What Are Your Pianistic Ambitions?

[josh93248]

I have enormous ambitions at the piano, you don't need to take me seriously but here's a list of all the composers I want to tackle. I would however say that this is pretty much all solo piano, I don't really want to do ensemble or Concerto work as seriously, but may be open to some of it perhaps in future. I really want to record my interpretations rather than publicly perform them, I'd rather have a ton of hits on Youtube than ever play Carnegie or Verbier. I know this is going to look ridiculous but if I'm lucky I'll have the next 50 years to work on this Liszt... I mean list. It also gives you some idea what to expect from me

Beethoven - Everything (He is my favourite composer, I would play even the crappy little stuff just to say that I did haha)
Chopin - Everything (His level of perfection is so ridiculously consistent I'm sure it will be a pleasure)
Mozart - Everything (Too balanced and perfect to ignore hehe)
Bach - Everything applicable to Piano (I will probably leave out transcriptions but I sure do love me some Bach!)
Haydn - A selection of Sonatas (I enjoy him but am not as passionate about him)
Schubert - Probably everything (I'm very tempted to give Schubert the same treatment but his catalogue is far more confused and incomplete so it would be hard to say when I'm "done" but I really love Schubert)
Scarlatti - As many Sonatas as I can get through.
Ravel - Everything (A small but challenging body of work, I really like Ravel's unique style and feel it would add something to my output.)
Gershwin - Probably everything (Mostly because it's not so much compared to the rest this list and I think he'll add a good flavour to my output)
Mussorgsky - I love me some Russians! Everything, just to experience all this wonderful, rough edged composer has to offer!
Debussy - Possibly everything (I've only recently gotten into Debussy but from what I've heard I think it's all great)
Shostakovich - I won't bother hunting down everything but I hope to play his complete Preludes and Fugues and The other set of just preludes.
Scriabin - A lot of the non-atonal works and maybe even some atonal just for the extra flavour
Tchaikovsky - A lot if not everything (Starting with The Seasons)
Schumann - Probably everything (Sorry Thal, I do love him! And there's nothing you can do about it!)
Liszt - Not Everything (As tempted as I am to pull a Leslie Howard, even I have limits)

Oh and my own works

So, now that I've embarrassed myself by posting this utterly insane list, please tell me your ambitions, be they general or specific, detailed or brief

Oh, and I forgot Borodin, which is probably my only rational attempt to play the complete works of anybody, if you know what I mean

[chopinlover01]

Basically everything of Chopin, lots of Liszt and Rachmaninoff, a few Beethoven sonatas, A few works of Ravel and Debussy, lots of Schubert, a couple of the Mozart concerti, the list goes on.

[josh93248]

Excellent taste ChopinLover by the way I don't know why I don't want to do Rach, I like him a lot I just don't feel I could add much to the body of his interpretations.

[dcstudio]

so what have you tackled so far?

and who or what will you focus on first?


totally do-able list in a 50 year period

[outin]

I don't know about ambitions, but repertoirewise at least these:
- Play all the Scarlatti sonatas
- Play at least one large scale work of C.Franck
- Play a few Chopin works well
- Play some Scriabin
- Play some 20th century from composers such as Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Casella, Schoenberg
- Play at least a couple of impressionistic works
- Study as much less known piano repertoire as possible, including Finnish composers (the standard literature I can hear enough on recordings anyway, and played much better than I ever could)

Of course I probably don't have 50 years so I need to keep it moderate

[josh93248]

I assume you're addressing me DC, so I'll answer. I'm also curious to know if you have any goals.

So far I'm working from the very bottom on up, my rep is this so far

Current work:

5 SHORT Beethoven Sonatas/sonatinas.
Fur Elise

most of the Little Preludes Of Bach

9 SHORT Schubert Waltzes.

Mozart Sonata K 545
Mozart Fantasia in D Minor

4 Easy Scriabin Preludes

6 Chopin Preludes

A Latin Prelude by Christopher Norton

Backburner:

All 15 Two Part inventions by Bach.

