performance? I was asked to play Liszt's Transcendental Etude #10 a few days before a recital but at the time, I was practicing other pieces for my teacher so before the recital, I was only able to practice about 45 minutes before the recital...When I played I was very nervous and asked to play with the music and I didn't even get to try out the piano...even with the music I made a few mistakes...does this show that I really don't know the piece as well as I should or was it just a product of not being prepared enough?

I'd love to hear you play that etude! Do you have a recording? Also, just because you made a few mistakes does not mean that you do not know the piece well enough. Even top virtuoso pianists might make a couple of errors if they are asked to play on a strange new piano with just 45 minutes of preparation (on a different piano). WHat matters is how you played the rest of the piece. Was it musical? Did it do justice to Liszt? These are the questions that the audience will be interested in.

P.S: Don't forget to post the recording (even a non-performance one is ok)

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1640368/Liszt%20Transcendental%20Etude%20# 1.html#Post1640368 this was posted a few months back...but the etude is in beter shape...i'm thinking about rerecording it

i dont know i just felt really nervous because of the volatility of the piece...my hands were shaking and everything...i guess i need to play it in front of people more

I don't know who asked you to play this piece just a few days before or what the other circumstances were. Each situation is different, but it seems to me you could consider refusing a request like this in many cases.

Even if you feel you mastered this pieces some days or months before, I think the ability to play it on very short notice is also an individual thing.

Your first post is very misleading. It suggests that you had just begun to learn TE10 45 minutes before your recital. However, you've obviously spent a lot of time working on this piece.

double

I didn't get that impression, at all, but simply that he was asked only a couple of days before hand to perform the work. Would anyone ask anyone who had never studied this Etude, two days before a performance, to perform it in a recital?

I thought the OP was bragging, which a fair number of people do on this forum.

Anyway, the OP should not have left out the fact that he had very recently studied this piece.

depends on the piece, how well you know it already, how comfortable you are in front of an audience, and how serious the performance is.

Ah - give the guy a break !! He probably assumed some of us would remember that he'd posted his recording of this etude not too long ago. I recall listening to (and enjoying) it myself. But, of course, there are always new members here - so hopefully he'll consider that in future posts.

That said, the OP has progressed rapidly as a pianist and tackled some pretty challenging repertoire. I'm not surprised that he had this experience, since he apparently hadn't played the etude on a regular basis for a while. The amount of practice needed to pull off a public performance of this - or any other piece - on short notice obviously depends on a variety of factors. But we all need to acknowledge and accept our limitations and make commitments accordingly.

He probably just did not feel prepared. That insures nervousness, tightness, distraction and mistakes.

Bingo.....being asked to perform with less than ideal notice....grappling with the decision to do it or not: This is all part of the occupational hazards that come with the job.

What I would recommend for next time is to seek out a captive audience, either at , say, a school - or better yet, a nursing home or two (even if they have substandard pianos - I'm lucky to have a couple in my area where I can try out things on a short notice - they're always happy to have entertainment or a diversion.....).

Your performances at these tryouts will be less than perfect but you'll work out the kinks much faster than you would've at home.

Oh, so I've already listened to it and was impressed the first time. So I guess I was right, you do know the piece well enough.. making a couple of minor errors in performance, especially with such short notice, is perfectly acceptable as long as you interpret the score musically and sensibly which you seem to be doing!