Summer

[Antnee]

Summer is fast approaching. What are your goals over the summer? With no school, (I get out at the end of may) I'm going to have plenty of time to practice. I plan to finish up, the first mov. of Beethoven's No.23 Op.57, Chopin's Heroic Poloniase and start some new stuff. I've been dabbling in Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's fifth symphony and I'm about two pages in, and it's no that bad. Maybe I'll finish that one up too. What about you guys?  

-Tony-

[faulty_damper]

I'll finally be able to get back on my road bike and ride centuries for training.  I'm hoping to be able to ride 500 miles a week for a couple of weeks to increase my base fitness.  Then I'll work on time trialing/sustained power.  Then climbing work and then finally sprint work.  I gotta be competitive to win races and training is the only way that's going to happen.  And since I'm only a Cat 5 racer with one lousy race under my spandex shorts, any racing will be experience I've never had.

And when I'm not riding or racing, I'll be playing and practicing some Alkan.

My legs are huge.  I've lost more than 2 inches off my waist and am 132 pounds from 140.  I gained weight from muscle atrophy from 125 pounds a few months ago when I wasn't that strong.  Got a few new "tattoos" as well.  All natural ones of course.

[Logar]

Hey -

Sounds cool! Well I'm going to practice some Lizst technique - almost done with La Campanella and working my way though the rhapsody nr.2. Then i'll see it from there. Maybe Liebestraume nr. 1 and 3.  

[rosie]

I will be working on Beethoven's Waldstien Sonata, Schumann's second sonata in g minor, and a few Chopin etudes.

rosie

[belvoce]

Well, besides preparing for college this fall, I plan to polish the first movement of Beethoven's sonata Op.2 no. 1, and to finish the rest of the second movement.

I will be participating in a vocal pedagogy workshop, which I am really looking forward to.  I'm recitaled out at the moment, so I'm just going to take it easy this summer and sing and play for my own enjoyment.

I would like to start on another Scarlatti sonata soon (my favorite!), and that's about it for me.  

[L.K.]

Dat's predy kool!

I'll be working on Mozart's sonata K. 332. In addition I want to do some cool Romantic work, maybe a complete opus of Chopin Mazurkas or a Schubert Impromptu. That ought to keep me busy.

Of course, I have to revise my old stuff, too.  

[donjuan]

My musical goals for the summer include liszt's Totentanz for solo piano, Soirees de Vienne- Valse Caprice no.6, La leggierezza, maybe even Scriabin's Etude Op.8 No.12.  My teacher tells me I play too much Liszt, so I am trying to find other composers...
donjuan

[Allan]

I will work on Liszt Trans. Etude on the piano and Bach on the organ, of course!

[donjuan]

I will work on Liszt Trans. Etude on the piano and Bach on the organ, of course!

Which Transcendental Etudes? (all of them? ::)goodluck) Which Bach Organ pieces?  Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor? ohhI love iT!  

[Allan]

No, not all of them, Donjuan!  (How did Bolet and some others do it!?)  Etude #6 (I am re-learing the entire piece, I have used portions of it for a few years as a warm up and to shamelessly impress friends, but I love it), and #5 (I have spent a lot of time just fingering and learning the first two pages...what a piece...it requires nimbleness and incredible finger independence).   And, for fun, "Kitten on the Keys" by Zez Confrey.

On the organ, I am playing from Bach's "Orgelbuchlein,"  which is a profound and amazing collection of music for hands and feet.  The choral, "O Mensch, Bewein Dein Sunde Gross," is in the stratosphere of emotion (Bach was a truly expressive composer!!)  I have to really concentrate on phrasing in a different way than on the piano since the organ voices sing!  Also, the last movement of the Mendelssohn Sonata in f minor (he was a fine organist), the Adagio in e flat by Frank Bridge and the incredible, fantastic "Ad Nos Ad Salutarem Undam" Fantasy by Liszt.

Since I practice law full time and only play professionally on occasion, the above pieces will keep me plenty busy.

Have a blessed summer everyone.

[edouard]

Hi Allan,
glad to see i'm not the only lawyer out there
my musical plans for this summer include: two pieces out of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (i would recommend these to anyone, at any level you will find something there for you!), two chopin etudes, a rachmaninov prelude in Cmajor, loads of debussy and the totentanz (so maybe we can swap tips sometime donjuan- i trust you are planning to learn the piano transcription without orchestra?) which will be a nice change from all the atonal music i must prepare for my exams. enjoy the sun!
e-

[thracozaag]

Theoretically:

Solo stuff to learn:

Godowsky: Passacaglia
Liadov: 3 etudes, 4 preludes
Scriabin: 10 preludes, 5 etudes
Liszt/Busoni: Ad nos
Liszt:Weinen, Kleinen, Sorgen, Sagen
and some misc. things (Tatum, some transcriptions, etc.)

