Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Beethoven 51. 1. level advice and recomendations please

Hi folks,

fairly new on these forums. (amazing resource BTW.)I'm returning to piano after 20 years and playing catch up. want grade 8 in 2-3 years.

I'm just putting together a collection of pieces.

A. pieces to play around with and figure what to polish. Mostly lower grades 4-5 that I played as a child.
B. pieces that I would like to polish up a bit mostly grades 5-7
c. Pieces that I would like to play but perhaps not just yet. :-) I joke and add my fav Rach Prelude to here. *grin* and remove it again.

QUESTION 1. : Level advice for Beethoven Rondo in C 51. 1. I have the music and no idea where it is from.

QUESITON: 2. What were your fav pieces for grades 5-7 that are a bit "showy" or you liked for performance. I am going to be having some musical parties with musical friends and want a couple of nice pieces to play that won't disgrace me toooooo much.


MY LIST --> if it will load.

C Tchaikovsky Swan Lake waltz (arr. Bartok)
C Tchaikovsky Swan lake waltz (arr. Langer)
C Dvorak Humoresque 101. No. 7
C Brahms Hungarian Dance No1. Gminor
C Sleeping beauty suite for piano (arr. Rach?)
B? Beethoven Rondo in C op. 51 No. 1
A Haydn Sonata 48 C Major
A Beethoven Sonatina in F Anh. 5, no 2 1. Allegro
A Beethoven Sonatina in F Anh. 5, no 2 2. Rondo
A Haydn Sonata C major Hob. xvi 15, 1. Allegro
A Haydn Sonata in C Hob. XVI / 35. 3. Adagio
Clementi Sonatina in G op. 36 no 5. Allegro
B Dow Open Spaces (little grade 3 ish piece.
B Chopin Mazurka op. 24 no. 1
B Shore Concerning Hobbits
B Mozart Sonata K545 in c

I know there is a few there, but I am managing about 2 hours a day at the moment and many of the A pieces are nearly ready for HT or are in parts. I get bored and tend to focus on one or two then spend some time looking at tricky bits from these other ones pracising the hard bits so when I come to play them I've got those bits down. I use these as practice too so if i'm struggling with Trills I play all the trill bits from all the pieces when my hand is sore from the one I was trying to get perfect. I normally find I get it right after that.

anyway, love some advice. I'm adding every suggestion into a SPOTIFY playlist so I can listen and see what I like. I have a playlist of all these pieces as well so I can listen to them round the house.

link in case anyone is interested. To the pieces that I am playing
https://open.spotify.com/user/1251239157/playlist/0MYXN9C8EZUP2hf6zkp1XD


Recomendations?
Sarah

According to this:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/...evel-Music-Difficulty-Levels-Booklet.pdf

......the Beethoven Rondo is pretty advanced ("Grade 9").

For 'showy pieces' grades 5-7, there's Mozart's Rondo alla turca, Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances, Brahms's Waltzes in E & A flat, Op.39/2 & 15, Grieg's Butterfly and Puck, Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk, Ginastera's Argentinian Dances Nos.1 & 2.

Lots more on the list to try, including the Scarlatti sonatas.

Don't forget Für Elise........

Maybe Mozart K. 265? When everyone thinks you're playing Twinkle Twinkle... surprise them.

Do forget Für Elise!!

No way that C Major Rondo is "level 9"! I would say level 6 or something like that.

pianosyllabus.com gives it a 7.

Hi folks, thanks for the input,

Yeah I was having difficulty as even online the level advice was so different :-)

I will add all of them to the list of things to look at. I had not thought of a few of them. I do like goliwogs cakewalk so fun.

I will never play fur elise... I have heard that so many times I jerk a little when I hear it :-) lol

Off to have a listen to all those pieces now.

Sarah

ahhhh just realised who made the quote about Fur elise...

We already had the discussion about how much I now hated the piece... so don't worry Vid, Bennevis was poking fun at me :-)

:-)

Also wanted to say thanks for the links about where to look up so "level" advice. Which I guess most of the time can be fairly irrelevant if you like the piece and are prepared to work at if for ages. But it is nice to know when you are pulling your hair out at a section that it is a 8+ piece... *grin*

so that document and the pianosyllabus link are great thanks.

Keep in mind that some graded systems are based on 10 grades, plus diploma(s) (RCM, Toronto), ABRSM is based on eight grades. I know of one system that based on 12 grades. That might affect the differences in grading this work, although much grading seems to be subjective. Over the years, I have seen RCM (Toronto) move a piece from one grade to another.

Regards,

I just taught that rondo for the first time this summer as it happens. Similar in difficulty and style to maybe the easier 50% of the rondo movements in the sonatas. Shorter than many of them. Very pretty piece, galant style with some complicated ornamentation and tricky rhythms here and there but nothing that's a serious technical workout (for someone who's ready for music at the level of the Beethoven sonatas.)

PS I don't know much about numeric grades but looking at your list some of my favorites at that stage of study were
Bach two-part Invention in B flat (no. 14? don't have the score here)
Beethoven sonata in G minor Op 49 no 1
Debussy arabesque no. 1 and La cathedrale engloutie
Brahms waltzes
Mozart sonata in C K. 330
Chopin waltz in C sharp minor, nocturne in E minor Op. posth.
Bernstein Four Anniversaries
Schubert moment musical no 5 (?) in F minor