Actual Level of Pieces for University/Conservatory vs TCL/RSM Repertoire

[vansh]

According to Trinity College London's website, the different diplomas they grant is supposed to represent:

ATCL: the level of performance for a first-year undergraduate at a university or conservatory.
LTCL: the level of performance for completing an undergraduate degree at at a university or conservatory.
FTCL: the level of performance for completing a graduate (masters) degree at a university or convervatory.

Based on the similarity of the repertoire to DipABRSM, LRSM, and FRSM, I assume these have similar connotations, even though I'm not sure if they explicitly state that.

My question is, if you were to audition for a (reputable) university or conservatory today, would these lists be fairly accurate in terms of the level of pieces that they would expect? I.e. that you would audition with pieces on the level of ATCL to be accepted, you would perform pieces on the level of LTCL for your senior/graduating recital, and pieces on the level of FTCL if you were doing a graduate degree?

I guess my question stems from that I played pieces like Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody 11 (LTCL), Chopin's Black Key Etude (LTCL/LRSM) Chopin's Revolutionary Etude (LTCL/LRSM), and Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu (ATCL) in high school, so I'm surprised that they show up on these lists. Especially since I was a pretty unremarkable piano player -- didn't win competitions or anything like that, though I passed California's Certificate of Merit at advanced level during my senior year, and I'm in engineering so not doing anything music-related career-wise. So it's not as if I was one of those play-like-Mozart prodigies or anything.

I don't know if the obvious reply is "yes, but a university/conservatory would expect you to play them at a university/conservatory level and not a high school level" in terms of technique, musicality, finger control, phrasing, etc. After working on bringing the Fantaisie-Impromptu up to performance level more recently, I can definitely see the difference between the high school "look-how-fast-I-can-play notes" mentality versus trying to bring out the various subtleties of each piece.

[snappingturtle]

I would say that in some ways, the *TCL diploma repertoire lists may be more lenient than those for university or conservatory auditions.  For example, many undergraduate admissions auditions require a substantial Romantic work such as a Chopin Ballade or Scherzo, a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody or Ballade, or a Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue.  Almost all of these appear on the LTCL list but almost none of them appear on the ATCL list.  Undergraduate admissions auditions also often require a fast etude, and these appear largely on the LTCL list rather than the ATCL list as well.

But also, some repertoire on the LTCL list would in many cases be perfectly acceptable in a graduate-level admissions audition, such as a Bach Toccata, a Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, or any of the Beethoven Opus 31 piano sonatas. 

So a short answer to your question: no, I don't think there is a clean one-to-one mapping of ATCL/LTCL/FTCL to undergraduate admissions/senior recital/graduate admissions repertoire.