Suggestion for 20th century piece

[rachorbach]

doing my ARCT next june and ive decided on the others already

any help suggesting me a good piece for AR? 
my repetoire currently is:
Bach - WTC I - g major (amost there)
Beethoven - Pathetique sonata complete (done)
Chopin - Ballade no2 (half way through)
Rach - Prelude op23 no4 (havent started yet)
 ~ LIST E ~
Chopin - revolutionary etude (done)

yeah i know two chopin doesnt really work well...maybe some suggestions for another etude too?  hopefully something i can cope with

btw for 20th century not something tooo atonal..was considering prokofiev suggestion diabolique or scherzo, barber nocturne or gargoyles liebermann

[borealis]

Try Rhene Jaque's Deuxieme Suite, if it will fit into your allotted time.  It's Canadian content, so the CRTC won't give you such a hard time.

[communist]

Khachaturian Poeme in C-sharp minor.

[nanabush]

Good repertoire choice!  You've got a lot of contrasting stuff in there, and that's what the examiners want to hear.

The Sonata and the Ballade are quite substantial pieces, but the Bach and the other Chopin are done in a flash.  Try to find something at least 5 minutes for the List E.  I'd suggest the Danzas Argentinas by Ginastera.  Everyone says it's over played at exams/competitions/auditions, but there's so much freedom with these pieces.  I played those for the ARCT and did quite well with them.  The set is around 7-8 minutes long.

I took a look at the Gargoyles while I was learning some stuff the past year for a competition; I'm not familiar with the slower one (#2), but #1, #3 and #4 are ridiculous.  I wish they put the suite as an LRCM choice, because I'm going to try working at that exam pretty soon.  If you pair #2 (which is only 2 pages, and is a little slower) with one of the other ones, that would be your best choice.  If you like #1 and #4 for example, your hands will die before you can play the Revolutionary etude.

Go on the CMC website, you can hear clips of a ton of the stuff in the syllabus with the CMC mark beside it.  There's a lot of really interesting stuff that I kind of overlooked.

I leap Through the Sky with Stars by Alexina Louie is an awesome piece... I'm going to ask my prof if I can work on it this year.  Check out a youtube vid of it; that would be a solid choice for a list E.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, you could try the Prokofiev Toccata (which could also easily make it on the LRCM syllabus) or his 3rd sonata; both are incredible pieces.

[rachorbach]

thanks for suggestion everyone i guess i really need to expand on my listening repetoire!!!
i'll definitely check our the khachuturian and the suite

Good repertoire choice!  You've got a lot of contrasting stuff in there, and that's what the examiners want to hear.

The Sonata and the Ballade are quite substantial pieces, but the Bach and the other Chopin are done in a flash.  Try to find something at least 5 minutes for the List E.  I'd suggest the Danzas Argentinas by Ginastera.  Everyone says it's over played at exams/competitions/auditions, but there's so much freedom with these pieces.  I played those for the ARCT and did quite well with them.  The set is around 7-8 minutes long.

I took a look at the Gargoyles while I was learning some stuff the past year for a competition; I'm not familiar with the slower one (#2), but #1, #3 and #4 are ridiculous.  I wish they put the suite as an LRCM choice, because I'm going to try working at that exam pretty soon.  If you pair #2 (which is only 2 pages, and is a little slower) with one of the other ones, that would be your best choice.  If you like #1 and #4 for example, your hands will die before you can play the Revolutionary etude.

Go on the CMC website, you can hear clips of a ton of the stuff in the syllabus with the CMC mark beside it.  There's a lot of really interesting stuff that I kind of overlooked.

I leap Through the Sky with Stars by Alexina Louie is an awesome piece... I'm going to ask my prof if I can work on it this year.  Check out a youtube vid of it; that would be a solid choice for a list E.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, you could try the Prokofiev Toccata (which could also easily make it on the LRCM syllabus) or his 3rd sonata; both are incredible pieces.

haha ive already checked out the ginastera danza argentina...sounds pretty bizarre to me even though i like the last dance...and yeah dunno if i have a lot of time to work on E....any suggestion for another etude? or should i stick with two chopins? 

[antichrist]

if you like chopin stick with chopin,you will play better

[rachorbach]

hmm i took a liking in chopin but now im kinda regretting playing two of his pieces...is liszt un sospiro hard  ...might try it

and yeah btw where can find the recording of those pieces suggested above? or even sheet music? thanks 

[gorucan]

If you seek for virtuoso etude from 20th century, I suggest Ligeti

He has some great etudes, like Devil's Stairs, or Autumn.
If you want good recording, find Aimard .

