Piano Forum

There is nothing wrong with playing popular pieces. There are people out there that don't know about these popular pieces or have not seen it live in front of them. Some people think recordings are a replacement for live music which is a shame. You isolate yourself from your audience by shunning all popular pieces. If you can play popular pieces and mix them with some of your own favorites which may be lesser known you can draw in your audience and expand their own music experiences. Doing a concert full of popular pieces probably would be very popular although mostly to those who don't listen to much piano music which is the majority of society

As a teacher I don't mind teaching pieces over and over again because it is the challenge people have learning it that is of interest to educators.

All good points.

Notwithstanding the famous chapter heading in the book Music, Ho! (1934) by English composer Constant Lambert (1905-1951) The Appalling Popularity of Music, there can be no guarantee that a work's popularity is an indicator of its inferior quality.

Just consider two examples from Rachmaninoff; firstly, his Second Symphony, wonderful as it is, which receives vastly more performance and is far more widely loved than his other two which each deserve greater attention and, secondly, his Second Piano Concerto which is heard way more often than any of his other three (and, whilst I happen to think it to be the weakest of the four, that says more about the splendour of the others than it does about that one!).

Another example is Liszt's Sonata, which has been played by hundreds of pianists yet, at the time of its première, it was, as Wagner believed, among of the finest piano sonatas since Beethoven (and, for the record, it has been the subject of no less than four organ transcriptions and even one for solo violin!).

Moreover, there are plenty of pieces that have suffered comparative neglect at some times and been "overplayed" at others.

Best,

Alistair