Concerti for small hands

[rachmaninova]

Hi there! 

Could you give me suggestions of piano concerti for small hands (minor 9th of maximum span with a great stretch) besides the obvious Mozart? I tried to search the forum, but I didn't find anything specific to this matter... 

Best regards,
Carla

[thalbergmad]

I guess you would be safest with the classicists, even more so the earlier ones. Keeping away from the beaten track, I have listed some possibilities and have awarded some the Thalbergmad seal of approval with a capital T.

Abel
Avison
CPE, KC or WF Bach
Benda (T)
Burgess
Chilcot
Cimarosa
Cramer (T)
Dittersdorf
Eberl (T)
Galuppi
Graun
Griffen
Hook (T)
Krebs
Kozeluch
Linek
Muthel
Paisiello
Reichardt
Salieri
Schaffrath
Schroter
Stephan (T)
Sterkel
Tomasek (T)
Vanhal (T)
Vogler
Wagenseil (T)
Woelfl (TTTT)

Thal

[communist]

Take a look at the Weber piano concertos and konzertstuck or the Handel keyboard concerto.

[thalbergmad]

Unless my memory has deserted me, Weber would be just about the worst for small hands.

Thal

[communist]

Unless my memory has deserted me, Weber would be just about the worst for small hands.

Thal

he is one of the worst actually, try Moscheles maybe.

[thalbergmad]

Moscheles would be best for the larger handed pianists comrade.

There are broken 10ths in all his concerti and some left handed chords that require a tenth.

Thal

[rachmaninova]

I guess you would be safest with the classicists, even more so the earlier ones. Keeping away from the beaten track, I have listed some possibilities and have awarded some the Thalbergmad seal of approval with a capital T.

Abel
Avison
CPE, KC or WF Bach
Benda (T)
Burgess
Chilcot
Cimarosa
Cramer (T)
Dittersdorf
Eberl (T)
Galuppi
Graun
Griffen
Hook (T)
Krebs
Kozeluch
Linek
Muthel
Paisiello
Reichardt
Salieri
Schaffrath
Schroter
Stephan (T)
Sterkel
Tomasek (T)
Vanhal (T)
Vogler
Wagenseil (T)
Woelfl (TTTT)

Thal

Thank you, Thal! 
I'll check all these options. The chosen concerto has to be from the classical period or afterwards.

[rachmaninova]

Thal, I'm having a really difficult time on trying to find the scores or a recording of each one of this composers' concerti... (only some recordings of some Cramer's concerti)

The Woelfl concerto (or concerti) have a 4-sealed Thalbergmad approval...    Why is that?

This search is a really demanding one to make because my school only allows concerti or concertant works written after 1777 (Mozart's e-flat major concerto Kv. 271). Should I put aside works after 1900? Or is there anything suitable?

The fact was that my former teacher wanted me to start studying Beethoven's 3rd Concerto (he always thought I had the kind of character to play it), but after my injury (epycondilitys) I began to be afraid to do chord or octave passages (which were ok to do before that, but now are tiring if they are a constant), so I prefer to play a concerto with musical depth which doesn't require all the time high painful stretches (they can happen, as long as the following passage allows me to rest my hand), but I don't know if that kind of concerto exists. For my school parameters it has in any way to be somehow virtuosistic since it is the last year of the undergraduated course (let's see: in Europe this is the first cycle of studies; according to the Hartt School site, my course is equivalent to a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance).

I'm more of a Liszt-Scriabin-Ravel-Messiaen lover and I'm also interested in contemporary music, but I don't have any problem with playing classical composers (they just simply aren't as "intuitive" for me as the others and I think they're harder to play well).

[lizz93]

Hi,

Small hands have been for me also a longlasting issue to.
Luckily, after some long training I was able to stretch my hands even more....
But small hands stay small hands...so here are some concerti (I think) are pretty duable..: Haydn Piano Concerto D Major
             Saint-Seans Piano Concerto  # 2
             Beethoven's  Concerto # 1
             Schumman Piano Concerto A minor....

Hope this helps
Succes!
Lizz

[thalbergmad]

I'm more of a Liszt-Scriabin-Ravel-Messiaen lover and I'm also interested in contemporary music, but I don't have any problem with playing classical composers (they just simply aren't as "intuitive" for me as the others and I think they're harder to play well).

Once you enter into the 20th century, i begin to get a little out of my depth.

I am sure there are concertos of more recent times that would suit you perfectly, but regretfully, i do not have the knoweldge to advise.

