How good is your sightreading?

[rachmaninoff_forever]

What can you sightread?  I've heard of these pianists who were mutants in an experiment gone wrong and can sightread Rachmaninoff's 1st at full speed.

[pytheamateur]

John Ogdon once sight-read Brahms' Second Piano Concerto in a concert.  However, although he had never played it before, he had heard it previously.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

John Ogdon once sight-read Brahms' Second Piano Concerto in a concert.  However, although he had never played it before, he had heard it previously.

How do they manage to do that??!?!  Being able to do something like that is being able to sightread better than I can read words!

[j_menz]

The Brahms is easier to sightread than the Rachmaninioff 1, but still a pretty good effort, especially for a performance!  I sure as hell wouldn't want to try it. 

By being able to sightread a piece, my working definition is that you can play it at speed for the most part, without a lot of mistakes, and with some feeling and attention paid to dynamics etc.  I also mean that it is a piece you have never seen or heard before.

I find it is easier to read some composers than others (some just make more immediate sense).  Things that make reading difficult are very fast passages, lots of accidentals, infrequently encountered keys, large leaps and unfamiliarity with the genre.

That said, I can sightread most grade 7 type pieces, and the odd grade 8. Not always, though.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I find it is easier to read some composers than others (some just make more immediate sense).  Things that make reading difficult are very fast passages, lots of accidentals, infrequently encountered keys, large leaps and unfamiliarity with the genre.

What about pieces that are kinesthetically weird like bach?

[j_menz]

What about pieces that are kinesthetically weird like bach?

I don't find Bach kinaesthetically weird.  I've played most of them for years now, so it's hard to find something "new" to sightread that I haven't played (lots) before.

That said, I recently purchased the Italian Concerto.  I could sightread that straight through, though I may have been slower than required on some of the faster bits (last movement?) (not familiar with it, so no preconceived notion of correct tempo, just relying on previous experience). Total length a bit under 15 mins?

[pytheamateur]

Just some more anecdotes I can think of regarding sightreading.

Liszt is reported to have sight-read Grieg's piano concerto in front of him.

The late Vladimir Krainev sight-read the second piano part of Liszt's Piano Concerto No 1 at a masterclass.


https://inkpot.com/concert/rashkovskiy.html

[mhoffman89]

I can sight-read a bach concerto. lol. I never stop trying though. Even though there's people out there with sight reading way better than me, i keep striving for perfection. I found some pretty decent suggestions on here about sight-reading.