Brevard audition

[chopingurl]

Hey everyone....I don't know if any of you are very familiar with the Brevard music center (north carolina) but i'm auditionig for their summer music festival the end of February and I have no clue what to play!! The requirements are 2 solo pieces of different styles that toal 7-9 minutes. the pieces I've been working on are:

Mozart's Rondo alla turca (sonata in A maj. kv331)
Debussy's  Clair de lune
Beethoven's moonlight sonata (presto agitato mov.)
Chopin prelude in C# minor (opus 64 #2)


which of these would be the best combination to play??
another question: I know these pieces aren't as technically challenging as they should be for this audition  should i not even try this year,maybe wait till I have gotten more advanced pieces??  please give me any suggestions,this is my first audiion and i'm terrified!

[Chris_Rossoni]

maybe its just me, but the 3rd movement of the moonlight sonata is very hard....    This is what i would do...   I would practice this piece and just make music with it.   This would show your musical maturity.   And the other one to pick couldn't be mozarts because i think that would make two pieces of the same era.   I don't know either of the other two pieces so i can't help you there.    I have a question, have you listened to any recordings of the 3rd movement of the moonlight sonata?

[Colette]

personally, i'd skip the beethoven. it's much harder to pull off convincingly, and tackle the mozart instead. i'd probably pair it with the chopin prelude, it's more challenging than clair de lune.
if you have the time to learn a new, more difficult program, i have a few suggestions:
why not try a hayden sonata? #21 in f M is a great piece, as is #17 in g M. If you like debussy, try his ballade. it's played infrequently, but it's really lyrical. or if you want a bigger challenge, you can play his ondine, which is gorgeous. another good thing to play? samuel barber's excursions. they don't take  long to learn and are fun.

[Cynthia]

I would try to use more original pieces.   I say this because from my own experience, the Moonlight Sonata and Chopin Prelude are so well know that judges sometimes grade harder than they would a less well known piece.  If you play really well though, those pieces are great.  Good luck

[sary2106]

Well, here's my opinion...   Don't try to learn NEW pieces... from experience, it doesn't work too well to learn them right before an audition. Play something you already have learned.

I would suggest that you play the Beethoven only if you can play it very well, and convincingly - with all the techinical skill and emotional power Beethoven requires.

I would play the Mozart only if you can play it differently than everyone else plays it. Soooooooo many people play that piece; so try something new with it - i.e. no pedal, etc.

Clair de Lune is a very beautiful piece, but, like the Mozart, it also played very frequently. Unless you play it with confidence and beauty and a very special "impressionistic" tone, I would advise you not to play it. Don't give them a student performance of such a well-known piece - make it artistic.

Can you play the Chopin with all the emotion that it is meant to be played with? I am not as familiar with this piece as I am with the Debussy and the Mozart. It might be a good choice!

My top picks would probably be the Beethoven and the Chopin.... best of luck!

Sarah