Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner A new performance experience... Need advice.

Our teacher arranged a concert for me and a girl i've been playing piano together for a while with, for next saturday, telling us to invite whoever we can. It's my first experience of this kind, I've never played at a concert where the only performers are me and a person i'll be playing with.

Together, we will be playing A great modern piece for 2 pianos - Tüür - sonatina c minor, it's about 6,5 minutes long.

But the whole thing should go for 45 minutes, or else it would really be too short to invite anyone to listen. We were supposed to play 3-4 pieces each and then the 2 piano piece, but the problem is, that the only thing she can play right now is the Mendelssohn piano concerto no. 2 Ist mvt. - 10 minutes long. That is, if her teacher, who should accompany her, is present.

I have to fill in the leftover 30 minutes, and these are the pieces i will be playing:

Rachmaninoff - prelude c sharp minor
Mendelssohn - etude op. 104 b flat minor
Chopin - etude op. 25 no. 2
Chopin - etude op. 10 no. 12
Beethoven - moonlight sonata Ist mvt.
Pärt - Partita op. 2 (atonal nightmare)
Grieg - wedding day at troldhaugen
Shostakovich - prelude and fugue no. I.

(Most of it is things i'm learning right now and am almost finished, some are pieces from 1-2 years ago that i still remember and can play decently.)

Thing is, The most pieces i've ever played at any recital/exam, is 4. I don't have any idea in which order i should play these pieces, should i arrange them by era, duration, genre? All advice is welcome.

Perhaps you could accompany the Mendelssohn in addition to playing your program. One other thing - get rid of the Beethoven or play the other two movements.

Learning 20 pages of accompaniment in a week isn't going to happen, even with the sheet music, i won't be accompanying her.

Learning the last 2 movements of the moonlight performance-ready in just a week isn't going to happen either. I don't understand why you think one could not play the moonlight sonata 1st part separately from the rest of the sonata. I've already performed it once, seen other pianists perform it separately, and told by every teacher i've known that it's ok to play the 1st or 3rd part separately, just not the 2nd part.

Actually, what i asked for, was in what order should i play the pieces. I can't just get rid of/add any pieces, because this is my whole repertoire (which i've just begun building recently.) As i already mentioned, most of it is stuff that i'm learning right now, but the chopin op. 25 no. 2, the grieg, the Shostakovich and the rachmaninoff are from a year-two ago. It's all i got.

What Schumann?

By the way, it's never a good idea to run yourself into a corner so that you have to stuff your entire repertoire into a recital and barely have enough, therefore no flexibility.

Perhaps I wouldn't object if it were a different Beethoven sonata, but playing the first movement of the Moonlight alone is simply too cliche, for lack of a better word.

The Shostakovich, my bad.

Well, I didn't run myself into this corner. A week ago, our teacher told us about this idea of her, and we thought it would be a great performance experience for both of us, so why refuse? At that point, the girl i'll be playing with said that she has 3, maybe 4 pieces she could play, and i said i can easily find 3-4 pieces too, more if necessary, so we agreed. But apparently, that wasn't true, yesterday she notified me that she actually only has 1 piece (the mendelssohn 1st mvt) that she's ready to play. At this point, calling it off wouldn't be a good idea, since a lot of people have already been invited and everything has been arranged.

I think that playing the 3rd mvt of the moonlight alone is as much, or even more of a cliche than playing the 1st mvt alone, yet many pianists have played either of them alone, at recitals.



Could you finally Please tell me in what order do you think i should play these pieces?

I disagree, and which pianists are you talking about?

Mendelssohn, Grieg, Chopins, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Part.

Perhaps i was wrong about it, but i've seen one Estonian pianist (whose name i can't remember) play the 1st mvt as an encore.

Also, i've seen/heard plenty of fellow students of mine play the 3rd mvt separately in exams, but i guess it's not really the same thing as a recital. I might have something mixed up.

Make sure you're right before you post things like this.

Thanks. I love it how you purposefully left the beethoven out, even though i told you numerous times that there's no way i can leave it out of the program, but never mind, i'll probably play it before the mendelssohn.

It isn't.

Why can't you leave it out? Your program is already enormously lopsided, and that will make it more so, but it would still be better than playing it.

Alright alright, i'll consider it, it would just make the recital 5 mins shorter but i guess that's not a big deal.

Also, could you please explain to me what you mean by "Lopsided" in this context? english isn't my native language.

You don't have a single Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Haydn, etc, etc piece you could substitute to make the recital less lopsided (Romantic-heavy)?

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I don't, but many pianists (and this one i know for sure) have had concerts where they play only romantic works, only baroque works, etc. even only the works of one composer (e.g. all Rachmaninoff preludes). For example Joel Hasting's concert, where he played all the chopin etudes from op. 10 and 25.

So, is lopsided really a bad thing? or did i misunderstand something?

But you're not doing a recital like that.

For students there's nothing wrong with playing single movements of multi-movement pieces. Polyphonist wishes they wouldn't do it, but everyone does, and there are even occasions where it is required Professionals wouldn't, but that's another matter.

I think that for maximum comfort in the short term you should really bring back pieces you mastered previously that are easy for you. Maybe some newer pieces on the program but don't pack the concert with recently-learned pieces that are a challenge for you to play. Surely you didn't begin your piano study with those pieces (and surely your partner didn't begin her study with the Mendelssohn.)

Sometimes students think of pieces from 2-3 years ago as unimpressive, but an audience is much more delighted by easier pieces that sound good than harder pieces you're stumbling through... and you will be much happier performing if you aren't stressed out by every piece!

I absolutely second what Heather said. What would be wrong with a charming piece you played a few years ago? Certainly, you would play it better now, and there's NOTHING wrong--and everything right--with a simpler piece played wonderfully by an advanced pianist. It gives you an easy way to build a longer program while actually serving a terrific musical purpose by giving contrast and emphasis to some of your more difficult etudes.

A Bach invention? Something Mozart or Haydn?

Go simple and charming, then rev it back up with an etude. Play something open, baroque and structured, then hit 'em with Grieg. Maybe a slightly more uptempo prelude and fugue from WTC (but still something you're solid on), and then go Shostakovich prelude and fugue.

Wise words.

I think that someone here is overlooking the facts that
- this is a suggested performance by the teacher for some friends of the performers
- this is an initial performance experience
- there is no time to learn new works, and
- this is not Carnegie Hall, for goodness sake!

Play what you feel comfortable with, whatever the so-called professional opinion is concerning single movements from multi-movement works.

The most important thing to consider is getting this performance under the belt as comfortably as possible which means, in my opinion, playing works that you know and feel able to play well under some stress. ,

As for "clichés" what first, second or even tenth student performance experience isn't laden with clichés? I don't know the Part or the Shostakovich, but putting the Beethoven in the middle of what seems to be a list of rather up-tempo pieces is not necessarily a bad idea.

Regards,