Looking for a new "stretch goal"

[saranoya]

Hi everyone,

I've finished learning Chopin's Nocturne n° 19. It was way (and I mean *way*) beyond me when I started, but I feel confident now that I will be able to play it adequately at my upcoming piano exam, which is June 13. This is not to say that my rendition of it rivals any professional pianist's version; of course it doesn't. It's just gotten to a point now where I no longer feel embarrassed just thinking about the idea of playing it in public.

I spent over four months getting to this point. Yes, that's really the way I want to go about this ... So now, I need a piece to take the Nocturne's place. Which is to say, I need something I can get ready to perform in three-four months or so, and which "speaks" to me enough that I will actually be wanting to spend that much time learning it. I've considered doing Mozart (K545), but although that would undoubtedly take me a long time to get up to tempo while preserving the necessary accuracy, evenness and musicality, I fear it would also get old rather quickly. There's a reason Mozart called it an "easy sonata": it is exceedingly predictable.

There is another Chopin piece (Grande Valse Brillante in A minor, opus 34 n° 2) that I tried to tackle last summer, and ultimately dropped because I was running out of time without moving appreciably closer to something I could have presented to my teacher in September without shame. Maybe now, I am closer to where I need to be in order to learn that, and I should give it another try. However, I'd like to avoid doing two major Chopin projects in a row.

So then, someone drew my attention to Rachmaninov's prelude in C# minor (opus 3 n° 2), which fulfils the requirement of "speaking to me" handsomely. But it is probably something that would take me far longer than three months to even just get under my fingers, let alone play the way it was intended.

So I turn to you guys: tell me about the pieces that keep you motivated; the things that you think might not be quite within your (or my) reach yet, but close enough that you can "feel it", so to speak; the ones that inspired you to take up playing the piano in the first place. Maybe if I listen to a bunch of them, I'll find something I really, really want to tackle next.

I will add that I prefer pieces originally written for the piano or one of its ancestors. It's not that I am opposed in principle to piano transcriptions of orchestral suites, to name but one possibility. It's just that if I've heard the original version before, and the original version was written for something other than solo piano, then that will make it harder for me to learn the piano version because of memory interference.

[brogers70]

How about the Prelude and Fugue in C minor from Well Tempered Clavier Book I. It's one of the less difficult fugues with a nice familiar tune. The prelude can sound exciting even if it's not played at lightening speed. Might be a good stretch piece for you.

[visitor]

Have always sorta liked this thing, have had the score out on the piano over year , keep kicking around the idea of playing it, but I'm terribly distsractable, and inevitably some other shiney gem of a piece takes my attention and time, still great little prelude.

[coda_colossale]

As someone who has played all three, I can say that Rachmaninoff- Prelude from Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3 No. 2 in C# minor is easier than Chopin- Nocturne No. 19, Op. 72 No. 1 in E minor, which is easier than Bach- Das Wohltemperierte Klavier Teil I, Prelude&Fugue in C minor.
Have you played anything contrapuntal, like Bach inventions, before? If no, don't even think about playing the P&F.
Is your sight reading bad?
Did you experience motor problems when playing the Nocturne?
If yes, The Prelude will take quite a lot of time to learn and memorize, but it is still manageable. It isn't half as hard as it sounds.

[goldentone]

Have always sorta liked this thing, have had the score out on the piano over year , keep kicking around the idea of playing it, but I'm terribly distsractable, and inevitably some other shiney gem of a piece takes my attention and time, still great little prelude.

I liked the A section.  Thanks for sharing from your secret stash of shiny gems.

[visitor]

I liked the A section.  Thanks for sharing from your secret stash of shiny gems.

I too think the A material is better thought out (always glad to get a new set of ears on Eller), I think the B section shows missed opportunities for thematic transformation and variation to give it a stronger cohesiveness, it sorta loses some of its momentum in the middle. Not Eller's best prelude though, the more Scriabiny ones I think are where its at!

There's talk of Lassman who is recording all his collected piano works (all his recent albums on the Toccatta classics label are great), working to publish new editions of the collected piano works once he finishes recording (supposedly on Toccata's sister print label). Been waiting for that a couple years already...

FYI
https://www.toccataclassics.com/composer-cds.php?ID=391

[saranoya]

Have you played anything contrapuntal, like Bach inventions, before? If no, don't even think about playing the P&F.

I've already learned the C major fugue from WTC I, though I play it slowly, and without ornaments. Before that, the only Bach I'd played were Little Preludes. I did numbers 2, 5 and 6 (I think) from the Notebook for Wilhelm Friedmann Bach. I still play them regularly.

Is your sight reading bad?

My sight reading is epically bad. Anything I can sight-read is likely to come straight out of a level 1 method book.

Did you experience motor problems when playing the Nocturne?

Yes. I spent over a month on just three measures of the Nocturne. If you've played it and are asking about motor problems, you probably know the ones.

The Prelude will take quite a lot of time to learn and memorize, but it is still manageable. It isn't half as hard as it sounds.

Actually, I already have the Prelude memorised. I could write it down on a sheet of blank music paper right now. I'd sing it, if a single human voice could do harmonies. I just can't play it yet.

[saranoya]

eh, never mind