Beethoven Sonata Op. 2 No. 1

2 Chopin Mazurkas

Mozart Adagio in B minor

About the first 8 or 10 pieces of Schumann's Album for the Young.



Fingered but not practiced:

2 solid Beethoven Sonatas.

All 15 Sinfonias by Bach (3 part inv.)

6 Scarlatti Sonatas

4 Schubert Impromptus (Op. 90)

4 Tchaikovsky Seasons

4 Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues

7 Chopin Etudes

Some of the Nannerl Book by Mozart

More from the Album for the Young (Schumann)

2 More Chopin Mazurkas

That pretty much covers it. Beyond that maybe start some basic Ravel like the Menuet sur le nom de Haydn, Borodin's Petite Suite and Scherzo, another Mozart Sonata or 2, Some easy Debussy, the WTC more Beethoven Sonatas, More Schubert Impromptus and so on, Liszt I'm saving for a bit but I'm guess I'll start with the classic easy ones like The Liebestraum and Consolations and Romance.

Basically the plan is to steadily move through the Rep, moving on from pieces after recording them.

@ outin

Sounds good, I know someone who might be interested in your Finnish composers actually, are you going to post anything online? I'd like it if you did, or have you already?

[outin]

@ outin

Sounds good, I know someone who might be interested in your Finnish composers actually, are you going to post anything online? I'd like it if you did, or have you already?

I'm afraid neither my playing nor my piano and recording equipment are at a level that would make any justice to the music... Maybe one day...

[josh93248]

I'm afraid neither my playing nor my piano and recording equipment are at a level that would make any justice to the music... Maybe one day...

Oh well, that's a shame. Hopefully I'll stick around long enough to see you post something. Maybe you should start with some really simple pieces? I've used that approach, if you can't already tell. Also try not to worry too much about the quality, I'll bet there are a few people on this site who'll want to see what you come up with

[outin]

Also try not to worry too much about the quality,

Quality is everything to me

Seriously, my piano sounds horrible when I try to record it. I did some takes on my digital that are better, but I don't like digitals really...

[josh93248]

Quality is everything to me

Seriously, my piano sounds horrible when I try to record it. I did some takes on my digital that are better, but I don't like digitals really...

You're a man of high standards, I respect that. Do what you think is best, it's just a shame you can't share with the rest of us. You're working on some interesting rep too so I'm curious...

[ted]

To map my psyche onto piano sound through recorded personal improvisation, build a musical universe from the ground up so to speak, but I have never had feelings for anything akin to what people call ambition. What the external world thinks about it neither interests nor concerns me. It is more a case of it being a natural daily function. However, although I have composed and improvised hundreds of things all my life, it was not until I was about fifty-five that I really found my own voice, really thought I might have a show of saying something meaningful to myself in any permanent, satisfying sense. I am not a good enough pianist to entertain too many goals about performing pieces, and in any case dislike most classical music and jazz. I might learn some more stride transcriptions and ragtime though if time permits.

[mjames]

nightwind sonata, Medtner
Alkan solo concert for piano
Ballade Op. 52 no. 4 chopin
Scriabin Sonata no.5
Ravel Gaspard de la nuit


So far those are my 'ultimate' goals. Of course I know that it will probably take decades before I become good enough to attempt these works but I honestly don't mind.

[outin]

You're a man of high standards,

Maybe not exactly...

I respect that. Do what you think is best, it's just a shame you can't share with the rest of us. You're working on some interesting rep too so I'm curious...

I have every intention to share as soon as I manage to make something I am reasonably pleased with. I should ask my teacher to let me record on her grand some day... but the pressure of her listening might not make it easy...

[outin]

nightwind sonata, Medtner

Lets just make a deal, in 2030 you play that and I'll play sonata op 5!

