Favorite piece to play from the last few years?

[pianistavt]

What has been your favorite solo piano piece to work on / play in the last few years?
What has been your least favorite?

[pianistavt]

I'll go first - -

It takes some thought, I've played a lot of repertoire in the past few years, and my answer surprises me a bit - - then again, it makes perfect sense.  My favorite repertoire has been Chopin ballade 3.  I love the easy going vibe of this piece and all the beautiful passages.  This may be my top 5 favorite piano pieces.  I also seem to like the key of A-flat.  I loved playing Schumann's Blumenstuck many years ago, and I also like playing the heroic polonaise.

Another piece I really enjoyed working on it, because it was a brand new technical challenge, got me thinking very concretely about hand movement, wrist rotation, and resting points - was Moskowski's etude op 72 no 3.  I think I posted a video of it here.

The least favorite I suppose would be the piece you've "been assigned" but don't practice.  It has to be Beethoven op 109.  I think this is a beautiful sonata.  I just don't seem interested in practicing it. I think it's because Beethoven's music seems so personally remote.  It's like it's composed by something trans-human.

[jaquet]

Scriabins 4th- its my favourite piece to play, ive never played anthing which gives me goosebumps and shivers everytime i play it

[mooshrimp]

Debussy Doctor Gradum ad Parnassus. I've never "clicked" with a piece so well and it's so fun to play. It's a real crowd-pleaser and sounds extremely impressive played fast, despite being relatively easy. The hardest part is making sure the pedaling is clean and the voicing is coming through. Also a bit of a challenge making sure the tempo is even, definitely one that needs some metronome practice.

Least favorite was probably Mendelssohn Venetian Boat Song, it just isn't terribly pianistic so most of the passages required a lot of trial and error to get the fingering, dynamics, voicing comfortable. It felt like a slog even though it wasn't technically that challenging.

[transitional]

Least favorite: I hate playing the Hanon tremolo, but it might just be my poor technique. For actual pieces, Mozart's K 279 for the same reason.

Favorite: Debussy's Les Collines d'Anacapri, because I've worked it up gradually quite a lot recently and it feels really fun and contrasting rather than worrying about it just being outwardly virtuostic.

[sonata_5]

Least favorite: I hate playing the Hanon tremolo, but it might just be my poor technique. For actual pieces, Mozart's K 279 for the same reason

Honestly, I have been wanting to study all of Mozart sonatas but the first and second movements of k 279 are just off putting to me. Also,the first movement looks more like a etude than an actual Mozart sonata.

[jamienc]

The last few recitals over the past several years have included Pictures at an Exhibition, Scriabin Two Poemes, a few Preludes, and Etude op 42 No 5, several Prokofiev Visions Fugitives, the four Chopin Ballades, Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 10, Chopin Etudes op. 10, and Beethoven op. 109, 110, and 111. By far my favorite is Op. 111 with second being Op. 109. Then Ballade 4.
I tend to enjoy everything I tackle, so I can’t really say I have a “least” favorite, but I can say there are places in Pictures that are just strangely written and perhaps not as musically effective. I must admit that Op. 110 was never a favorite of mine, but I connected with it much more after having learned it. Before, it always was structurally a bit disorienting and not as straight forward as 109 and 111. Once I locked into the 4th as the basis for the entire work, it started to make sense. And that second movement is one of the trickiest things. Much more difficult than it looks for sure…