University audition-which pieces? And technique?

[_piano_angel]

Hello I'm an 18 year old student, who has been playing piano for around 15-16 years, now I would like to apply to a university or music conservatory (in europe, so germany or vienna most likely, because I live in germany) with piano as major in maybe 1,5-2 years when I have finished school. I have already discussed some of the pieces I want to play with my teacher , so right now I have:
Chopin ballade no.1 g minor as romantic piece
Chopin etude op.10 no.4 as etude
Bach WTC 1 prelude and fuge No.22 in b flat minor BWV 867

But I still need a classic sonata and a modern piece . For the classic sonata my teacher recommended the Beethoven sonata no.7 (op.10 no.3) or the op.57 (Appassionata) where I had already pretty much learned the third movement , but I also thought about the no.26 (Les adieux) , what sonata do you think would be the best?
For the modern piece my teacher told me to look at Scriabin or Prokofiev . I was thinking about learning either the Scriabin prelude op.11 no.1 or op.11 no.11 or one of the sonatas but I think the preludes might be a bit short and the sonatas too long , so does anyone know pieces that are somewhere in the middle between those?
And lastly I still want to improve my technique before applying , so do you know any exercices that are helpful for that?
If you have read this far thank you and I would really appreciate if you answer  

[visitor]

def go with what your teacher recommends and cross reference with the requirements the school you are applying to allows. if you tour/visit the schools, ask some of the piano students what they auditioned with , it will give you an idea of what has actually succeeded.
more important how you play than what so long as it meets the school's guidelines.
that said i have a few ideas.
regarding 'modern' i chuckly but understand what the antiquated thinking of this is after, though I have trouble even stretching the chronological truth to consider Scriabin and Prokofiev modern.
I would strongly consider underrated Barvinsky, the 5 preludes are super great and seldom performed, here's a few recordings of 3 of them

this set of 2 , the fist is longer,lyrical like a hymn, so pretty..., slower/contemplative, the 2nd a fast moving storm.

for classical sonata you might look to  CPE Bach wrote wonderful ie.  just wonderful really

not terribly long either
I. Vivace
II. Adagio (5:35)
III. Allegro assai (8:50)

or Hummel

[_piano_angel]

def go with what your teacher recommends and cross reference with the requirements the school you are applying to allows. if you tour/visit the schools, ask some of the piano students what they auditioned with , it will give you an idea of what has actually succeeded.
more important how you play than what so long as it meets the school's guidelines.
that said i have a few ideas.
regarding 'modern' i chuckly but understand what the antiquated thinking of this is after, though I have trouble even stretching the chronological truth to consider Scriabin and Prokofiev modern.
I would strongly consider underrated Barvinsky, the 5 preludes are super great and seldom performed, here's a few recordings of 3 of them

this set of 2 , the fist is longer,lyrical like a hymn, so pretty..., slower/contemplative, the 2nd a fast moving storm.

for classical sonata you might look to  CPE Bach wrote wonderful ie.  just wonderful really

not terribly long either
I. Vivace
II. Adagio (5:35)
III. Allegro assai (8:50)

or Hummel

Thank you for your answer , I'll definitely take a look at the pieces
For the classical sonata though I have the requirement that it has to be from Beethoven, Mozart or Haydn 
And for the modern piece , Scriabin and Prokofiev were just what my teacher recommended
She also told me for the modern piece that theoretically I could play either Ravel's jeux d'eau or Debussy's L'isle joyeuse but that those two could be considered in the same category as the romantic piece . The good thing is that from the schools I want to apply to only one requires a modern piece, for the others the last piece can be chosen freely without requirements

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Agreed you should go with your teacher

HOWEVER...

The first ballade is WAY overplayed and probably like half of the audition population will play it.

For "modern music" that can be misleading.  Cause Scriabin is like 100 years ago and Prokofiev is like 60 so how is that modern?  IMO I would email the school and ask them what do they exactly mean by 'modern'

[mjames]

i recommend the no. 1 ballade just for the novelty of pissing some users here.

[_piano_angel]

Agreed you should go with your teacher

HOWEVER...

The first ballade is WAY overplayed and probably like half of the audition population will play it.

For "modern music" that can be misleading.  Cause Scriabin is like 100 years ago and Prokofiev is like 60 so how is that modern?  IMO I would email the school and ask them what do they exactly mean by 'modern'

Thanks for your answer and yes I know the ballade is pretty overplayed but I had already learnt it prior to thinking about those things, so that way I don't have to start with a completely new piece.
For the modern piece, my teacher now said that Ravel would be better, so now I'm going with Ravel's jeux d'eau.
And for modern music: I think it's everything that's no longer considered romantic . Some universities say that pieces composed after 1900 would be considered as modern.