[mjames]

i don't think the sonata is that difficult when it comes to technique, but just the sheer length and musical density is enough to make it extremely challenge, so much that only the ones who have a attained a very very high level in skill could even begin to dream about attacking it. I'm not confident enough to think I'll achieve that in just 15 years.

The sonata tragica, idyll, or romantica are some pretty good works for the deal though!

[josh93248]

I looked up the Nightwind, it was very interesting, I'd really like to see you do it

Why so long though? Judging by the pieces you play... I mean, I don't know many of them but they sound serious enough.

[outin]

i don't think the sonata is that difficult when it comes to technique, but just the sheer length and musical density is enough to make it extremely challenge, so much that only the ones who have a attained a very very high level in skill could even begin to dream about attacking it. I'm not confident enough to think I'll achieve that in just 15 years.

The sonata tragica, idyll, or romantica are some pretty good works for the deal though!

I'm not sure 15 yrs is enough for mine either (unless a miracle happens and I suddenly can read better and don't have to memorize), but we should have a goal to make us work really hard, right?

Anyway, any Medtner sonata will do!

But lets start with Forgotten melodies...have you tried any yet?

[mjames]

Haven't tried Medtner yet, but I'm planning on working on his arabesque op. 7 no.1 some time soon. Not mechanically challenging, but it looks like it'll require a lot of work on the pedaling and soft touches!

Canzona Matinata is also a favorite of mine, it's from the sonata tragica set. Op. 39 no. 4 or 5, i think.

[indianajo]

Well, for the next few years:
Exterminate the last half dozen errors from Pictures at an Exhibition. And speed up a little on the fast movements.
Learn Lyapunov Christmas Night hopefully by Christmas
Memorize or learn to turn the pages on Claude Bolling's Count on Him
Memorize another Bach 2 part Invention, my fourth. (I've been practicing Passacaglia and Fugue in Cmin but it is a straight organ piece, I can't afford a pedal harpsichord attachment for the piano.  Great news this year, I've learned to glue soles on shoes, for a pair of organ shoes not made in *****.  And I've found a 32 pedal organ I could afford, standard configuration in all performance spaces. I've been practicing on 25 pedals, which is now obsolete except in small country churches.  The Schober recital organ is on the front porch waiting for me to get 1000 LP's off the floor and into the shelf unit I welded this summer.  )
Debussy's Sunken Cathedral and Girl with the Flaxen Hair
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue.  I had hoped to find a partner for the 2 piano version, but after ten years mentioning it nobody is interested around here.  I may buy the one piano arrangement Richard Glaznor did on APM televison. The one piano arrangement from Warner Bros is too simplified. I have two matching tone pianos, but the idea of doing Rhapsody on two consoles makes some people really look down their noses at me. No Y******a's for me, please, that is all the grands the churches own around here.  
Scott Joplin, Entertainer. I get requests for this when I play Paragon, Magnetic and Maple Leaf Rags
Pine top Perkins Original Boogie Woogie. Started
Beethoven Variations on Rule Brittania, and 13th Sonata . Find and start a Liszt arrangement of Beethoven 5th or 3rd symphony.  
American Patrol arr Jo Ann Castle. Not available as a score, I'll have to write it out off the TV, or learn direct (fat chance). Also Frosty the Snow Man arr Castle  
Lynard Skynard arrangement of They Call me Da Breeze  There is a piano line, but I'll have to play that on the top manual of my organ, the Fender Rhodes simulation.  the guitar bass lines are on the lower manual and pedals.  The piano organ start of Free Bird is beautiful but there are too many guitar pitch bends in that to do on a keyboard instrument.  
More gospel type embellishments on the hymns I play summer Sundays for a tiny country congregation.  They've must have heard this style somewhere on TV; they  compliment me when I throw embellishments in the left hand on the favorite old chestnuts.  Now, on to the right hand.  
Learn lyrics to Autumn Breeze, write out the chord structure so I can remember it better, and do something for a break between verses that is interesting. NOT the Roger Williams embellishments, those are great but they have been done.  
Do something better than the printed arrangement of Gershwin's Somebody to Love which is better than most but not much.  Do something electrical with my voice, which sounds more like Tommy Lee Jones than Judy Garland.    
Find a band to do the fills or make up something between verses of Three Button Hand Me Down which I sing and play with the left hand only.  
Same improvement to Day Tripper another left hand only piece.  Learn something else off Rubber Soul or Yesterday & Today whcih can be played to a family audience.  
Improve  Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Funeral for a Friend/Candle in the Wind
Do something better with Ramblin Gamblin Man.  Now it is an organ riff and a lyric.  
Get asked back some place. The charity dinner was so impressed with my pre-Christmas performance three years ago, they got a real pianist to play last year.  He was very tall and handsome.   And the church people listens to me, and then are really passionate about asking me to sing soprano choruses with them and their collection of *****ese instruments.  I'm a bass, sorry, and an unemployed US factory physicist. 

