finally came to a decision...sort off...deciding between 3 piano concertos

[amelialw]

I finally got a chance to talk to my piano teacher who's in canada. She knows me so well that she would know exactly what i'm capable off, what I should not learn at the moment or what I should learn to challenge myself.

  Having said that....I talked to her, told her that I intended to take part in the National Piano Competition at the end of the year and mentioned that I had to pick one from a list. well the list that i have is from the previous one and this year they will be adding more on. she knew that i wanted her to pick for me so she said if you're taking part in a competition you want to play something that you've played before(that was before i mentioned that it was in nov)  So she asked what was on the list and i told her i knew what i could'nt play:Prokofiev, Bartok etc...then i said what was on the list: Schumann, Mozart and she stopped me before i even carried on and said how about that mozart piano concerto you played for me, you played it really well(on a side note not anymore, it lasted temporarily, plus at that point i did it for her and for enjoyement). I just mentioned that it was'nt on the list. She asked which Mozart piano concertos were on the list. I told her 20,23 and 24 and she asked what key. Then she said what else, so i told her Beethoven 3,4 & 5, before i even mentioned Chopin, she stopped me and said Beethoven 3 and why not Beethoven 1. I mentioned that it was'nt there otherwise i would pick it, well it might come out on the new list...i really would be happy if it did.

and she said something else too, which really suprised me. she said, if you are going to play something for a competition you want to make sure that you love it right? and you have to pick a piece that shows off your musical ability to inteprete a piece well so that you will win right?  on a side note: i had no idea that she though that i could actually win when i was wondering whether i could even get to the 2nd round where students play their concertos

so she asked me to go through the mozart piano concertos and beethoven 3 and see what I like...eventually narrow it down to 2 and then 1 for the competition. I already bought the last Beethoven 3 and managed to get Mozart no.23 today(that's the only one i love out of the 3). I've also decided that if Beethoven 1 pops up on the list i'll go for it instead but who knows what will happen?? haha...right now i have 1 month& 2 weeks to play around before the new list comes out. For sure it will be Beethoven 1 or 3 or Mozart 23...we'll see

[imbetter]

Personally I would go for Beethoven 1 because I find of the three concerti you decided on that proves the best point for a competition.

[kelly_kelly]

Really? I would say Beethoven 3 is the most likely to win a competition, so from a purely pragmatic perspective I would choose that.

[amelialw]

Personally I would go for Beethoven 1 because I find of the three concerti you decided on that proves the best point for a competition.

i agree with this in a way, Beethoven 1 & 2 are both very underplayed here in singapore especially at my school, not want seems to want to play either. I would love to play it for the competition but it might not even come out in the list.

Really? I would say Beethoven 3 is the most likely to win a competition, so from a purely pragmatic perspective I would choose that.

Beethoven 3 is harder no doubt and more challenging both musically& technically

I asked my piano buddy for his opinion between mozart and Beethoven 3rd, he said it's more worthwhile to learn Beethoven 3


I just might end up making this decision: prep Beethoven 3rd for the nationals end of this year...start learning Beethoven 1st when Beethoven 3rd is under control, since i will have plenty of time during hols. If it does not pop up on the list I can always play Beethoven 3rd for nationals and Beethoven 1st for my school's concerto competition next year in march

Thanks for your opinions& advice, really appreciate it!

[imbetter]

for me there's no way beethoven 3 is harder than 1 but that's just my opinion.

[amelialw]

for me there's no way beethoven 3 is harder than 1 but that's just my opinion.

I guess it really depends...Beethoven 3 has alot more wide stretches which makes it hard for me as well as trills with both hands while playing the melody line.

I've already talked over it with my bf/piano buddy and he told me to go for Beethoven 3rd. People in school especially friends have been very much against me playing no.3 because they think they know me well: my playing style and my touch etc. My bf knows me alot better, so does my canada teacher and if they believe I can do it, I can! mo matter what others say.

to start off, I already have the Henle Urtext score and I have Evengy Kissin's complete recordings of the Beethoven PC's for no.1&3. Today, I just purchased Pletnev's recordings of no.1&3 and Pollini's recordings no.3&4( did'nt want no.4 but it was in the cd anyway)

[imbetter]

Enjoy it! It's a great piece. I kind of played it but never really perfected it and I found it very fun to play.

[thierry13]

( did'nt want no.4 but it was in the cd anyway)

Yeah it was there anyways, I didn't really cared, it's just the best of the five anyways ...

On a more serious note, I'd play Beethoven 3. You are playing all 3 movements right?

[amelialw]

Yeah it was there anyways, I didn't really cared, it's just the best of the five anyways ...

On a more serious note, I'd play Beethoven 3. You are playing all 3 movements right?

haha...everyone has diff opinions i'm sure and has a different favourite one out of the 5 piano concertos.

Yes, I have to play all 3 mvts. At any point of the competition they can select any mvts and ask you to play it.

I just asked my teacher here for permission and she was very happy that i wanted to compete and very enthuastic about it as well. In fact she asked me to provide her with a list of pieces by next week including the pieces that I want to learn by the end of the year(even if it's challenging for me, not too challeging of course!) and what i want to compete(my strengths, what i'm better at playing). This is what i've longed for her to ask me since we started lessons 3+ weeks ago.