[nanabush]

Lol I actually played "Un Sospiro" as my concert etude, and got 9/10.  I REALLY enjoyed learning it, and most of it came pretty quickly.  Some left hand stuff and the cadenzas are kinda tough to get clear - they didn't say anything about me f**king up the second cadenza, and they mostly gave suggestions for phrasing, voicing etc.

If you like that piece, it shouldn't be too bad; you can definitely play it with the stuff you have.  I found the left hand near the end of the Bach Prelude in G major (which I also did for the exam) tougher than a lot of the left hand in the Liszt... you probably know which part of the prelude I'm talking about - IT's a nasty section that took more time than most of the tough parts in Un Sospiro.

---
Suggestion Diabolique is a really cool piece.  I wish I could play it... might be another suggestion for my prof 

Shchedrin's "Basso Ostinato" is good too.  I only heard of it recently, after it was added to the new syllabus.  Looks very tough though.

Bartok has a lot of safe repertoire for a List E.  My friend did one of the Roumanian Dances and got 14 or 14.5/15.  The Allegro Barbaro is also good; it's very tonal too.

Muczynski "Desperate Measures" is AWESOME.  Another I only recently heard.  Go to the "Yamaha e-piano competition" website, and go to the 2008 archived videos.  One kid (he's like 13) plays it as well as the Scriabin 5th sonata, and a bunch of other crazy stuff.



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For another Etude... I've played in the past few years the following from the ARCT:

Chopin:  Op 10 #5, Op 10 #9
Liszt: Un Sospiro, Gnomenreigen
Rachmaninoff: Op 33 #7 (Eb major), Op 39 #6 (A minor), Op 39 #8 (D minor)

Gnomenreigen is a great piece, but might be overplayed for exams (as would be Un Sospiro).

The Chopin's are two of the easier ones which you could probably learn without any trouble.

I'd suggest the Eb major Rach Etude; a brilliant piece, underplayed, short and sweet.  I played it at a recital 3 years ago.

The A minor I learned for a competition; the most difficult thing I've ever learned, and I wouldn't suggest it for an exam lol.  It's awesome, and the first half goes well.  It's a matter of keeping your stamina after an entire 30-40 minutes of repertoire, being able to hammer out all of those awkward, strange, tough-as-hell chords on the second last page.  I spent so much time finding little ways to remember all of the inner notes to those damn chords.  It sounds SO amazing on a grand piano though!  The low A's booming in the intro, and again in the outro.  I got good comments on this one, but the judge noticed my 'inaccurate' chords at some points haha.

The D minor is ok, but I found it about as tough as the A minor, because I can't play legato double notes without completely blurring the piece with pedal.  That, and the "tempo piu vivo" on page 5 is ridiculous, plain and simple.

Pick something you enjoy playing; if you really like the Chopin Etude, keep it.  One of my friends had 3 pieces in closely related minor keys (something like C minor, C# minor and G# minor), each about the same pace.  That's probably worse than playing 2 by the same composer.  Rach etudes are loads of fun; the most enjoyable pieces I'd have to say I learned, but they do take a lot of persistence [and large hands].

[rachorbach]

WOOOT!!! thanks for the suggestions  think i'll tackle un sospiro tho...cuz i actually have the score!! hopefully it wont be too difficult for me tho

and i've look over bartok...i'll listen to basso ostinato - sounds interesting!! desperate measures i've already look through too...sounds a tad to crazy and hard for me tho...isnt that a variation on pagaini?

anywhere where i can get recordings or score of the above suggestions tho? thanks!

[nanabush]

go to "www.imslp.org" and you will find pretty much anything written until about 50 or so years ago.  All of the Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Prokofiev, etc is on there

There is also "vkgfx.com/scores" which has a couple things that I couldn't find on the imslp, such as the Ligeti etudes.

The Alexina Louie stuff you'd have to buy a book, or be lucky enough to find an illegal copy online.

[rachorbach]

thanks for the replies everyone!!!  ...i've decided on tackling barber's nocturne cuz i decided i need some balance for my repetoire in terms of keys and tempo....

and other suggestions will be welcomed of course!!! btw anyone tried the nocturne already and got some tips? maybe memorization? ty!!

[burstroman]

Leo Ornstein wrote lots of unusual works.  You can find his music on the web.