[outin]

Haven't tried Medtner yet, but I'm planning on working on his arabesque op. 7 no.1 some time soon. Not mechanically challenging, but it looks like it'll require a lot of work on the pedaling and soft touches!

Canzona Matinata is also a favorite of mine, it's from the sonata tragica set. Op. 39 no. 4 or 5, i think.

Op 39-5. 22 pages in my book.
I need to find something short for a first piece...

[mjames]

Op 39-5. 22 pages in my book.
I need to find something short for a first piece...

Lol no, there's no way. Canzona matinata is a miniature! Can't be 22 pages long.

I went ahead and checked, it's no.4. No.5 would be the sonata...

And few other short pieces...

The Op. 7 set is truly wonderful! I'm falling in love (again). Then there's also his op. 51 fairy tales, they look good too, and not too difficult other. Maybe you can go for the op. 20 guys, be daring :O

[outin]

Lol no, there's no way. Canzona matinata is a miniature! Can't be 22 pages long.

Oh, I thought you meant the sonata.

I think op 38 nr 8 might be suitable...only 4 pages

[roncesvalles]

My ambitions are perhaps too ambitious, but here they are:
Mature Busoni works (Elegies and onwards, with a few earlier works like Etude number 4)
Late Scriabin
Szymanowski
Some Messiaen (Preludes, some of Vingt Regards)
Some Sorabji
Takemitsu
Assorted Russian Avant-Garde (Roslavets, Feinberg, the Krein Family, Melkikh,  various others)
Emile-Robert Blanchet
some Alkan
various expressionist, impressionist, modern, and contemporary composers from Ades to Wellesz.

Most of that list is probably a decade away, if life doesn't get in the way.   I'll be perfectly content to play Bach, Chopin, Scriabin, and the occasional Liszt for the rest of my life, if those are my limits, but the composers listed under my ambitions are what truly excite me and what I find to be beautiful.

[josh93248]

@ Ted

That's an interesting idea, different from most others here... Can I see any of your work?

@ indianajo

Woah, that's a pretty varied list, some of that is really challenging... Do you have recordings?

@ roncesvalles

Wow, I didn't realise how FEW composers I had on my list haha. Most of yours I've barely considered... Some I've hardly heard of... What attracts you to them?

Actually, that goes for everybody.

WHY pick these pieces?

[kawai_cs]

That is an excellent question, Josh. Really exciting to read what pianistic goals other pianists on the forum have:-)
As to my ambitions  - most importantly, I would like to be able to focus entirely on music and stop being so nervous when somebody is listening to me playing. My teacher wants me to participate in a competition next year so this really needs to happen soon  I would like to survive this competition without blackouts, shaking, sweating hands and whatever other embarrassment may occur
I would like to start accompanying.
I would like to achieve such a level of control with the pieces I play and will play, so I can only be focusing on interpretation.
As to repertoire, I want to play everything Rachmaninoff and Chopin.

