I need help choosing some piano pieces that I can learn during the summer

[rob00996]

While I am on summer break from college, I thought I would learn some more repertoire that are slightly above my current level of playing. This past year in college (by the way, I am also a sophomore music major), I have learned the following pieces:

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 1st Movement (learned in about 5 - 6 months)
The Sunken Cathedral - Debussy (learned in about 3 - 4 months)
Toccata - Aram Khachaturian (learned in 4 months)
Chopin Etude Op 25 No 7 (learned in 2.5 - 3 months)

Learned = The amount of time it took for me to work on memorization, interpretation, and learning to play the song up to the composers desired speed.

Any help would greatly be appreciated. Any time period is fine also.

[invictious]

You should check out Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives and his Sarcasms. It would be quite interesting to work on them.

Do check out some of Rachmaninov's Preludes, such as Op.23 No.5 in G minor. Also try Scriabin's preludes (op.11 or op.74 whichever suits your tastes) and his etudes.

Albeniz's Iberia are quite interesting, although I personally have not tried them out. I will, someday.

Finally, do not forget Ravel's Sonatine. It is a lovely piece to work on.

[nanabush]

You've got a pretty good balance of stuff there!

I'd second Ravel's Sonatine - although it's a bit higher of a level, it shouldn't be TOO bad  
The textures in this one make it a really good piece to do thorough work on.  It's a big enough piece to stand alone, and there are so many subtle details that give you lots to work on if you play it.

Also, take a look at Rachmaninoff's G# minor prelude - it's roughly the same difficulty (has a few tougher bits in the middle), but is an awesome piece to learn and play.  The G minor is pretty damn intense.  The G major, C minor, Eb major and D major are also really good ones (again, they can seem complex in some spots, but aren't over-the-top difficult).

Ermm... Debussy's preludes are really good.  If you don't want to do another one, then take a look at his Images.  From these, my favorites are 'Cloches a Travers les Feuilles', and 'Reflets dans l'eau'.

You don't have a baroque piece from this year   , maybe take a look at a prelude and fugue or a French suite by Bach?  

Chopin's Nocturnes are also really good.  Op 9 #3, Op 27 #1 and #2, and Op 48 #1 are cool (and you're probably pretty good at random running scale passages over a repeated figure from the Op 25 #7)

Here are some more random pieces that are worth looking at:

Brahms Rhapsodies Op 79
Gerswhin 3 Preludes
Schumann ABEGG variations
Ginastera Danzas Argentinas
Ravel - Tombeau de Couperin (the prelude and the rigaudon are good... the toccata is amazing but probably a bit too difficult)

[biscuitroxy12]

Hmm. You don't have the best balance of stuff here (no offense to you, just my opinion.) Well lets see, my summer is 2 months long so let's assume yours is two months long also. Try a Bach Prelude and/or Fugue.  SOme are advanced and take many months to learn, but some are smaller and easier to learn.

[invictious]

Or definitely try out Bach's Toccata in E Minor BWV914. I highly recommend Glenn Gould's recording.

[rob00996]

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions! They really did help out alot. I think I have decided work on the Ravel Sonatine and Schumann's Abegg Variations. I am also going to be working on Rachmaninoff's B-flat Major Prelude and Bach's Chromatic Fantasia in D minor for the fall also.

What are some the things I take note of when working on the Ravel Sonatine and the Schumann Abegg Variations?