How to go about learning my first concerto

[glavigne]

The concerto in question is Beethoven's op. 15 no. 1. I have about a month and a half to learn the first movement, which I think is plenty of time. Where should I start. Do I listen to a million recordings? I just have no clue where to start digging.

[johnannsb]

write in fingerings, practise slowly ... same as always
stop asking how to learn and sit down and practice like any other piece
...

[amelialw]

for recordings you could listen to Kissin's Brendel's& Argerich's....there are also plenty on youtube

[schubertiad]

When attacking larger works I always start out very very small. Locate what you think looks like the hardest section of the piece. For me, that would probably be the g minor passage work in the development section. Within this section choose the hardest bar. You have now found the hardest bar of the entire piece. Make your first priority to master this one bar. I'm sure if you're at the level of playing concertos then you'll know enough tricks to get this under your fingers fairly easily. Separate hands, rhythms, whatever works for you.

Once that bar is done, find another contrasting section that looks tricky. How about that right hand c major run in octaves? Carry on like this, and by the end of the first day, you should have tackled half a dozen or so bits. It is important that they are sufficiently different, otherwise your brain and fingers are likely to get muddled up. Make a note of every section you have done.

The following day, go back to all the bits you have done. You will more than likely have totally forgotten them, but they will come back much faster and more fluently in a fraction of the time they took on day one. With the remaining time, find a few more problem sections to practice.

After 4 or so days on one bar I often take a break for a few days, and use that time to practice new sections instead. This "squad rotation" ensures that everything no one section gets practiced to much at the expense of any other bit. By the end of a week or two you should find that you know the hard bits of pretty much every section of the piece. You then have to simply fill in the gaps.

I hope this helps!

Ben

[j_menz]

You lesarn a Concerto in the same way you learn any other piece but with the following additional bits:

(I'm assuming you are intending to play it with an orchestra or at least a second piano doubling the orchestral part)

You need to have a pretty good idea of what the orchestra is playing, and how it relates to what you are playing, so do some runs through the orchestral part on the piano and also either play along with some recordings or at least try and play the gist of the orchestral part wherever it is the dominant bit.

You also need to learn your cues so that you don't miss any of your entries.

[49410enrique]

holy smokes you don't have much time! (at least that's how it seems to me, i'd want a minimum of 90 days out for a single movement to be completely ensemble ready/stage ready).

you might want to make sure you hire a very good and patient accompanist/collaborative painist.  you should be rehearsing no later than a full two weeks out from the first stage rehearsal w a conductor.

getting a music minus one CD/DVD (those things people buy as 'recorded' ensemble accompanyment to standard concertos minus the piano to play along) will probably be a great big help too.

other than like above (make sure you can and do practice jumping and falling out of the musica ANYWHERE, that is you should be able to pick up the beat and entrance anywhere in the score so should anything happen you can get back on with no problem/seemlessly). know the reduction and orchestra parts very well. if you ave a gifted reader it woulld even help to be able to play that accomanyment part very well too.

the rest is to treat it like a sonata and learn it like any other pretty much (though to be fair Beethoven does tend to favor larger/longer first movements so it will be the more diffiuclt of the three probably).

[lostinidlewonder]

Practicing with a 2nd piano accompaniment is very important since not everyone can just summon an orchestra whenever they need to practice. It can be challenging to set up if you don't know anyone personally who can accompany well but if you have money to invest I am sure you could hire someone.