[roncesvalles]

Reasons why:
Busoni--he manages a sort of impressionism or expressionism with counterpoint and keen structural awareness.   It's so different than a Debussy or lesser composer of the time because most of his harmony arises out of polyphony, symmetry, and motivic variation (rather than simply choosing an interesting sound).  

Late period Scriabin, with its focus on the unfolding of a single sonority, is prescient to spectralism, yet despite its highly schematic constructive principles, always conveys freedom and expression of things that, before him, were hardly ever expressed.

Szymanowski has some of the most luscious music composed.  His more extended works and studies are impressionism with a bite.   He is confounding to me as a composer, as much of his works depend on models by other composers, but at his best he was a spectacular composer.

Sorabji, Messiaen, and Takemitsu, each offer their own views on post-impressionist music, Sorabji with the most inventive use of harmonic color I've come across, Messiaen with recherché and highly involved (and involving) music, and Takemitsu for a floating, ethereal music that is meditative, like a soothing abstract painting.

Alkan is one of the most interesting composers for the piano, to me, and probably the greatest enigma, with pieces ranging from the saccharine to the grotesque.  I like his sense of musical irony, and how he can turn what seems like a cliché at first into something inspired.

Blanchet's music is generally late romantic, with a dollop of impressionism.  His harmonies are usually interesting.   In his most interesting works he uses a harmonic system not unlike that of Busoni, derived from principles of symmetry espoused by Bernhard Ziehn.   What sets his work apart, however, is not necessarily the music itself but the layout on the piano.   Aside from Liszt, Alkan, Sorabji, and Godowsky who each offered major innovations in terms of technique, Blanchet has the most original and diverse use of pianism I've ever come across--his music is fascinating to my fingers, because it often leads them to do novel things, some of which I didn't know were quite possible.   As a composer, I sometimes daydream about using some of his innovations towards the expressions of my own aesthetic.

The Russian avant-garde--roughly from 1910 to 1930 (ending prematurely due to an oppressive regime) approached the novel with an eye towards expression, which differed from the major Western trend of intellectualizing music.   Roslavets developed a system similar to Scriabin's last works and somewhat similar to serialism, yet, abstract as it is, it always seems to express something (compared to many comparable works which just seemed to revel in certain intervals and constructions).   Feinberg's music is sort of a synthesis of various schools of pianism and composition.   The Krein family (Alexandr, Grigorii, and Iulian) all approached music with new tonality in a different way (Alexandr tending to the more rhapsodic, Grigorii often with an intense meditative quality, and Iulian with cosmopolitanism, highly influenced by Ravel...although all of these are of course stereotypes for what are quite diverse oeuvres).   Melkikh's sonatas are filled with a rich imagination.  

Most of the other pieces I want to play are 20th/21st century.   Tonality to me is often like writing in blank verse--it has its purposes, but it can also be confining, as I think each musical idea should define the trajectory of a piece, not a catalogue of preexisting functions and relationships.  There are tonal things I love, but I have more sympathy for more exploratory music.  Most of what I find beautiful is that which has fluid tonality and colorful harmony.   My ideal music is microtonal (I wish Busoni would have composed for the 1/6 tone harmonium he possessed), free to do whatever it wants to do.  

[themeandvariation]

@Roncesvalles.
I have always loved Takemitsu's music, but I was unaware he wrote for piano solo… I heard 'Rain Tree' this morning… So beautiful… Thank You for mentioning!! You have an interesting list here.. a few I don't know about that i'll check out… Have you heard Subotnik's music?…(especially the early stuff?)

[josh93248]

@ Roncesvalles

Woah. Wow. I am impressed with your knowledge and reasoning. You must have a highly developed sense of music..... I am probably very different in my tastes and philosophy though, perhaps we'll discuss that another time... But I enjoyed reading your post.

[Bob]

Competence.

[josh93248]

Concision?

