Recital Suggestions

[lephantome92]

At my college, music majors are required to give a senior recital. While I have most of my pieces chosen, my instructor said that it was rather Romantic-heavy, and to look for some non-Romantic pieces to show some breadth in the program. He gave some good suggestions, some of which I'm most likely going to include, but I want some suggestions of good pieces you all know that could fit in with the other pieces.

Here's the current definite pieces:
Debussy-Arabesque No 1
Liszt-Liebestraume No 3, Hungarian Rhapsody No 3
Chopin-Prelude in Db "Raindrop"
Mussorgsky-Hut on Fowl's Legs and The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition
Beethoven-Movement 1 of the Tempest sonata*
Brahms-Rhapsody No 2

Most likely will include:
Holst-Saturn and Jupiter from The Planets, Zen-on solo arrangement
Handel-The Harmonious Blacksmith*
Hayden-Variations in f*
Schubert-Movement 1 from Sonata in A, Op 120
Liszt-Hungarian Rhapsody No 5

*Suggestions by my instructor

My recital will be in April, but my pieces need to be "approved", per se, around the middle of March, so anything fitting that can be learned well for the March approval, then performance-ready a month later is good.



As a frame of reference, here's a video of me playing Liszt's 3rd Hungarian Rhapsody, which only took me about 2.5 months, at most (please excuse the errors from jitters; there aren't egregious errors when practicing)

[eduardom]

one movement from any of the mozart sonatas? or maybe you can play something from bach, there is so much to choose...

[pianoman53]

I can't say I understand the program...  2 movements from the Pictures, and one movement from Beethoven... and two Pieces by Liszt?

How long should the program be?

I'm sorry to sound harsh, but most of the set program is filled with encores.¨

First of all, I would finish the Beethoven, and play both of the Brahms rhapsodies. Then you have about 30 minutes?
Then I'd add the Haydn. Then you have a first half. It's a rather deep, but principally works.

Second half could be one of the Liszt rhapsodies, and the Debussy (I'd also play the second one...) and maybe you could add pieces by Prokofiev, such as the cinderella.


Maybe I have a different view, but I don't get performances, filled with pieces that all are less than 5 minutes.

[avguste]

One thing I will say is that you don't have any modern music per say. I would recommend to have at least 1 modern (living composer) piece.

[lephantome92]

@pianoman53 For my major, the program only has to be half an hour, but with how much work I've done, I want to have a justifiable length. As for the layout, the bulk of my recital should be things I've worked on during previous semesters. I reread my initial post, and I left out that I've been working on some Schumann novelettes to various extents, mainly the one in F (I forget which number), then Nos 4 and 7 (I forget the keys of those). One semester I worked on the Bartok Rumanian Dance Suite as per a suggestion by my instructor, but I found that somewhat too atonal for my liking. Do you think I should get over the atonality and include that, maybe in place of some of the Liszt? As for the Beethoven, I had been working on the Pathetique, but no matter which fingerings I used on the chromatics, I couldn't get them at a consistent speed, so I decided to drop that. Part of my limited knowledge of essential piano works is just that my K-12 teacher didn't really stress the breadth of what I played, and I was mostly into videogame music, with few exceptions (mainly just Wagner opera transcriptions). That's part of why I came to fellow pianists to get their opinions. As for the brevity of most of the pieces, that's likely just by mere coincidence. It's only marginally longer, at around 8 minutes, but if I can get the descending thirds down solidly, would the Saint-Saens Danse Macabre be good, or rather not? If I had been diligent to start a year ago, I wish I could have included a duet of Dvorak's The Water Goblin as a duet. Based on your suggestion, is there any specific opus of the Prokofiev Cinderella you'd suggest? I found three opuses of it (95, which is 3 pieces; 97, which is 10 pieces; and 102, which is 6 pieces). If it makes any difference between the opuses, I received permission to play in the college auditorium on a concert grand (Go big or go home, am I right? ). In rereading this, I'm terribly sorry if it sounds like I'm attacking you, I didn't intend to in the slightest.
@avguste: Do you have any pieces you'd specifically recommend I try? I'm not familiar with any modern composers at all, let alone those with piano works.

[pianoman53]

I didn't take it as an attack, and I hope you didn't take my post as an attack either :-)

Okay, so if it's 30, I would do the full Brahms op 79, some pieces from Cinderella op 102 and the Haydn variations. I think that could fill about 30 minutes. My computer is dying, so sorry for my short response. I do more tomorrow!

[lephantome92]

I didn't take it as an attack, and I hope you didn't take my post as an attack either :-)

Okay, so if it's 30, I would do the full Brahms op 79, some pieces from Cinderella op 102 and the Haydn variations. I think that could fill about 30 minutes. My computer is dying, so sorry for my short response. I do more tomorrow!

No worries, I didn't see yours as an attack, either! (For when your computer is charged) If I don't do all of the Prokofiev, which movements would you suggest I focus on?

[pianoman53]

There!

The thing is, exam-recitals can be seen very differently. If it's rather an open exam, and not so much a recital, a pieces will small programs won't be all bad.

The point is when it's a recital, then you need to show that you can build, no matter how small, a good program.

For the Prokofiev; just listen to them, and see if there are some you like more than others.

As for the length: The 2 Brahms are 15 minutes together, and the Haydn is also 15 (with repeats), and most of the Prokofiev are about 5. So ask your instructor what's the best: To change to only 1 of the Brahms, or go a little bit over time, or take away repeats.
It's a shame to not play a full set, but if it gets too long, maybe it's better to do one of the Liszt rhapsodies instead of Brahms.

So two alternative, as I see it:
Brahms, Haydn, Prokofiev
or
Liszt, Haydn, Prokofiev.

See which you can do best, and which pieces you like the most. Also, ask your instructor. This is how I would do, but I know that traditions are different, and he might not like it at all...

As for your question about atonal music: Some music needs to be played before you start to appreciate it, while some music just come by itself. If you don't like it, maybe you just wait a little bit... or you push yourself, and just learn it. Depends on you, as a person.

[lephantome92]

Oops, I just realized my curse of poor wording struck again! The minimum is half an hour, but it can basically be anything within a reasonable length, even if it requires an intermission. With all the effort I've put into my major, I think I'd be cheating both the audience and me if the recital was less than at least 45 minutes to an hour

Merry Christmas, E'erbody!