College Repertoire

[ndres]

Hi everybody!

I'm new here and I wanted to see if there were any suggestions for improvement for my college audition repertoire. Currently there is only one school (I'm already at college, and there is a conservatory as part of my college) that I want to apply for.

They want: "Four pieces of contrasting mood, tempo & style, including:
 Any composition of Bach, Scarlatti or Handel
 A fast movement from a work by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert
 One Romantic composition
 One 20th/21st century work
 One of the four pieces must be an etude/study (can replace either a romantic
or contemporary work)"

My proposed programme is:
 Bach - Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor (Book 1)
 Beethoven - Pathetique op. 13 in C minor, 3rd Movement
 Chopin - Etude op. 10 no. 9
 Ravel - Pavane pour une Infante Defunté

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

[michael_sayers]

I would do something more 20th-centuryish than the Ravel, maybe Busoni's Elegy No. 1 which is lyrical and has some challenges/pianistic textures not in the other items on the list.  The Elegy No. 7 would be quite distinct from the other items in your list as well, and also lyrical.

https://imslp.org/wiki/Elegien,_BV_249_%28Busoni,_Ferruccio%29


Mvh,
Michael

[joaosousa]

Hi everybody!

I'm new here and I wanted to see if there were any suggestions for improvement for my college audition repertoire. Currently there is only one school (I'm already at college, and there is a conservatory as part of my college) that I want to apply for.

They want: "Four pieces of contrasting mood, tempo & style, including:
 Any composition of Bach, Scarlatti or Handel
 A fast movement from a work by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert
 One Romantic composition
 One 20th/21st century work
 One of the four pieces must be an etude/study (can replace either a romantic
or contemporary work)"

My proposed programme is:
 Bach - Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor (Book 1)
 Beethoven - Pathetique op. 13 in C minor, 3rd Movement
 Chopin - Etude op. 10 no. 9
 Ravel - Pavane pour une Infante Defunté

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

In the 20th/21st century requirement you could play:
- Gershwin's Swanee or his preludes.
- Some Shostakovich Preludes or his Three Fantastic Dances (if you play them right you'll impress the jury).
- Some Prokofiev or Kabalevsky.

This would be more appropriate than the Ravel because the Pavane is a truly romantic composition .

[kevonthegreatpianist]

I'm probably playing the same level as you, even tho I'm only 12 and have been playing piano for 5 years. I'm currently finding a piece in The Well-Tempered Clavier, playing the first movement of Beethoven's last sonata, Op.111, playing Chopin's Nocturne Op.15 No.1 (christ it's hard), and I don't have a 20-21 century song yet. I live in California, and the MTAC (Music Teachers' Association of California) requires one Etude, so I'm playing Chopin's Op.10 No.4, Op.25 No.5, and Op.25 No.7 and seeing which would be the best in February, when I take the test. I'm also playing Clair de Lune for fun. For the Beethoven, IMO the third movement isn't that difficult, so you could master that pretty quickly. You can handle eighth notes on the 168 BPM, right? For the Chopin, you should play Chopin's Op.9 No.1 Nocturne, because the left hand of that nocturne is very similar to the Etude, except it's much slower. And I don't think Ravel is 20-21. I think he's technically a Romantic composer, but oh well. For MTAC, both Debussy and Ravel are categorized in Romantic.

Good luck!