New repertoire!

[gracefulpianist14]

Hey guys, I've taken piano for almost six years, but I'm on summer break right now, and I'll have lessons again in the fall.
I'm looking for a more substantial piece to add to my repertoire, I'm currently working on:
Bach - Prelude in A-flat Major (Fugue is kinda on my backburner right now)
Haydn - Sonata hob. XVI no. 35
Chopin - Nocturne in c-sharp minor no. 20 (the famous one)
Chopin - 'Raindrop' Prelude 
My summer repertoire is rather small and not very challenging.

I was thinking maybe Brahms Rhapsody in g minor, Pathetique, or a couple Chopin Preludes (I love Chopin ) But I'm open to suggestions! Thanks guys!!

[chopinlover01]

The Pathetique would be a good challenge. I'd say go for it, or go for the Op 10 C minor sonata (forgot which one it is).
As for Chopin, you'd probably be wise to do one of the other nocturnes, they're the pinnacle of Chopin's style. I'd do one of the following:
Op 15 No 1 in F major
Op 15 No 2 in F sharp major
Op 32 No 1 in B major
Op 32 No 2 in A flat
Listen to them all, choose one.

[pencilart3]

If you're looking for something substantial don't choose Chopin preludes unless you can play all 24.

[visitor]

As an alternative to thw Chopin prelude(s) idea I would sprinkle in a little Hahn

[visitor]

As for kicking up the difficulty a few notches, maybr some Chaminade? You mentioned "PATHETUQUE"  Surely you were referencing that awesome op125 right?  Thats exactly what i was thinking too!  Would def add this too
Sessy could go beast mode from time to time

[pencilart3]

***visitor waves his magic wand over the forum, producing many good songs***

I've always liked this.

[pencilart3]

Here this is also a good one.

[pencilart3]

If you want a chopin nocturne, this video is imo the most beautiful nocturne ever played.

[chopinlover01]

It's also arguably one of the hardest nocturnes he wrote, just as a disclaimer.

[pencilart3]

It's also arguably one of the hardest nocturnes he wrote, just as a disclaimer.

Well if he's thinking about beethoven op. 13 it can't be that much harder....

[gracefulpianist14]

Thanks guys!! I will definately look into these. =)

[chopinlover01]

Well if he's thinking about beethoven op. 13 it can't be that much harder....

Don't let the ABRSM ratings fool you, that nocturne requires much more than the Pathetique (IMO), and different technical skills in and of themselves.

[pencilart3]

I'm not talking about abrsm. i've played both.

[gracefulpianist14]

Hey! Thank you all for your suggestions! While I'm still deciding (it's so hard!) on a substantial piece, i thought i'd bother you all with one more question.... My teacher says I should look into some Chopin etudes or fast preludes, I haven't been able to talk to him in awhile (summer break, vacations exc.) Do you guys have any suggestions for those?? I've only played the slow preludes and no etudes yet.

[pencilart3]

If you want a prelude challenge, try Prelude 16, I'm working on it myself. Start with the left hand. Stay away from 19. Whatever you do, don't play 19. I cannot even dream of playing it after playing with the score for about 15 minutes.

24 is very, very challenging. 12 was harder (for me) than most people find it. I didn't even get through it so I'm certainly not performing it. 8 is more manageable but still very very hard. I might recommend starting with prelude 3 as it is one of the few transition pieces from hard to very hard. Also consider 5 or 10 for more transition pieces.

BTW I'm playing 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 15 and 16 so I can really only speak with certianty for those, but I would recommend any of these pieces.


If you want etudes, start with 10/6, it's the easiest for most people. 25/7 is not as challenging technically but musically it can be quite demanding and make you sound like a beginner. 10/12 is not as bad as it sounds and is great for left hand finger work... obviously.  25/1 is manageable. 10/5 is not as "easy" as everyone says it is. Do not attempt 25/3, 10/3, 10/10, 25/8 or 25/9 until you have played some others as these sound doable but are very very difficult. 10/10 is very very very hard, and 25/3 and 25/8 are very hard, though they don't sound that hard at first. 25/9 you could probably play after you have a few etudes under your belt.

Just my 2¢.  Good luck. 

[gracefulpianist14]

Wow! Thank you for all your suggestions!! You must be a Chopin lover too... btw, what do you think about 10/1 and 25/12 and 25/11??

[pencilart3]

Wow! Thank you for all your suggestions!! You must be a Chopin lover too... btw, what do you think about 10/1 and 25/12 and 25/11??

Yeah anytime! I love discussion Chopin (esp. etudes and preludes) but everyone on this forum appears tired of discussing them!

What do I think about them? By that do you mean if I like them or about their difficulty?

Well I like all 3 of them. If you're at the level of say, beethoven pathetique, I would say 25/12 is as close as you're going to get, but it is still significantly harder than Beethoven Pathetique. 10/1 and 25/11 are insane and in my opinion trying to play either of these pieces would set you up for utter complete failure. 25/12 is not as hard as it sounds, but it is still quite difficult. I would stay away from these three and looking back I wouldn't try prelude 16. Definitely not. I was confusing your repertoire with someone else on this site. If you want a "fast" piece, stay away from 8, 12, 16, 18 or 24. Try 3, 5, or 10. Good luck! If you have any more questions feel free to ask, but remember that I'm just a pianist like you

[kevonthegreatpianist]

If you're looking for something substantial don't choose Chopin preludes unless you can play all 24.