Chamber music:

Dvorak Quintet
Rach. 1st suite
Brahms/haydn variations

stuff to keep in my fingers:

Scriabin 10th sonata
Berg sonata
Liszt/Horowitz/me Rakoczy March
Albeniz: Triana

 oh, and I have to finish up my doctoral document...should be an interesting summer.

koji

[donjuan]

Hi Allan,
glad to see i'm not the only lawyer out there
my musical plans for this summer include: two pieces out of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (i would recommend these to anyone, at any level you will find something there for you!), two chopin etudes, a rachmaninov prelude in Cmajor, loads of debussy and the totentanz (so maybe we can swap tips sometime donjuan- i trust you are planning to learn the piano transcription without orchestra?) which will be a nice change from all the atonal music i must prepare for my exams. enjoy the sun!
e-

HI, Im glad Im not the only one learning LIszts piano solo version of totentanz.  I only started it 3 days ago.  I just finished learning the opening three cadenzas.  

Here's an idea for the future: number the bars, so maybe if one of us develops questions about a certain phrase, we can just say, for example: what fingering do you use for bar 123?(NO, that is not a real question..)

How far are you in the piece?
donjuan

[ahmedito]

Ive been accepted to study in Spain next year, so, being in Mexico,
Ive got to sell all my stuff, get my papers in order and find somewhere to live over there...

[edouard]

Donjuan, good idea!
i have the Edition Musica Budapest edition (not that that should change anything concerning the number of bars:) (but it does actually have the bars numbered which helps. I havent started working on it but i sorted quite a lot of fingering out, played through it and known the piece for some time etc. so starting in a couple of weeks for me, don't hesitate to start a thread if you have questions and i'll do the same ok?.
cheers,
-e

[Alp635]

I'm going to start my new rep now!!!  Have been playing chopin complete preludes for longer than I need to, and that G major prelude won't get any better...

Starting on Scriabin 5th sonata, Liszt Mephisto waltz, La leggiereza and harmonies du soir, and Beethoven op 110!

If anyone plays this music, am open for hints and suggestions...Scriabin is amazing but SO hard to learn.

[thracozaag]

I'm going to start my new rep now!!!  Have been playing chopin complete preludes for longer than I need to, and that G major prelude won't get any better...

Starting on Scriabin 5th sonata, Liszt Mephisto waltz, La leggiereza and harmonies du soir, and Beethoven op 110!

If anyone plays this music, am open for hints and suggestions...Scriabin is amazing but SO hard to learn.

 Good luck on the Scriabin..you have excelllent taste!!

koji

[donjuan]

I'm going to start my new rep now!!!  Have been playing chopin complete preludes for longer than I need to, and that G major prelude won't get any better...

Starting on Scriabin 5th sonata, Liszt Mephisto waltz, La leggiereza and harmonies du soir, and Beethoven op 110!

If anyone plays this music, am open for hints and suggestions...Scriabin is amazing but SO hard to learn.

Hey, Im also working on La leggierezza!  Where are you in it?  Im at the first chromatic scale cadenza.

Posted by: Edouard Posted on: Today at 4:57am
Donjuan, good idea!
i have the Edition Musica Budapest edition (not that that should change anything concerning the number of bars (but it does actually have the bars numbered which helps. I havent started working on it but i sorted quite a lot of fingering out, played through it and known the piece for some time etc. so starting in a couple of weeks for me, don't hesitate to start a thread if you have questions and i'll do the same ok?.
cheers,
-e  

 

this is great! not only are we working on the same piece, but we also have the same edition of music.  I think ill be bugging you for help more than the other way around.  

out, played through it and

what?!  I would never be able to just "play through" music like that.
donjuan

[Alp635]

I just tried to fake my way through it once, just to get a sense of it...but haven't started yet.  Am trying to plow my way through Scriabin 5th sonata which not only has 5 million notes, it has these impossible leaps.  AHHHH I don't know if I am ever going to learn that piece.  

Anyway, once I have most of it learned, I'm going to start Mephisto waltz and I'll probably work on La leggiereza last.  By the way, those chromatic thirds are really fast... I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle this problem...I thought that the thirds in the d minor chopin preldue were hard...nothing compared to this.  

[liszmaninopin]

As for piano, this is what I'd like to accomplish:

Learn the Prokofiev Toccata
Learn a Prokofiev Sonata (either #7 or #8)
Finish Violette Sonata 6
Finish Rach's D minor Sonata
Make some good progress on Rach's second concerto

The following are pieces that would be nice to play a time or two a day; just achieving slow progress, but they won't be my focus:

Godowsky Passacaglia
maybe a Scriabin Sonata (not sure which one)
some Rach and Scriabin etudes
Beethoven's op. 111 sonata

[willcowskitz]

For Edouardo and donjuan, I'm also *trying* to learn Haláltánc, Danse Macabre or Totentanz! (whichever you prefer)  I'm probably in need of some technical advise so its good to know that some more developed pianists are tackling the same piece.

Prokofiev's toccata is also on my to-do list, but I'm having problems with fingerings (surprise).

[liszmaninopin]

In which parts of the Toccata are you having fingering troubles?  I might be able to offer a suggestion; as I think I have fingering for the piece mostly worked out. (at least for my own hands)

[donjuan]

I think you guys are mad for attempting Toccata!  Youll break your hands! (If you dont go crazy first..)
donjuan

[liszmaninopin]

Not mad, just ambitious.  The piece is tremendously tiring on the muscles, but I've only been doing semi-serious work on the thing for 2 days, and some passages are already coming together.  It just takes a while to loosen up and get the rythm.  I don't think it's possible to "muscle" one's way through the piece (as that would cause tension), one must be loose, or so it seems to me.

