Chopin Polonaise in A, Op 40 no. 1

[azbroolah]

I've been playing this piece for awhile and am planning to play it in an audition for a student-run pianist ensemble at my university in the fall. I am quite comfortable with the notes at this point and am sure that with the summer to practice I can polish it and will be able to play it musically and competently for the audition. However, I'm concerned that it might be too easy, as apart from having large chords and being somewhat physically exhausting it doesn't seem to pose too many technical difficulties. I'm curious as to what others have to say on the matter.

[chopinlover01]

Sorry for the lack of replies on this mate.
You're correct that the Military polonaise doesn't really pose all that many difficulties. It's main difficulty lies in endurance; it's definitely a test of your perseverance, lol.
To any conductor, however, or any non pianist, the piece will sound like a million bucks. Unlike most of Chopin's stuff, it's not particularly brutal to get polished and perfect, but the trouble is keeping it there. The endurance required for the piece is quite something.
Do you have to play anything else? If so, I'd recommend featuring this piece in your program. It makes a great centerpiece, and it works best, I find, right after a warm-up piece (say, a Bach prelude or something).
Cheers!

[jeffkonkol]

If you are willing to spend the time to polish it, try to find every moment of rest and focus on every opportunity you have to play quietly.  A lot of versions of this seem to just be a brick wall of big chords, but there are quite a few opportunities to show a lot of dynamic contrast depending how much time you spend on all of those phrases.

Also... take careful note of the pedal markings.  There is a temptation.. at least Ive found a temptation to all pedal in those ascending chords that lead to the next held chord... even as early as the first few measures.  It's is truly worth it to play those completely cleanly.

Enjoy it.  As Chopinlover mentioned... endurance can be an issue, but only until you learn to relax on it.  If you are spending the time on it anyway, at times think of it like a little etude of its own.  The piece can teach you quite a lot of ways to relax your technique if you work through it with all the repeats a few times consecutively   :-)