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next year december (2004) i will be entering a competition, that requires a concerto, but i have no idea of which one to choose here is a list my teacher gave me to look at that is within my technical ability:
grieg a minor
beethoven- 1,2
rachmaninoff-haha yeah right, just jokin
haydn d major
mendelssohn g minor
mozart a major, d minor

if you have any other suggestion there more than welcome

Mendelssohn

I'd go for the Mendelssohn or the Mozart. I'd assume that the Grieg is over-played.

Can you choose any piece you want? How about the Schumann concerto? I dunno if that's over-played in competitions or not. Shostakovich 2 might be good as well.

Mendelssohn, Mozart D minor, or Beethoven 1 - leaning heavily towards the Mendelssohn.

YES I CAN CHOOSE ANY PIECE WITHIN MY RANGE, THE SCHUMANN CONCERTO Hmmmmm. in terms of difficulty how hard is it? oh yeah thanks for your feedback

Here's an idea coming from an ignorant :p :
Chopin' 1 & 2 ?
zorro

There are maybe 10 Mozart Concertos that you could probably handle. I would recommend that you have several of them under your belt before tackling a thorny one like the d minor, and I couldn't say which A major your teacher is talking about, but if it's K. 488, again, look at others first. K. 413-415 come to mind. You might also want to look into the Shostakovich second, the Francaix Concertino and the Hummel a minor.

If you haven't played any concertos or ensemble music before, I would stick to something which is not as technically demanding as the solo music you have been playing, which would probably rule out the Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Grieg.

thanks a lot

I think that the Schumann and both Chopin concerti are too difficult. I don't know about the Grieg, but it's a bit overplayed anyway.

I actually really like the Mozart K. 488 (A Major), and I doubt you would have too much trouble with it technically.

The F major concerto, No.19, is one of my favorites, one you should look into.

I was in a concerto competition earlier this year, and almost everyone there played a Romantic concerto (Rach, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Chopin.. etc). I actually became a bit sick of these emotional and flashy pieces after hearing them for so long. The adjudicator also commented on this and he (and I agree) suggested a wider range of choices like Mozart, early Beethoven, or something in the 20th century. So I'd skip the romantic concerti and maybe do a Mozart... or something more different.. Just a thought...

thank you all very much!!!!
you guys and gals are soo nice and full of useful suggestions.

in a competition, what are they looking for? well actually its more like an audition because there will be more than one first place, if i play pieces that are technicly difficult but not extreme like umm, lets say rach sonatas and such, and i play them very well and i mean like wooooooooooooooow , will they like that or does it have to be majorly hard and also played good too?

Maybe you need to consider what you want to get out of the competition? Is winning the most important thing? Is it an excuse to motivate yourself to play better? Do you really want to do it at all, or are you just doing it for your teacher's or someone else's sake? When you think about it, there aren't many good reasons for participating in a competition at all.

Maybe you would be better off competing with yourself to see how many of the concertos mentioned in this topic you can learn. Or how many interesting things you can find in the next five pieces you learn. Or how many of your friends you can entertain with your playing. If the point of a competition is to make yourself a successful musician, it seems that would be skipping right to the point.

soo true!!!

David how long have you been playing the piano for? And will you ever be able to play any concerto's with an orchestra? At the competition it's just solo piano with no orchestra or what?

also senior yeah i'm playing with an orchestra but i have to audition but that should be no problem. hmmm. now i have been playing piano for, i really don't wanna start any arguments and such but officialy october will make it 2 years, but i just say 2 years, but have studied music since i was in 5th grade, and yes i will play with an orchestra if i am one of the finalist, but who knows, when i think about it i really wanna just go for the experience.

If you have access to members of the orchestra, why not do some chamber music? Mozart's K. 413-415 and K. 449 are all playable as piano quintets, so you could get experience that way without a competition. His piano quintet with winds is as good as any of his concertos. There's lots of good stuff out there, and you can just do it.

On other thing: You are careless with your writing here. That is not good. Music is communication, so anything you can do to improve your communication skills will improve your music. It will also help you in any other endeavors you may try.

Wow 2 years and playing concerto's! That's impossible! Haha I'm just kidding btw... But apparently you don't care about your writing online either, and you're playing difficult pieces after 2 years! Be careful I'm sure you're going to be acused of being me!