Is it feasible to prepare a piano concerto movement in three weeks?

[paxxx17]

TLDR: I never played with an orchestra before. Would it be feasible for me to learn the 2nd movement of Shostakovich 2nd concerto in three weeks and perform it publicly?

Hey all,

So, I'm an amateur pianist who has a limited experience performing in front of an audience. As the university I'm studying at has its own student orchestra, I contacted the conductor and expressed the wish to play with them in future. I knew it was a long shot, but the orchestra is comprised of amateur musicians (as there's no conservatory section at our university). Nevertheless, they always hire professionals when they need a soloist. The conductor told me that he'll let me know if there's an opening.

Here's the situation: Turns out that the pianist they had for the current season will not able to perform at the concert scheduled for three weeks from today. They want to play the 2nd movement from the Shostakovich's 2nd concerto and I will potentially be allowed to step in and do it.

My general level is relatively high. For example, my current limit is Scriabin's 8th sonata (Here's a video of me playing it:

- not perfect, but I guess good enough so the Shostakovich's concerto shouldn't really pose a problem). However, I never played with an orchestra before. Also, I never had a deadline of three weeks to get a piece up to performance level from scratch.

I'm asking you folks for the advice. Do you think this is a feasible task to achieve so I should say Y.O.L.O. and go for it, or is the risk of botching it too high so I should rather wait for another opportunity?

Also, I'd be grateful for any tips you could give me regarding performing with an orchestra for the first time

Thanks a lot!

[bwl_13]

It's a cool opportunity but man would that not be stressful? Even if you managed to learn and memorize the whole thing, most pianists want to have their new pieces entirely prepared and ready to go 3 weeks out. That way you can spend time focusing on tiny details, performing the piece etc.

If you do it I would imagine it'll be a grind and a very stressful one at that. Not to mention you haven't played with orchestra (I haven't either) but I have to think that'll add another level of stress and a different type of skill on the table. I hope that if I play with orchestra it's a piece I have very well polished and I've been familiar with for a while.

Good luck, keep us posted!

[lelle]

Generally I'd want to encourage people to take risks and go for things they wanna do, but in this case I'd say that you'd be at least taking a big risk. It's far from impossible to learn and perform something in three weeks if you have reached a certain level. At the same time, it's certainly stressful to try to do it if you've never done it before, and you don't know how you'll deal with the situation once you have to play together with an orchestra.

One good rule of thumb I like to stick with is that you should ideally know your piece by heart and up to tempo at least a month before the performance, way more than that if you are performing a concerto. At the same time, you're an amateur playing with a student orchestra so the pressure is presumably way lower.

I don't think anyone here can tell you what to do since we are not you and don't know enough about you, but I hope my comment is helpful in some way!

[Bob]

Probably not, not unless you're dusting it off or that good.  But you say you haven't performed with an orchestra before.  This would be the time to be practicing performing it.  Would it be a weekly meeting with a teacher and just three lessons there?  In three weeks, I would think it would be starting to become automatic so you don't have to focus as much attention on it.  If it's an emergency, maybe even use music but... On the audience side, I'd be wondering about that, esp. if I paid for a ticket.

[youngpianist]

It sounds stressful to me. What did you decide?

[paxxx17]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

In the end we're not doing it; I had an option to prepare the whole concerto (and not just a single movement), which would've been crazy. Hope there's an opening for the next season