Better Concerto for competition

[sfff]

Hello, I am a new member here. I am in a non conservatory college, but nevertheless I still take the piano very seriously. Something offered here is an annual concerto competition. I have never played a concerto with orchestra and I dearly wish to do so. But in order to play with orchestra I have to win one of the competitions. Although this is not a conservatory there are a lot of amazing performers here, occasionally world class. I myself am not bad as I have played at Carnegie before, but I am nowhere near professional.

I plan to practice for over a year for this competition, but just so I have  a good chance of winning I want to make it so that I have the options available for me. What I mean is I need to pick a concerto that is difficult enough technically and musically that I stand to have a chance.

I have narrowed my choices down to Beethoven's emperor and Saint Saens no 2. I am a good interpreter of Beethoven and love the concerto, but I wonder if it is not difficult enough. On the other hand I have never played any piano works by Saint-Saens, but know that Saint Saens isnt played as much and is technically monstrous.

So if people could possibly weigh in to help me determine which concerto I should choose I will be inexpressibly grateful.

[furtwaengler]

I have narrowed my choices down to Beethoven's emperor and Saint Saens no 2. I am a good interpreter of Beethoven and love the concerto, but I wonder if it is not difficult enough.

Trust me, it is difficult enough! The last movement has some straight awkward passages to get used to, and it's a piece with more weight and expectation then anything Saint Saens composed. Now all of Saint Saens concerti are a delight to the ear, and you are correct about the technical difficulty of the 2nd (the 5th is my personal favorite...and the recordings by Darre!). But then I think your emphasis should be really what you can give the best musical case for, and something which will keep you interested for a year.

Welcome to pianostreet!

Dave

[prongated]

Well yeah...I think it's actually easier to bring Saint-Saens to 95% than the Beethoven to 80%. In particular I find the 1st movt. the hardest since it requires a great deal of conception to bring it off as something majestic, Emperor-worthy. For competitions it is very tough also because every little slip-up, note or detail, is so obvious.

[sfff]

Thank you so much for the input. I was leaning towards Beethoven, but your reassurance just assured my decision.