However, i am sure someone like retro could come up with something appropriate.

Thal

[rachmaninova]

Once you enter into the 20th century, i begin to get a little out of my depth.

I am sure there are concertos of more recent times that would suit you perfectly, but regretfully, i do not have the knoweldge to advise.

However, i am sure someone like retro could come up with something appropriate.

Thal

Thal, I don't want to put aside pre-20th century repertoire. I know from other threads that 20th-21th century music is a little out of your depth, but you're the expert on almost anything until early 20th century music and I appreciate the really extensive list you brought to this thread.    I do want to find an interesting concerto, where I can develop my tone, phrasing, my interpretation skills but don't really want to stress my hands and forearms at this time. So, Lizz, Schumann is a little bit of a stretch right now (my former-former teacher always thought that it would suit my hands perfectly and mostly my character), and I guess Saint-Saens would also be stressful. But I hope to work on schumann's Concerto in the future. As for Beethoven's No. 1 Concerto, it's a possibility, but I have to look closer at the score.

By this time, I'm just checking all possilibities. Despite my biased taste for the previosly cited composers (Liszt, Scriabin, Ravel and Messiaen), I'm opened to all kinds of style and period because I know that any work is a challenge to overcome and I'll learn a lot from it. The only limitation is that the concerto has to be written after 1777. Before this post, I was aiming to choose between Mozart's Coronation, B flat and C minor concerti, but they are so overplayed that I wanted to at least discover other obscure gems which are suited for my small hands and sore forearm.

Thank you all for being so considerate and I hope this thread can help other students or teachers too.

Best regards,
Carla

[rachmaninova]

BTW, Thal, you didn't got to tell me what does it mean to have a TTTT seal of approval... I got a little bit curious about that Woelfl concerto. 

[communist]

Rautavaara piano concerto no.3 "Gift of Dreams". If Ashkenazy has large enough hands to play anyone does.

[sharon_f]

How about the Mendelssohn G minor? There are some octave passages at the very beginning of the first movement and at the end of the 3rd but not a lot. And I don't believe there are any stretches larger than an octave in any of the movements. (I could be wrong, it's been a while since I've looked at the score.)  And the whole concerto is extremely pianistic.

[thalbergmad]

BTW, Thal, you didn't got to tell me what does it mean to have a TTTT seal of approval... I got a little bit curious about that Woelfl concerto. 

The more T's, the better i think it is .

Thal

[rachmaninova]

The more T's, the better i think it is .

Thal

Well, since all the remaining concerti had zero or one T, the Woelfl one must be totally awesome (I'm in a Barney Stinson mood)... Just gotta find it! 
Thank you, Sharon, for the Mendelssohn tip. I'll check it out!

[thalbergmad]

Well, a concerto has to be really good to be awared a T 

The Salieri would probably get a minus T.

To be honest, i have not extensively studied all of those i posted as i prefer the proto and early romantics. I like concertos where the piano is in prominence as opposed to those where it takes a lesser role, although i am not averse to superb orchestration.

Thal

[retrouvailles]

Maybe it would be wise to look at some of the more modern concertos that Alicia de Larrocha has played. She has incredibly small hands, so I think that would be a safe bet. One concerto I have in mind is the Concierto Breve by Catalan composer Xaver Montsalvatge. It's a nice, happy concerto with some spiky but still very tonal harmonies. Also, I like the idea of the Rautavaara Piano Concerto No. 3. I have played through that concerto and it doesn't make many big demands on the soloist, both in terms of difficulty and of span.

[rachmaninova]

Maybe it would be wise to look at some of the more modern concertos that Alicia de Larrocha has played. She has incredibly small hands, so I think that would be a safe bet. One concerto I have in mind is the Concierto Breve by Catalan composer Xaver Montsalvatge. It's a nice, happy concerto with some spiky but still very tonal harmonies. Also, I like the idea of the Rautavaara Piano Concerto No. 3. I have played through that concerto and it doesn't make many big demands on the soloist, both in terms of difficulty and of span.

Thank you, Retrouvailles!
I once played some spanish songs by Montsalvatge. I'll probably like his concerto.
Also, I simply adooooooooore Rautavaara. I didn't know that this concerto could suit my hands. 

[thalbergmad]

See, i knew retro would come out with the answer.

Thal

[lostinidlewonder]

I remember seeing on television many years ago this lady with incredibly small hands play the Grieg piano concerto.