[diomedes]

I'll put out the most important ones:

Scriabin obviously, I have recorded 5 of the sonatas, I plan to do his entire work before I am dead. After the next few weeks of recitals I am starting on the 5th. Obviously I'll be performing much of his work frequently. I also intend to transcribe the 3rd symphony, poeme of ecstasy and Prometheus for solo piano, if it's manageable. Prokofiev managed to do so, so it's probably doable.

Sabaneeyev Sonata in memory of Scriabin. True Scriabin after his death by his biographer, half hour length. Incredible.

Feinberg, so far his first 5 sonatas are a necessity for me.

Saint-Saens concerti.

Rachmaninov finish op.33, 39 all the preludes Corelli variations sonatas etc.

Alkan concerto for solo piano and some of the other minor key etudes.

Medtner Night wind, and several other sonatas.

Litolff, Dreyshock, brahms, Scharwenka, henselt, liszt concerti etc finish prokofiev 2

All of that and a great deal of Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms  ,Schumann and Busoni. Probably left out some.

If I don't get all that done before I die we have a problem, but it might be possible.

[josh93248]

Oooh, have you posted those recordings diomedes?

[diomedes]

Not on here, on my YouTube account they exist. I have not posted my recording of the 7th sonata because it's from a live recital, not a video, but listening to it recently, I really should. I was young then, but it catches the essence.

[josh93248]

Not on here, on my YouTube account they exist. I have not posted my recording of the 7th sonata because it's from a live recital, not a video, but listening to it recently, I really should. I was young then, but it catches the essence.

Okay, what's your Youtube account?

[outin]

Actually, that goes for everybody.

WHY pick these pieces?

I want to play music from my favorite composers, but also be somewhat realistic. I do love pieces like Chopin 3rd sonata or his Allegro de Concert, but with the restrictions I have there's no way I could lean something like that. Ever. Preludes, polonaises, nocturnes and maybe even a few etudes I should be able to manage. If I even attempted a large scale work, I think it would be the Barcarolle...difficult but one of his very best pieces (IMO).

The benefit of working with lesser known repertoire is that my ears are not spoiled by so many perfect recordings from great pianists, so I can better accept my own second rate playing. That's not my reason to do it thought....I just love to explore.

[chopinlover01]

but with the restrictions I have there's no way I could lean something like that.

Which restrictions?
Although I would guess it would be less of your pianistic "restrictions" than physics restrictions that would allow you to lean on air vibrations

[outin]

Which restrictions?

Cognitive, physical and those related to time...

Although I would guess it would be less of your pianistic "restrictions" than physics restrictions that would allow you to lean on air vibrations

I'm afraid that was too deep for me, I have no idea what you meant  

Oh, just read the quote again...you're right  

I will blame it on the early morning hours...

[mjames]

oh my god, the allegro de concert...

8:55-9:20 is just amazing

no pianist can deny that

[ted]

@ Ted

That's an interesting idea, different from most others here... Can I see any of your work ?

I have posted bits and pieces of my improvisation, a tiny fraction of the total output, and a few recordings of early compositions here on the forum. Anybody can have my recordings and scores, I have no desire to be in the music business.

Yes, if I have learned one thing from thirteen years on forums it is that I really am very different. No point in trying to be normal at this stage of my life, although I did from time to time when I was younger.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

My ambition for many years was to record a disc of transcriptions to what would hopefully be a professional standard. It took a long time - but I feel I achieved that a couple of years ago and it was without doubt the most important thing I've done piano-wise and something I have derived considerable satisfaction from.

I still want to perform and record, to a level where the playing is of interest to the connoisseur, a further range of interesting, but unknown or barely-known, pieces - typically transcriptions, but also some original compositions (e.g. by Liapunov - and one day hopefully I can find time to return to the various Alkan etudes I spent a lot of time on, and relearn them with the benefit of greater experience and discipline).

I would also like to continue my work on composition and improvisation and, in a philosophical sense, hopefully arrive at a synthesis of the intuitive and the intellectual which I am content with.

[coda_colossale]

For now getting the damn presto con fuoco up to speed. Maybe Triana in a few years, Rach's 2nd sonata in the long run.

