Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Where were you at 20?

At 20 I was going to art school, playing rock and roll, doing drugs and chasing girls. Sure wish now I'd taken piano a little more seriously... But I did end up finding a good girl.

good luck with Opus 7, Janus! Did you ever start work on it again?
I hope you know it's generally considered 2nd in difficulty only to the Hammerklavier. It's very difficult musically, as well.
A good friend of mine just played it on his recital last month. Despite having an awe-inspiring technique, he really made a mess out of it. It requires so much imagination, not to mention stamina! Close to 30 minutes long with repeats, I think! Such a wonderful slow movement...

Sonata or concerto?

most likely a concerto

Couldn't bore the company with any more London marvels fan,

But Westminster Abbey (used to work very close by) was like a magnet ... whether Poets Corner, the awesome history or the sheer glory of the soaring stone architecture .

Some 15 years ago I was advisor to a VIP government party and had excused myself from yet another of those ghastly posh lunches ... finding my way from Oxford Street via Green Park and Buckingham Palace to wriggle my way through those charming narrow streets and New Scotland Yard to the Abbey.

But then, round about midday my return from the
Chapel of HenryVII to the east was suddenly stopped by the 12 chimes of midday ... at which
everybody stood stock-still ... and then the
resounding words of The Lord's Prayer in the most
perfect ennunciated English (spoken presumably by
the Bishop) filled the Cathedral with an all-embracing sense of devotion ... my knees nearly
buckled ... such was the awe.

Hope the others don't mind the hijack fan.

dude that was some random hijacking.

Gotta get this thread back on track . . . my memory is also faulty (it was 16 years ago) but at 20 I was preparing for my junior recital and that program included:

Liszt: Legend of St. Francis of Assisi
Bartok: Sonata
Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 110

I'm sure I was also playing the Haydn Sonata in Eb (No. 52) around then also. I can't remember what else.

[edit: I remembered a few more . . . ]

Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 78
Debussy: Preludes, Bruyeres; General Levine; Feux d'artifice
Saint-Saens: Concerto in G Minor, 1st mvt.

dude that was my fault. I brought the subject up. But these days the Abbey is so inundated with tourists, that the only way to truly experience the majesty -and mystery- of the place is to attend an Evensong in the middle of the week and during term time so you can hear the awesome (I know, overused word) men and boys choir. Second only to King's College, IMO.

Let's see. I'm assuming by "repertoire" you mean what we were currently playing, not everything we had "in our fingers." I stopped taking college lessons when I was around 20. But the last "big things" I played were:

Beethoven's 3rd Concerto (all movements, but only with another piano; somebody else won the competition with Rachmaninoff 2 :rolleyes: )
Prokofiev Sonata No. 3
Liszt Funerailles
Chopin 2nd Ballade

I'd dropped piano and only played 'Sweet Bye and Bye'cos that's all I could play without music.

Finished my final year at uni, had a devastating relationship or two, suffered through my parents marriage breakdown (which took years by the way) and threw my lot in with a big bank in the middle of the city - which depressed me as I was a country girl - and basically realised I had no more goals and couldn't think of any I wanted to aim for.

What a shame huh? Twenty is sooo soooo young. Enjoy it!

I'm turning 20 in less than two weeks, actually! I've gotten much better since I've been a piano major, but I still have so much further to go. Recent repertoire in the two years or so, or at least what I've learned at college up til now (I'm currently Sophmore)

-Beethoven Op. 109, 32 Variations in C minor, Spring Sonata for Violin and Piano, the Ghost Trio
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in C# Major WTK II, Toccata and Fugue in D Major 912, French Suite in E Major
Schubert - Sonata in A minor, K784 only first movement so far
Prokofiev - Sonata in C Major no 4, Sonata in Bb Major no 7, Sonata for Flute and Piano No. 2 in D major
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb
Brahms - Op. 119 Klavierstucke, Piano Trio in B Major
Faure - Piano Quartet in C minior, 1st movement
Shostakovich - Piano Trio in E major
Rachminoff - Second Piano Trio Elegiaque, Moment Musicaux 5-6
Ginastera - Danzas Argentinas
Chopin - Barcarolle
Liszt - Transcental 11 "Harmonies du Soir"

As you can see, too much chamber music at the moment. I seriously need to learn to say NO to favors haha. It has its perks though. I played two times on the Grad Composers concert last week, but it also let me play with the Trombone Proessor here at UCLA. So theres my advice to everyone, Even though doing favors for people can detract from personal playing time, they almost always end up helping you in the long run.

That's odd. I don't see Bach Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, Dvorak piano quintet A major, any Beethoven sonata for cello & piano, Mendelssohn Variations Serieuses, any Chopin piano concerto, Liszt Gnomenreigen, Spanish Rhapsody.

Ooh, I forgot I was playing the Dvorak quintet in A Major at 20. I think a couple of Beethoven trios too but those are lost to the sands of time . . .

Still 18

Well, my dollings, I was at the Whitman College Conservatory of Music, considered to have the best theory department on the Left Coast. That is, when I entered Music 101 (theory), there were 50 students. The second semester, there were nine of us left...you get the picture...

Was working with a Viennese master teacher who was a student of Leszhititsky. His roommate at the University of Vienna was Artur Schnabel (BTW, wonder if they have a fight song...) Was doing Gaspard, Beethoven PS 111, Chopin Ballades and, obviously, a lotta Schoenberg...

Ah, the good old days...

Oh. I wonder what it would be like to be 20 and do things over again. Let's see I was working full time and going to school at night for my Electrical Engineering degree, and studying piano at the same time while dating on of the most beautiful girls that I can remember.

I can't remember what I was working on at the piano exactly. Let's face it, it was like...27 years ago. :rolleyes:

I think some Schubert Impromptus from the Op. 90
Poulenc's Movement Perpetuels
Some Chopin Waltzes
A Haydn Sonata I think in D major.
Bach WTC - I can't remember which on exactly, and a piece by Paradies.

If I were to do this over, I would have stayed the course with music instead of going into electronics which exposed me to some dangerous, health threatening, chemicals, and high voltages.

John