Which Chopin piece to learn for a competition

[virtuoso_pianist]

Hello there! I have a piano competition in August and I have to learn a Chopin major work for one of the sections I am competing in. I was thinking of learning maybe the F-sharp minor polonaise or the Scherzo no. 1. Or if any of you have any other suggestions, than please let me know😀 Thanks so much!

[dw4rn]

Hard to tell without knowing anything about you or about the rest of the requirements for that section. There is so much to choose from... What have you played by Chopin till now?
I would try to think carefully about how your entire program works together, in terms of character, key, tempo, texture etc of the different pieces.

[lelle]

I think there are some pros and cons to both pieces:

Pros:
- I think they're both awesome pieces
Cons:
- They're both quite repetitive and because of this the Polonaise in particular can be difficult to hold together, but in both cases you need to create a rendition where you don't feel bored by all the repetition.

I'd play them if I was really sure I could make a convincing rendition of them that doesn't tire the listener out. Otherwise there are other Chopin pieces where the structure is more forgiving for the pianist to manage.

[timtim]

First Ballade, 3rd Scherzo, Nocturne op.48 no1, Fantasy in f op.49,

You  generally have choice between Scherzos, Ballades, big Polonaises, Fantasy and Barcarolle. There are no other Chopin's works which I could name "major" or "big". Yes there are some Nocturnes or Etudes (10/3, 25/7) or few other single works like Berceuse, that are 5-7 minutes plus, but it should be written specifically in your competition program what can you play, saying "major" is very vague - there are competitions which give freedom to the artist or very specified otherwise.

Besides major can mean many things - e.g. we can say that Revolutionary Etude is by many factors a major opus by Freferic, but jury may disagree, and what now?

Whatever you will choose, if you have other pieces to show off technical skills maybe the Etude 25/7 or Barcarolle could be good hit, but playing well Barcarolle is a thing for the great ones only, as otherwise it's plain boring and all the same few second topic over and over again for 6 minutes.

In Scherzo 1 harderst part is the middle ones, people often cannot play this properly (hint: listen to Polish carol Lulajze Jezuniu if you want to know how to play it, as this is what is inside).

If you're more like a butcher type than f sharp minor Polonaise is great, and it needs great sense of musicality.

[lelle]

Besides major can mean many things - e.g. we can say that Revolutionary Etude is by many factors a major opus by Freferic, but jury may disagree, and what now?

I interpret "major" as meaning a big/long/large scale work of Chopin. Something where you have to work with holding a large scale structure together.