Recital programme.

[birba]

In two months i will be giving a recital here in the town-village where i live.   It's like a yearly thing, part of a small concert season that is organized here.  At any rate i am really in a turmoil about what to programme.  I feel like i have to give what they want along with what i want.  But i don't want to do the gershwin rhapsody(piano solo version) again, or the gershwin song book or the moonlight etc,  so i started out with the idea of  religious inspired compositions.  Beginning with some bach chorale preludes (which i would have had to learn from scratch) followed by messiaen and liszt.  This came about because the only sure piece i want to perform is the benediction de dieu dans la solitude. Something i've been working on for a long time but never performed.  But then i began to think that the programme was a bit much perhaps for this particular audience, with 3 pieces from the vingt regardes, which are a big part of my musical life.  Then i thought, well, maybe just one messiaen and the benediction in the second half and beethoven in the first half: 32 variations and the waldstein.  But then i thought that's still a bit heavy.  Why don't i do the ginastera sonata in the first half preceded by the bach-busoni chaconne.  These are all pieces i've already done, albeit some time ago.  Then i thought i better leave out messiaen all together and just do liszt in the second half. Religiously inspired: the st francis leggend, funerailles and the benediction.  Now i really don't know what to do.  And i have to,decide.  Ideas please with these ideas i've tossed around here. Thanks.  Only 60-75 minutes of actual playing time with a small intermission.  A recital that an amateur audience can appreciate - without resorting to liebestraum and moonlight and gershwin songbook.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

You know your audience better than I do, but it seems dangerously heavy. Benediction is lovely, but it's potentially a long piece for an audience to sit through, so I would avoid having too many pieces of such dimensions. How about some Bach, the Ginastera sonata, a Messiaen or two and end the first half on a lighter note with Rage over a lost penny?

A recital that an amateur audience can appreciate - without resorting to liebestraum and moonlight and gershwin songbook.

That's actually been the rationale behind my apparently eccentric programming of transcriptions over the years. Get popular, familiar material in, but in a relatively musically credible manner. Thinking of which, why don't you resurrect (so to speak) your Isolde's Liebestod and put it amongst the Liszt? I'm sure I quite liked the one you had in the audition room a while back. Thalberg's Casta diva for an encore?  

[birba]

Thanks for the input.  You've confirmed what i sort of felt about this recital.  However, the only piece i refuse to give up is the benediction!  That i absolutely have to play.  To me it's more than lovely.  I don't think i've ever felt this strongly about a single composition in my entire life!  And i'm aware not everyone feels the same way about it.  A colleague of mine calls it "home home on the range"! (In effect, the melody  IS the same the first four bars...)
But i do like the idea of the operatic transcriptions.  And i do have that norma.  This audience has already heard the beethoven rage.  Twice.  You've convinced me to do away with the religious theme in pthe second part.  i'm a sucker for those monographic programmes.  More interesting to the performer than the audience, i suppose.   
Thanks again.  I really appreciated your thoughts.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

However, the only piece i refuse to give up is the benediction!  That i absolutely have to play.  To me it's more than lovely.  I don't think i've ever felt this strongly about a single composition in my entire life! 

In which case, you absolutely should play it! I think it's a difficult piece to put across, but if you have strong views on a piece, I think that tends to communicate itself to an audience.

[liszt1022]

How about Berlioz/Liszt - March to the scaffold?
I have my own trimmed arrangement that's about half as difficult, but still effective. It's really fun to play and audience-friendly.

[birba]

March to the scaffold?!  Doesn't sound too promising...
Seriously, i've never heard it!  Have to look it up.  But learning something new and  difficult at  this point is problematic.  In fact, someone suggested the ave maria schubert-liszt, but after looking at it, it's just not feasible in two months.