[liszt1022]

Get my technique up and do some big Liszt.
I have other goals but I can't work on them all at once because I get burned out.
I've transcribed 85% of the first mvt of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at a difficulty roughly equal to the Singer edition of Beethoven symphonies, but haven't managed to get it to 100% much less record it.

[josh93248]

Get my technique up and do some big Liszt.
I have other goals but I can't work on them all at once because I get burned out.
I've transcribed 85% of the first mvt of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at a difficulty roughly equal to the Singer edition of Beethoven symphonies, but haven't managed to get it to 100% much less record it.

Oooh, there's not enough (any?) Berlioz for piano, transcribed or otherwise.

Also, which Liszt?

[schumaniac]

Ooh! This is a cool thread.

These are just ambitions- they are not practical or realistic, at least I don't think so. You could also think of this as- my "ideal pianist" would have recorded all these works:
Bach- the entire WTC, Art of Fugue, French Suites, English Suites, Partitas, French Overture
Mozart- the "big concertos" - 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26
Beethoven- the 32 sonatas, all 5 concerti. Perhaps some Beethoven-Liszt symphonies?
Brahms- op.76, op. 117, 118, 119 (short piano pieces). Concerto no. 1
Schumann- most works- the concerto, Caranval, Fantasy Pieces
Chopin- complete piano works
Alkan- the symphony (I'm not entirely interested in his works)
Liszt- most works; Years of Pilgrimage, the 2 concerti, the Sonata, the etudes... some Hungarian Rhapsodies, some late works...
Tchaikovsky concerto
Scriabin- most works; Poemes, Preludes, sonatas
Rachmaninoff- all the concerti, preludes, Etudes-Tableaux
Ravel- all the piano works I can think of
Busoni- Bach transcriptions
Debussy- all the piano works I can think of
Prokofiev- all the sonatas, concertos 2 and 3...

Don't forget chamber music and piano duets! Brahms and Schumann piano quintets, Schubert piano  trios... Debussy en blanc et noir, Faure Dolly,  Schubert D940, Mozart K448.......

[josh93248]

Ooh! This is a cool thread.

These are just ambitions- they are not practical or realistic, at least I don't think so. You could also think of this as- my "ideal pianist" would have recorded all these works:
Bach- the entire WTC, Art of Fugue, French Suites, English Suites, Partitas, French Overture
Mozart- the "big concertos" - 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26
Beethoven- the 32 sonatas, all 5 concerti. Perhaps some Beethoven-Liszt symphonies?
Brahms- op.76, op. 117, 118, 119 (short piano pieces). Concerto no. 1
Schumann- most works- the concerto, Caranval, Fantasy Pieces
Chopin- complete piano works
Alkan- the symphony (I'm not entirely interested in his works)
Liszt- most works; Years of Pilgrimage, the 2 concerti, the Sonata, the etudes... some Hungarian Rhapsodies, some late works...
Tchaikovsky concerto
Scriabin- most works; Poemes, Preludes, sonatas
Rachmaninoff- all the concerti, preludes, Etudes-Tableaux
Ravel- all the piano works I can think of
Busoni- Bach transcriptions
Debussy- all the piano works I can think of
Prokofiev- all the sonatas, concertos 2 and 3...

Don't forget chamber music and piano duets! Brahms and Schumann piano quintets, Schubert piano  trios... Debussy en blanc et noir, Faure Dolly,  Schubert D940, Mozart K448.......

Nice list! Do you intend to record like me? How far along are you?

By the way people, I'm thinking of adding some Prokofiev and Granados to my list, any opinions?

[schumaniac]

Probably record and perform...

I like Granado's works a lot (also Albeniz, by the way!). Granados' "Goyescas" is one of the greatest sets of Spanish-themed music, IMO.

[Petter]

I want to be the best 

[schumaniac]

I want to be the best 

"I want to be the very best..."

[josh93248]

I want to be different than the "best".