Concerto Recommendations?

[thomaspiano]

Hi all,

As the summer begins, so does my goal of beginning to take piano much more seriously. I am 16 years old and finished my grade 10 RCM exam in June with a score of 80% with literally next to no practice. I used to be quite talented, winning many competitions and prizes, but over the last 3-4 years I haven't done much practicing at all. With that being said, I'm aiming to reignite my playing, and part of my goal is to do well in various competitions next May/June/July. One of these competitions (CMC - Canadian Music Competition) has a round requiring a concerto. I am very unsure of even where to begin looking for something suitable to play, so any suggestions would be much appreciated. Things to bear in mind...

- I consider myself technically solid, and I am currently doing ~90 minutes of technical practice a day to continue to improve this.
- Current pieces I'm working on include Beethoven's Sonata No. 8 'Pathétique', Chopin's Nocturne in C minor Op.48 no.1 and Chopin's Étude op.10 no.12
- I am looking for a concerto that would be a challenge within reason. I want to push myself this summer, as I am practicing 4-5 hours a day and am looking to do well in competition next year.
- I will be entering the 17 year old category in CMC

Thank you very much everybody!

- Thomas

[theholygideons]

Mendelssohn no.1, liszt no.1. 

[superman1980]

Hello Thomas,

Just a few questions for you in return:
How long have you been playing piano? What would you consider to be the "hardest" piece you have played/mastered? Which chapter do you plan on entering in the CMC (in other words, what city do you live in)? And finally, have you played concertos before? If you have, which ones?

My advice to you:
You should familiarize yourself with the repertoire requirements for the Age 17 category. Be very sure about what pieces you are playing to use. Also, do not use pieces that are largely overplayed; for example, the Chopin Nocturne and Revolutionary Etude that you are currently playing. Also, Pathétique would not be such a good option since it will be played in lower age categories, I have heard it this year in the 13 and 14 y/o age groups. Once you have a basic out line of your repertoire, feel free to put it on this forum so that some senior members and I could give you some more suggestions.

In terms of your choice of concerto:
You should play something that will fill up ALL or most of the given time which I believe is 25 minutes. Some of my suggestions for the concerto would be the:
-Ginastera Concerto No. 2
-Rubinstein Concerto No. 4
-Rachmaninoff
-Prokofiev
-Bartok
-Tchaikovsky No. 1

Mendelssohn no.1, liszt no.1.  

I feel like the Mendelssohn could also be an effective concerto to perform. The Liszt as well though it may be a little overplayed and does not fill up the time limit too well.

Sorry about this very long post but hope this helps. If you have any other questions, you can reply and I will try me best to check this topic every day or so.

--Superman1980--

Ps. I'm assuming you will have the help of your teacher also, right? If so, would you mind telling me who he/she is via PM, of course ?

[j_menz]

The Liszt as well though it may be a little overplayed

By you as well, it seems from your signature. 

Ps. I'm assuming you will have the help of your teacher also, right? If so, would you mind telling me who he/she is?

Such should be done via PM.

@ Thomas:

Have you done any (or much) ensemble playing before? If not, the best thing you can do to get a concerto ready is to take a side track and play with some smaller groups first.

[theholygideons]

Nono, ignore what they say. Go for the Max Reger concerto F minor, if you want to stand out from the crowd. Just think of Brahms with a bit of spice to it.

[j_menz]

I am looking for a concerto that would be a challenge within reason.

Go for the Max Reger concerto F minor

Whatever its overall merits, it is hardly a suitable first concerto, nor "within reason" given thomaspiano's stated current level.

Do pay attention.

[mjames]

People just like to give obscure suggestions in order to feel/look cool



NERDS!!!!!!!

John field concerto no. 2

It's a bit too long, so just the first movement would be fine.

It's such a cute, and lovey dovey concerto

Inb4 he receives the eye rolls of doom

[j_menz]

People just like to give obscure suggestions in order to feel/look cool



NERDS!!!!!!!

A fate from which you are saved solely by Anatoly never having the gumption to write a PC. 

 

[theholygideons]

Whatever its overall merits, it is hardly a suitable first concerto, nor "within reason" given thomaspiano's stated current level.

Do pay attention.

Fine.. be a noob and do grieg's a minor. 

[superman1980]

Fine.. be a noob and do grieg's a minor. 

Or Saint-Saëns No. 2 

[pianoman1349]

In terms of your choice of concerto:
You should play something that will fill up ALL or most of the given time which I believe is 25 minutes. Some of my suggestions for the concerto would be the:
-Ginastera Concerto No. 2
-Rubinstein Concerto No. 4
-Rachmaninoff
-Prokofiev
-Bartok
-Tchaikovsky No. 1

I feel like the Mendelssohn could also be an effective concerto to perform. The Liszt as well though it may be a little overplayed and does not fill up the time limit too well.

