Help with Chopin four ballades recital

[gregwer]

Well, me and my friend are planning to do a recital (my first serious recital) with the 4 ballades of Chopin. I'll play the 1st and the 3rd, and he the 2nd and the 4th(we'll alternate).

But i would like to know which pieces would be good to start the recital, since we are students, we have in our repertoire some Bach Preludes and Fugues (between the two , we have the 2,10,15 P&F's from Book 1 and the 24th from Book 2), but i'm not sure if it would be a good mix, we could try also starting with 2 Haydn sonatas (Hob XVI:50 & 52), and then there would be a pause and we could play the ballades on the 2nd part of the recital.
Then there would be another short pause and in the 3rd part i'm planning to play 2 Chopin Nocturnes, and he The Mephisto Waltz.

So it would be like this:

1st Part:

-Bach Preludes and Fugues or Haydn Sonatas

2nd Part:

-The four ballades

3rd Part:

-2 Chopin Nocturnes (op. 48 no.1 and op.62 no.2)
-Liszt's Mephisto Waltz no.1
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So what do you think, would it be a good idea to start with the Preludes and Fuges? or Maybe with the Haydn Sonatas?

[danhuyle]

What about a Chopin recital of 4 Ballades 4 Scherzi? The 4 Scherzi are easy to memorize, and if you can play Ballades well, then the Scherzi shouldn't be a problem.

How about

Part 1
Bach Prelude and Fugues
Haydn Sonata

Part 2
Liszt - Mephisto Waltz
Chopin - Nocturne

Part 3
Chopin 4 Ballades

Other combinations

Haydn and Chopin
Bach, Haydn and Chopin

[juliantoha624]

Hi Gregwer,

Okay, I don't know about you, but in my opinion, the 4 ballades is a massive program in itself. If you're planning on adding 2 Haydn Sonatas, a few nocturnes, and the Liszt, you're going to lose your audience.  Always leave your audience wanting more. 

My suggestion is to just do the Haydn Sonatas on the first half (the 2 equal about 40 minutes) and the 4 ballades on the 2nd half.  That's 80 minutes of music which is about 1 hour and 40 minutes with intermission and breaks. 

Just as another point to consider, as a listener it's very taxing to take in all 4 ballades.  You wouldn't want to put much more after that 4th ballade.  That's usually the end of a concert.  Either way, good luck with everything.

[werq34ac]

Personally, I would start with Bach/Haydn, then the nocturne 48/1. 2nd part 4 ballades. And then reserve your Liszt and the other Chopin nocturne as encores (you probably do need encore pieces if you can pull off these 4 monumental pieces). 4 ballades is a lot of music and adding a Bach and or Haydn and a nocturne is a full recital right there.

[gregwer]

Wow thank you guys for your responses , yeah now that i think about it, maybe i'll just divide the recital into 2 parts, the first half the haydn sonatas, and the 2nd part, the ballades, as you say we could leave the liszt, and the nocturnes (or it could be a brahms intermezzo) for the encore .