano concert for years. I am just wondering how to set a concert by myself in the future. Last week, I had played in mini concert which set by musician friends in a chapel. I was playing One piece of Liszt, whole Beethoven sonata,  last movement of Mozart 330, Chopin nocturne, 2 waltz of Chopin. a couple of modern music. I felt completely exhausted and strained. They just expected me to play and I hardly stopped. It was quite causal and relaxing environment. How to other pianist take a break in a concert and organized the concert so that it is  formal and professional way. How long a concert last? What sort of music generally good for the concert? I don't have large repertoires, but I am trying to build them up. Half of my music, I was looking at my books, I just felt that I was not confident enough to memorize them all. Concentration is my problem. After the play, I felt bit worried my abilities and I also realized that it is extremely tough to be performer. I can play  all day with the book. Memorization for whole repertoires under pressure is killer. However, I know most professional pianists play with memorization with their concert?    I always believe that performing should be start as early as kid. In my day, most my teachers didn't bother or even pressure kid to memorize music. I suspected they didn't even play music with memorization themselves.  Most piano teacher just want their students to pass their exam and properly make them to be concert pianist  is not their job. This is my opinion and my experience with my past teachers.

[slobone]

I'm just curious why you want to perform a whole program by yourself if you find it exhausting and not very enjoyable. Why not get together with a few friends and present a musical evening for your other friends? You could play solos and ensemble pieces. And on an occasion like that, nobody expects you to memorize everything.

[dora96]

The concert was organised by my piano teacher, we sort of took it in turn. There was 3 people playing at that night. I was the last to perform. I had to wait for the 2 students to finish before my turn. They are grade 3 and grade 6 students. I was anxious to play first but my teacher didn't want to scare the students off. I had to wait 30 minutes before my turn, I was listening to their play, but my heart kept pounding. I thought it would be much better if you can play alternately rather to do the whole repertoires.
I just don't understand, my teacher and other musicians organized the concert, it is so hard to get students to perform, either they are stage fright, or million reasons not to perform. people are generally so busy, studying, working, family commitment etc....

After I finished, I turned around the other musicians and my teacher, please played something for us, I died to hear you guys playing the piano. They all claimed that they are performers. They don't even want to play. What is the matter with the people? They are so afraid to play terribly and losing face. Their answers they haven't prepared anything particular for tonight. In fact, my teacher was quite mad at me, she said I shouldn't put them in a spot. If they want to play, I don't need to ask. The concert is for the students. It is wrong to ask the teacher to perform I am wondering !!

[slobone]

I have to laugh at that story because the same thing happened to me! My first teacher was a frail 80-year old Polish lady who looked like she couldn't even lift her hand to the keyboard. But at the end of every recital, one of the parents would say politely "Miss M, would you play something for us?" and out would come some wonderful old-fashioned show-stopper.

Then years later I studied with a woman who was an active professional, who played classical music for hours every week at a local restaurant. When I asked her to play something at the end of our recital, she gave me a look of pure fury, reluctantly sat down and played about a page of a piece that would have been easy even for me. So you never know.

As for getting nerves at a recital, nothing could be more normal. It happens even to professionals at a very advanced level (think of Glenn Gould for example). So don't feel bad, it's part of the learning process. If it's really so awful you can't stand it, tell your teacher you don't want to play in recitals anymore.

[dan101]

Now that you have some repertoire that you've played in a concert situation, thing will become easier. From now on, introduce brand new repertoire to only about 20% of your future concert programs. Knowing that you've played the other 80% of your program in a past concert is a confidence booster. Good luck.