I agree with all of your suggestions.  However, I think that it is not necessarily better to play a longer concerto selection, just for the sake of filling up the time.

I've competed in the CMC (and won a top prize + scholarship) before, and will likely make another go at CMC again next year.  I remember the year I did it, the grand prize winner for the 19 - 30 yrs category played just the 1st movement of Prokofiev third (albeit a very outstanding and unique performance). 

From my own experiences in concerto competitions, where the orchestra is played by a second piano, there are certain concertos where an exceptional accompanist can make a less than exceptional soloist sound brilliant (Tchaikovsky 1st movement comes to mind).  It can be really hard to tell the difference between the soloist and orchestra, even if you have a score in front of you ... I've heard this from many different jurists who sir on these competition panels (they're mainly profs at different universities, both in Canada and the USA).

A very popular option, at least a few years ago, was to play an entire Mozart concerto for the finals.  These concertos are at around the level that you have posted and are a delight to play and listen to.  Another option could also be Liszt's Totentanz.  Totentanz sounds significantly more difficult than it actually is to play ... it's written very idiomatically and fits quite comfortably in the hand.  I know of a lot of people who learned/won with this piece when they were 11 - 12 years old.

Best of luck in your CMC adventure

[thalbergmad]

Judging by the current repertoire of the original poster, perhaps something like the Martucci 2nd would be in order.

Romantic, but amongst the easier ones and 8 billion times better than the Grieg/Schumann shite.

Thal

[mjames]

A fate from which you are saved solely by Anatoly never having the gumption to write a PC.  

 

....

Plz

The wound is still fresh

Oh man I'm love him. I love him so much. His style just speaks to me. I played his op. 57 mazurka over a hundred times(I think?...idk but I did play it a lot). Man, not even a sonata....Almost everything he wrote were miniatures. Why didn't he finish that opera..or ballet? Goddammit liadov

His preludes too, magical


GODDAMMIT  

[visitor]

 

[thomaspiano]

Thank you everyone for these great suggestions!

Hello Thomas,

Just a few questions for you in return:
How long have you been playing piano? What would you consider to be the "hardest" piece you have played/mastered? Which chapter do you plan on entering in the CMC (in other words, what city do you live in)? And finally, have you played concertos before? If you have, which ones?

My advice to you:
You should familiarize yourself with the repertoire requirements for the Age 17 category. Be very sure about what pieces you are playing to use. Also, do not use pieces that are largely overplayed; for example, the Chopin Nocturne and Revolutionary Etude that you are currently playing. Also, Pathétique would not be such a good option since it will be played in lower age categories, I have heard it this year in the 13 and 14 y/o age groups. Once you have a basic out line of your repertoire, feel free to put it on this forum so that some senior members and I could give you some more suggestions.

In terms of your choice of concerto:
You should play something that will fill up ALL or most of the given time which I believe is 25 minutes. Some of my suggestions for the concerto would be the:
-Ginastera Concerto No. 2
-Rubinstein Concerto No. 4
-Rachmaninoff
-Prokofiev
-Bartok
-Tchaikovsky No. 1

I feel like the Mendelssohn could also be an effective concerto to perform. The Liszt as well though it may be a little overplayed and does not fill up the time limit too well.

Sorry about this very long post but hope this helps. If you have any other questions, you can reply and I will try me best to check this topic every day or so.

--Superman1980--

Ps. I'm assuming you will have the help of your teacher also, right? If so, would you mind telling me who he/she is via PM, of course ?

Thanks for this, sent you a PM.

[symphonicdance]

I think that judging the technical difficulty could be a key criteria, but how the candidate can communicate the music to the audience will be more important.  I have read some articles that judges (of int'l piano competitions) like the candidates whose music can make them cry more than those who tend to go for show off to impress.

Good luck.

 

[bullard]

Try Mov. 3 of Prokofiev's 3rd! In my opinion, it's the easiest of the movements (still hard, just not as hard), and is my personal favorite (those crazy triplet chords at the end). I played this my freshman year of college, and if you are technically good, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem for you. A lot of the "hard" parts are just things you have to let sink into your fingers, but once they're there, there shouldn't be a problem.

For me, the biggest challenge was being able to count each beat into the measure as I played. Especially for the scalar section around 1:30 into the piece.

It's a big challenge for the orchestra, so make sure any competitions you enter have a skilled orchestra, or else you won't win regardless of how well you played.