[Shagdac]

I'm hoping to polish a few pieces already learned, finish 2 Gottschalk pieces and get those up to performance level, and finish picking out repertoire for a Comp. I wish to "try" and enter in about 2 years, get started on those pieces..... I also really want to learn the Heroic Polonaise, have had that on my list for ages, started here and there, but never completely learned all of it and pulled it together. I have a stack of music I keep promising myself I'll learn, much of it I've started, but haven't finished. I really need to get down to it!

Good Luck to everyone in learning the pieces you are working on!

s

[amanfang]

I'm working on the beethoven eroica variations, mendelssohn fanstasy in f-sharp minor, a liebermann nocturne, and a couple ginastera pieces.  I'm also playing around with a Haydn concerto, and I might work some on a couple Bach organ pieces also.  

[JK]

This sumer I want I want to learn all the Ravel Miroirs (I've started Noctuelles and Une barque sur l'ocean already), a late Beethoven sonata, at least two more transcendental studies (I've learnt 10 and 11 and would really like to try Mazeppa), a Haydn sonata and revise looking at Schumanns' symphonic studies and if after all of this I haven't gone mad or been admited to hospital from exhaustion I would really like to look at Rachmaninoffs' first concerto! (It's such an underated piece!)

[Antnee]

I'm adding another goal to my list (which will last longer than the summer but the end of the summer will be a sort of checkpoint) and that is sight reading. I'm going to use the various methods discussed in this forum.
I'll let you guys know how it goes...

-Tony-

[Spatula]

Working on:

Chopin - Fantasie Impromptu
Beethoven - Sonata No 14
Rachmaninoff - Prelude #5 Op 23
and TECHNIQUE!!!! and read Mastering Piano Technique!  


Then working out!  I need to get trained and back in shape cause I'm about to be Jabba the Hutt's impersonator.  Run a few laps here, lift a few weights there...

[Motrax]

I'll be studying a bit for college (math and physics double major  ), and I'm working at the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

Full time work leaves little time for piano (relative to the 24 hour free time I have now), but I'm going to be working almost exclusively on Rach 2 and Rachy's cello sonata. There's big concerto competition at the University of Maryland which I intend on winning, if not this year, then the next (or the next or the next, I guess there isn't any huuuuge hurry). I haven't started the concerto yet, and I only know the first movement of the Sonata, so it's certainly enough to occupy whatever time I can find to practice.

And yes, Rachmaninoff's 1st concerto is definitely underrated. I love it! (Though I love all of his concertos)

[trunks]

I have already put six pieces (out of nine in my all-Liszt programme) back into my fingers and memory:
- Vallee d'Obermann
- Dante Sonata
- Vision
- Il Lamento
- La Leggierezza
- Un Sospiro
The remaining being Sonettos 47, 104, 123 del Petrarca. With an average of 2 hours of practice per day, that won't take me more than a couple of weeks, at most 3 weeks.

La Leggierezza is the trickiest piece to acquire and maintain. There are hazards everywhere in the piece. The principal text in the RH - where the ossia text is the running thirds in the RH - is extremely difficult in its own right. The technical demands are entirely different from the running thirds. Co-ordination between the hands here can be quite horrendous.

Sonetto 47 is perhaps the hardest to memorize. I have re-memorized it twice in more than 10 years and still find it difficult to put back into memory.

And the final jumps in Il Lamento and Dante Sonata . . . wow, those jumps put even La Campanella to shame! Now I can truly take pleasure jumping on the keyboard.

[Spatula]

Peter HK,

I first heard the Dante Sonata (Same as apres une lecture de Dante?) during a Piano Recital in completion of a pianists music degree at the university, and found that one of the most emotionally drainning pieces, arousing the Dies Irae themes over and it put the chills down my spine.  Yeah I like that one, even though I find that song rather sadistic.  So go for it!  

[donjuan]

Peter HK,

I first heard the Dante Sonata (Same as apres une lecture de Dante?) during a Piano Recital in completion of a pianists music degree at the university, and found that one of the most emotionally drainning pieces, arousing the Dies Irae themes over and it put the chills down my spine.  Yeah I like that one, even though I find that song rather sadistic.  So go for it!  

It sounds like you are talking about Totentanz. "...Dies Irae Themes....Over...chills..."
Are you sure you have the right piece?

[trunks]

Peter HK,
I first heard the Dante Sonata (Same as apres une lecture de Dante?) during a Piano Recital in completion of a pianists music degree at the university, and found that one of the most emotionally drainning pieces, arousing the Dies Irae themes over and it put the chills down my spine.  Yeah I like that one, even though I find that song rather sadistic.  So go for it!  

Yes, the "Dante Sonata" is properly known as Apres une lecture du Dante - Fantasia quasi Sonata.

[Spatula]

Yeah it is the right piece.  The program notes spatted this all over the piece, and it does sound pretty Dies Irae too me at least