40 minute pieces

[magic_hands]

Hi all fellow pianists

Next year I have a 40 minute performance as my final exam from college, and I have been fussing over what to play for the past month for so (ideally it would be a single piece, like Alkan's Le Quatre Ages, but I'm not sure about this one...) I'm having difficulty finding 40 minute piano pieces. This year I'm playing:

Bach Prelude and Fugue I Book I
Alkan Etude Op.35 No.7
Rachmaninoff Moments Musical 3 & 4

Rachminoff's 2nd sonata is undoubtely too difficult for me, I'm not too interested in the large Schumann piano works and I don't know if I'd have the patience with Bach Partita No. 6. What would you guys recommend to look at?

Thank you

[quantum]

Any reason why you want a single piece?   Juries usually like to hear at least two contrasting selections. 



Medtner: Night Wind Sonata

Medtner: Forgotten Melodies 1, 2, or 3.  (If you do all the pieces in a cycle)

Beethoven: Op 106

Chopin: Preludes Op. 28 (all of them)

Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Paganini

Franck: Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

[magic_hands]

Thanks, I'll be checking those out! I've always had a preference for larger works. But you're probably right about what the examiners want...

[franz_]

I like the idea of one single piece as well. Look for the larger Schubert sonatas. The Chopin preludes. Hammerklavier
Why can't you do a piano concerto? Many of them are around 40 minutes.

[scott13]

How about Brahms 3rd Sonata ? I don't think it's quite 40 minutes but it is a 5 movement monster and would be ideal for a recital. His first Sonata in C is also under played and beautiful and at around 25 minutes, you can use another substantial work to contrast it ?

[magic_hands]

Wow I was completely oblivious to the Brahms 3rd Sonata! Awesome piece. I will definately consider that. It's a shame there's so little time....

[scott13]

Also listen to the other 2, both beautiful works and hardly ever performed. Especially #1 , my favourite of the 3. Good luck.

[contrapunctus]

Muss Pictures

[sharon_f]

Goldberg or Diabelli.

[minor9th]

Try Claude Loyola Allgén's Fantasy...it's about 40'.

[pianoplayjl]

Liszt sonata in B minor.

[scott13]

Liszt sonata in B minor.

Not close to 40 minutes, most recording i have sit between 25-30 minutes

[49410enrique]

hmm this is about the length you're looking for, pretty cool piece

 Piano Sonata no.2, "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860"

Composer(s) :  Ives, Charles  (1874-1954)
 
 
Work type(s) :  Piano solo
 
 
Duration :  43:49
Composition date(s) :  1910-1915
 
 
 
Movements or Excerpts
  Name Average duration
1  Emerson  16:17  
2  Hawthorne  10:32  
3  The Alcotts  5:36  
4  Thoreau  11:24  
 

[pianoplayjl]

Why not Alkan sonata? I think that choice should be Ok. 

[scott13]

The Ives sonata is horrendously difficult and requires some very odd technical demands, one such is to play blocks of notes, where by you use a 12 inch  (i think) block of wood to create tone clusters.

For a recital i wouldn't go near Ives as it seems to abstract to assess you on musical grounds.

Although reading your current repertoire i must question whether you could handle such monster works at all?

PS: Always Beethoven Op 106, but given your current repertoire i do not think you could handle the 4th movement.

[49410enrique]

The Ives sonata is horrendously difficult and requires some very odd technical demands, one such is to play blocks of notes, where by you use a 12 inch  (i think) block of wood to create tone clusters.

For a recital i wouldn't go near Ives as it seems to abstract to assess you on musical grounds.

Although reading your current repertoire i must question whether you could handle such monster works at all?

PS: Always Beethoven Op 106, but given your current repertoire i do not think you could handle the 4th movement.

holy katz! great points. i only threw that up since i knew it was an approx "40 minute" work but didn't think through the approachability side of the response..., but wow is there a TON of music in that score. as difficult technically as you describe it, it looks like interpretation of this monster would be just as challenging (i just gave the score the twice over, once wasn't enough to just read along with a recording, lots of black on those pages!)...

i know that Goldberg Variations has tons of opportunity to showcase all sorts of musicality, maybe the op could pick and choose, total play time for the set is about an hour...

Bach - Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen für Cembalo mit 2 Manualen (Goldberg-Variationen) [Goldberg Variations], BWV 988
View work sample
General Information
Composer(s) :  Bach, Johann Sebastian  (1685-1750)
 
 
Work type(s) :  Piano solo
 
 
Duration :  1:04:22
Composition date(s) :  1741-1742
 
 
 

[pianoplayjl]

Goldberg is boring in my opinion.