Recommend me some reportoire

[alpacinator1]

I'm currently working on Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata (started with movement 3 and have almost learned it all, but I'm planning on doing the whole sonata) and Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. Some other pieces I have learned are the Moonlight 3rd mvt, Pathetique (1st and 2nd movement, I'll add the 3rd at some point), and Rach transcription of Flight of the Bumblebee.

That should give you a good sense of what level I'm at. As you can see, the pieces I've learned are very common. There are a lot of pieces I would love to play, like Chopin's harder etudes and scherzos, Liszt etudes (I like Gnomenreigen in particular), and Beethoven's Hammerklavier. However, these are all too difficult for me at this point, so I would like to flesh out my repertoire at my current level with some less obvious/overplayed pieces to help get me over that hump.

[redbaron]

Which composers do you like besides the ones you've already mentioned?

[classicalnhiphop]

I don't see any Baroque or contemporary.  How about some Bach or Prokofiev.

[cabbynum]

Gnomenreigen
isnt all that hard. I bet you could do it. I never learned it all the way through because it wasnt a piece i was working on. Its really not that hard. Once you get used to it.

I would also suggest baroque, start with an easier prelude and fugue and then work from there.

I would say learning another chopin etude would be fun for you, but only after you learn a prelude and fugue. Or a mozart sonata

[alpacinator1]

Which composers do you like besides the ones you've already mentioned?

I love Alkan, but that's out of the question for now. Other than that, I'm not so sure. Most of what I listen to are the most famous/obvious composers. I was hoping to learn of some new composers that I would enjoy.

I don't see any Baroque or contemporary.  How about some Bach or Prokofiev.

For Bach, I played his Italian Concerto (first movement only) a few years back, and also did some 2-part Inventions as a kid. I've never played any Prokofiev. What pieces does he have that are around my level?

Gnomenreigen
isnt all that hard. I bet you could do it. I never learned it all the way through because it wasnt a piece i was working on. Its really not that hard. Once you get used to it.

I would also suggest baroque, start with an easier prelude and fugue and then work from there.

I would say learning another chopin etude would be fun for you, but only after you learn a prelude and fugue. Or a mozart sonata

Well, alright. I think I'll wait a bit before starting on Gnomenreigen, but that's reassuring. Surprisingly, I've never played any preludes and fugues, so I'll give that a shot. Fugues kind of scare me, to be honest.

Does Mozart have any good sonatas that are around my level? I remember playing a very easy sonata by him a long time ago. It was in C and had a very famous, recognizable melody, but I don't remember the name of it. I've also played Rondo Alla Turca.

[cabbynum]

thats a mozart sonata for you

finish the alla turca!

If you havent done a prelude and fugue then start with the first one or second one then you can judge the difficulty a bit better.

now for some alkan I would reccomend.

and

those alkan pieces arent impossible. Infact much of his work is doable, just stay away from the etudes.

[j_menz]

If you want to explore some of the more accessible Alkan, Billaudot publishes a collection compiled by Ronald Smith called Alkan in Miniature, which is a nice introduction.

That aside, you really do need to expand out from the Romantic.  And that's a vast field.

[redbaron]

Maybe some Tchaikovsky or Dvorák? Brahms would also be good.

[symphonicdance]

Waldstein may not be technically very very difficult (still a technically challenging piece), but in UK, this is a fellowship examination piece.  Pathetique and Moonlight belong to associateship level.  This is to say, I guess, it tests you musical skills and knowledge of Beethoven (in addition to technical skills.

I suspect it would be good to widen your reportoire by exploring different composers instead. In addition to those works mentioned by others already, you may wish to play some Bartok, Barber, Copland, Faure, Messian, Poulenc, Rzewski, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Szymanowski, if haven't before.  Some of their more famous works become "standard reportoire" to many pianists.  You can take a look at the exam syllabi of different exam boards to shortlist and prioritise.  There will be lesser-known pieces written by lesser-known composers, too.

Good luck!

[carpbear]

Listen to piano music of many composers - a LOT of it -- and then make your decisions based on what appeals to you.

You'll become familiar with a lot of repertoire, and you'll develop your own taste and preferences in music -- which is part and parcel of what becoming a musician is all about. 

[alpacinator1]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I've started working on the first Prelude and Fugue from WTC 1. I sightread the Prelude without any trouble, but as I had suspected it would, the Fugue is giving me some trouble. It doesn't have any technical difficulties for me, but those intertwined melodies are something else. Back when I was taking lessons, my teacher never taught me any Bach fugues. I suspect she just didn't want to go through all the trouble of teaching me how to play this very strange form of music. Better late than never, I suppose.

I've mostly played Beethoven because that's what I'm best at. I'm not so good at Bach, Mozart, or more modern composers like Debussy. I'm still making decent progress on the Waldstein. I can play the Allegretto (?) section of the third movement from memory, with only a few mistakes and decent musicality. The Presto section is... well, it's not quite there yet, but it's coming. I've also just started playing around with the first movement. I suspect the second movement will be quite straightforward. The Revolutionary has been on the back burner for a while. It's stretching the limits of my technical skill, so I think I'll come back to it a bit later. I think I'll pick one more piece to work on for now, probably something short and not terribly hard. I'll be checking back on this thread in case I get any more advice.

[thesixthsensemusic]

I strongly recommend you do finish off these sonatas you learned one movement from. A sonata is a work based on some thematic material and one just cannot tell the 'whole story' by playing one movement. Especially the Waldstein, as it's basically 2 movements (the slow middle part is an intro to the finale) that complement eachother very well.

But do whatever you like in that regard, even if you miss out some, a single movement is still a fully functional piece.

How about these:
Sergei Bortkiewicz - Ballade

Robert Schumann - Piano Sonata op. 22 (concert sans orchestre)
Ludwig Schunke - Piano Sonata
Mikhail Glinka - Variations on a theme from Bellini's Il Capuleti e Montecchi
Julius Reubke - Scherzo
Johannes Brahms - Variations On A Hungarian Theme
Wagner/Liszt - Isoldes Liebestod
Fryderyk Chopin - Rondo a la Krakowiak (arrangement for piano solo by Th. Kullak - can be found on IMSLP)

?