You mean 28. There are more than 24 preludes.

[chopinlover01]

27. The extras being Op. 45, one in A flat major, and the "Devil's Trill"

[kevonthegreatpianist]

If you want a prelude challenge, try Prelude 16, I'm working on it myself. Start with the left hand. Stay away from 19. Whatever you do, don't play 19. I cannot even dream of playing it after playing with the score for about 15 minutes.

24 is very, very challenging. 12 was harder (for me) than most people find it. I didn't even get through it so I'm certainly not performing it. 8 is more manageable but still very very hard. I might recommend starting with prelude 3 as it is one of the few transition pieces from hard to very hard. Also consider 5 or 10 for more transition pieces.

BTW I'm playing 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 15 and 16 so I can really only speak with certianty for those, but I would recommend any of these pieces.


If you want etudes, start with 10/6, it's the easiest for most people. 25/7 is not as challenging technically but musically it can be quite demanding and make you sound like a beginner. 10/12 is not as bad as it sounds and is great for left hand finger work... obviously.  25/1 is manageable. 10/5 is not as "easy" as everyone says it is. Do not attempt 25/3, 10/3, 10/10, 25/8 or 25/9 until you have played some others as these sound doable but are very very difficult. 10/10 is very very very hard, and 25/3 and 25/8 are very hard, though they don't sound that hard at first. 25/9 you could probably play after you have a few etudes under your belt.

Just my 2¢.  Good luck. 

28/8, 28/12, 28/16, 28/19, and 28/24, IMO, are the hardest preludes. 28/12 and 28/24 are often disregarded as difficult preludes and only 28/8, 28/16, and 28/19 are considered difficult preludes. IMO, I think 28/16 and 28/24 are the hardest. The main difficulty of 28/16 are actually the leaps in the left hand which stretch up to two octaves in eight notes. You could find the right hand in any Mozart or Beethoven sonata. 28/24 has a left hand where even Rachminoff has to leap, and the right hand is just random stuff where at its peak, has a descending thirds chromatic-scale where you would not even find in 25/6. 28/8, 28/12 and 28/19 are easier but still very hard.

You should actually start with the Etude in f minor, composed in 1839. 10/6 is actually very difficult because everyone plays the tempo wrong. The sixteenth notes are supposed to be on 104.5 BPM, and everyone plays it almost half the speed, if not, even more. 10/3 is a beautiful piece, but the middle section is fairly difficult. Frankly, I don't know why everyone speeds it up to almost two times the speed; I don't see any piu mosso or accelendaro or that. 10/5 is actually very difficult, as pencilart said. Don't play 25/6 until you've mastered Czerny everything because his fingerings work very well in this etude.  

10/1, 25/11, and 25/12 are actually among the hardest etudes, IMO. Lots of people (like me), at first glance, think that 10/1 is very easy. However, each set of sixteenth notes stretch octaves or tenths, which is like impossible to stretch unless you have huge hands like me. 25/11 reminds me of Hadyn. Once the Lento section is done, it turns into one of the hardest compositions ever written. For awhile, it's just right hand, but then the left hand kicks in and it becomes even harder. 25/12 is the easiest of the three, but it's still very difficult. I think you should stick to the easier etudes.

If you want a Beethoven sonata, go for the calmer (I never said calm; I said calmer) ones. You could try Op.26 or Op.78, or you could go for the harder Op.110. They're the calmer sonatas with slow first movements and aren't really Beethoven-like until the fourth movement; in Op.78's case, second. Op.78, btw, is in F# Major, and I don't know if you can handle six sharps. Op.26 and Op.110 have few parts in ab minor, too.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

27. The extras being Op. 45, one in A flat major, and the "Devil's Trill"

There's a doubtful one in F Major.

[pencilart3]

You mean 28. There are more than 24 preludes.

All 24 of op. 28 are considered to be almost one large piece with many different movements. The OP was looking for substantial pieces.

[visitor]

Op can add the missing mvmnt to this Fibich and call it good too as an alternative

[bronnestam]

Even though my True Love will always be old Ludwig    I have lately discovered some female composers that I really enjoy to work with. Advantage 1: They are not overplayed, to say the least. You get a repartoire that not 300 million pianists already have, and do better than you.   

Advantage 2: I am a woman myself, with a typical female handspan - the female composers often wrote quite tricky pieces, but they did not require a handspan of 12 keys because they did not have that themselves.

This summer I have played a B-flat (was it?) Nocturne by Maria Szymanowska. Chopin admired her a lot, and you can easily hear that - she seems to have influenced him a lot! Everybody who heard this Nocturne said "whoa! How beautiful - I must write that name down ... her name was what, you say?"
Right now I concentrate on Teresa Carreño, a magnificent pianist from Venezuela who died 1917 and was a really big star of her time. She wrote some fantastic piano compositions.