School piano competition

[newkidintown]

Hello! My school's having a piano competition soon, with junior high, high school, and overall winners who get to play a pretty sizeable public art show. I was planning on playing Ravel's "A la maniere de Borodin", but when I went to sign up I saw that other pieces included Chopin's "Ballade No. 1" (played by last year's overall winner), " "Fantasy Impromptu", "Nocturne No. 9", a jazz piece (hard to say difficulty without seeing the person play), and movement III of Mozart's "Sonata in F major".

I started Liszt's transcription of "Marche au Supplice" from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique recently and it's coming along rather quickly, and I had an excerpt of Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique prepared a while ago for an audition (but that audition had the same judges as this competition will). Should I try to play one of those anyway, instead of the Ravel? I'm worried about playing a piece that's not as technically difficult as other entrants'...

[faulty_damper]

I would never play a piece just because it's "difficult".  But, I have nothing to prove.  It's shameful for pianists to try to out play each other, as if piano is a sport as opposed to a music-making activity.  Regardless, showmanship and stage presence counts far more than pianistic ability.  In other words, people are fooled by their eyes instead of listening to the music.  So if you have good stage presence and showmanship, you're 90% of the way there regardless of what you play.

[chopincat]

It's much better to audition with an easier piece that you know and play extremely well than a more difficult piece that's newer and less familiar to you. How soon is the competition? If you have a few months to prepare, then you have plenty of time to work on and improve those harder pieces. But if the auditions are coming up soon, then I think it would make more sense to play things that you know and know you play well.

[j_menz]

It's shameful for pianists to try to out play each other, as if piano is a sport as opposed to a music-making activity. 

Quite! Bach, Mozart, Clementi, Beethoven, Liszt..... all unspeakably unmusical cads who wrecked piano performance practice.

 

[newkidintown]

Thank you all!

I agree with what you're saying, and wouldn't worry about playing something because of its difficulty if this were a "you get to play as long as you're good" kind of situation, or if it weren't judged by people I've known to be easily impressed by "fast" passages and things that sound difficult. But I really want to be one of the winners so I can perform, since I don't get many opportunities to perform solo classical piano and this is an especially great opportunity. And that's why I'm concerned.