[_piano_angel]

i recommend the no. 1 ballade just for the novelty of pissing some users here.

Can you explain what you mean by that? I don't exactly get it

[blazekenny]

Can you explain what you mean by that? I don't exactly get it

I think that means that some users here generally tend to look for obscure piano literature for the sake of it, rather than deepening their approach to the more renowned pieces, thus labeling them as overplayed and not worth listening to for the 100th time.  (hence why some Alkan tonic-dominant-tonic piece here in audition room gets way more views than a great recording of 1st ballade might get) but i don't mean it in a bad way.
Ad technique: I don't do alot of excercises anymore, but I like recording myself on my phone and then watch it later and check if I am doing more movements than neccessary etc., you might want to try this too
Which schools in germany are you attending to ? A couple of my friends have studied at the Hochschule in Leipzig and they said the teachers were great.
Ich wünsche dir viel Glück und Erfolg tho

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I think that means that some users here generally tend to look for obscure piano literature for the sake of it, rather than deepening their approach to the more renowned pieces, thus labeling them as overplayed and not worth listening to for the 100th time.  (hence why some Alkan tonic-dominant-tonic piece here in audition room gets way more views than a great recording of 1st ballade might get) but i don't mean it in a bad way.

Nah it's an inside joke.

I personally don't like Chopin as much as other people and I don't actually like the first Ballade at all which is why Mjames thought it was funny.  But I didn't see it until now

As far as deepening an approach to more renowned pieces, that piece has literally been played by everyone in every way possible so it's not like you can be innovative with it anymore lol.  And that's not just cause I don't like it.  Like for example if you showed up to an audition with the Mozart A minor sonata it would be the same deal with it being overplayed.  Wait I actually don't like that one either so that's not a good example.  But anyways you know what I mean.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

And for modern music: I think it's everything that's no longer considered romantic . Some universities say that pieces composed after 1900 would be considered as modern.

That's still misleading cause people still wrote romantic music well into the 20th century.  Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Medtner for example.

I've been facing the same problem cause I'm also auditioning for my DMA next Winter.  I decided to play it safe and do a piece by James Lee III.  He's a composer still alive today and a lot of his works were premiered after like 2010 so it's like MODERN modern.

But seriously these schools need to update their websites

[_piano_angel]

Ad technique: I don't do alot of excercises anymore, but I like recording myself on my phone and then watch it later and check if I am doing more movements than neccessary etc., you might want to try this too
Which schools in germany are you attending to ? A couple of my friends have studied at the Hochschule in Leipzig and they said the teachers were great.
Ich wünsche dir viel Glück und Erfolg tho

Thanks for the answer and I think your suggestion with the recording might be worth a try
I'm still not too sure, I think I'll apply to the hochschulen in Berlin, Vienna, Hannover, Salzburg and the conservatory in Paris (because that's only an hour away by train ) and maybe one or two smaller ones. And thanks for the recommendation.  I think I might also take a look at Leipzig.
And Vielen Dank I'll probably need that 

[_piano_angel]

Nah it's an inside joke.

I personally don't like Chopin as much as other people and I don't actually like the first Ballade at all which is why Mjames thought it was funny.  But I didn't see it until now

As far as deepening an approach to more renowned pieces, that piece has literally been played by everyone in every way possible so it's not like you can be innovative with it anymore lol.  And that's not just cause I don't like it.  Like for example if you showed up to an audition with the Mozart A minor sonata it would be the same deal with it being overplayed.  Wait I actually don't like that one either so that's not a good example.  But anyways you know what I mean.

Okay and yes I get what you mean
I actually talked with my teacher again about the ballade being too overplayed and she kind of agreed    and told me that maybe the Chopin piano sonata 3 and the Dante sonata by Liszt might be good .
So I'm most likely going to learn the Dante sonata now, because the Chopin sonata is pretty long 

[_piano_angel]

That's still misleading cause people still wrote romantic music well into the 20th century.  Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Medtner for example.

I've been facing the same problem cause I'm also auditioning for my DMA next Winter.  I decided to play it safe and do a piece by James Lee III.  He's a composer still alive today and a lot of his works were premiered after like 2010 so it's like MODERN modern.

But seriously these schools need to update their websites

Yeah , it's really a struggle . I think I might just call the school and ask what they consider modern (From the school I want to apply to only one I think needs a modern piece , the others just say one freely chosen piece)